Glenn P. Strehle, treasurer of MIT since 1975, will step down from his roles as vice president for finance and treasurer as of December 31, President Charles M. Vest has announced.
Over the next three months, Mr. Strehle will help forge a smooth transition in many of MIT's administrative activities as John Curry joins the Institute as executive vice president. After December, Mr. Strehle expects to continue at MIT on a part-time basis, providing counsel and advice to the senior administration and the Corporation, Dr. Vest said in a September 9 letter to members of the Academic, Administrative and Faculty Councils.
When Mr. Strehle informed Dr. Vest and Chairman of the Corporation Alexander d'Arbeloff of his plans last year, "we accepted this decision with great reluctance, but also with recognition that Glenn has earned the right to do so through 23 years of highly distinguished and effective service to MIT," Dr. Vest said. "Glenn's leadership, professional expertise, and deep dedication to MIT have had a major influence on the excellence and fiscal health of the Institute in numerous ways.
"Over the years, Glenn has improved our professional working environment and has been a major force in modernizing our financial and management systems and processes. As treasurer, he has constantly looked to the long-term financial health of the Institute, and has played a pivotal role in affairs ranging from our benefit plans to arranging complicated major gifts and bequests to MIT.
"Despite the daunting scope of his formal responsibilities, Glenn is known to many, many members of the MIT community as a wise counselor, a solver of difficult problems, and someone who always is ready and able to help with whatever formidable task needs doing," Dr. Vest said.
Mr. Strehle (SB 1958, SM) was named treasurer in 1975, the officer of the MIT Corporation responsible for stewardship of MIT's financial resources. In 1986, he assumed the additional responsibilities of vice president for resource development. "In this role," said Dr. Vest, "he built and staffed a first-class resource development organization, and, together with President Paul Gray, led the successful Campaign for the future, which has made possible much of the current excellence of MIT, its faculty, students and staff. Over the years, he and his wife Kathie have done an extraordinary job of fundraising for MIT, meeting with donors in Cambridge, across the country and overseas."
In 1994, Barbara Stowe succeeded Mr. Strehle as vice president for resource development when he accepted major new responsibilities as vice president for finance.
Mr. Strehle commented, "Looking back on my years at MIT, I'm most pleased with all the people that I've been able to bring to the Institute in positions of responsibility, or have promoted within the organization. Together, they now lead an important segment of our administration.
"The remarkable cooperation of the faculty, both in providing advice on financial and investment matters as well as our fundraising efforts, constituted a partnership that I hope will continue with my successors," he said.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Strehle recalled, "My job was primarily focused on investments in securities and real estate. One result of that effort is the development of University Park at MIT, which was done in cooperation with people in several offices across the Institute, real estate professionals and the city of Cambridge.
"About one-half of the endowment we now have resulted from gifts that came in during my years as treasurer, and I worked with a large number of staff and volunteers in that important effort.
"We have been fortunate that our portfolios have held a high proportion of common stocks over the years, and both our endowment and our retirement plan have benefited," he said.
In his dual role as vice president for finance and treasurer, Mr. Strehle oversees the Office of the Treasurer, the Audit Division, the Office of the Controller (including the Controller's Accounting Office, the Lincoln Laboratory Fiscal Office and the Property Office), Procurement, the Office of Budget and Financial Planning, the MIT Press, and, in collaboration with the vice president for research, the Office of Sponsored Programs. Since the June retirement of Senior Vice President William R. Dickson, he has convened regular meetings to facilitate communication and coordination among the activities of the Institute's vice presidents.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 16, 1998.
