Rhodes College President William E. Troutt will retire in June 2017, after 18 years as president of the college. As he continues to be fully engaged and focused on supporting the vision and goals of Rhodes, he also is taking time to reflect on his tenure. Local writer Richard J. Alley recently interviewed the president for a feature in Memphis magazine.
“There have been commencements and convocations. But what Troutt will miss the most is the day-to-day connection with students,” writes Alley, who also points out that the pursuit of knowledge has been a constant in the president’s life since his childhood growing up in Bolivar, TN. Troutt’s own college years at Union University, University of Louisville, and Vanderbilt University provided a fruitful time of learning and prepared him for the various positions in academia that would come, including a presidency at Belmont College.
Troutt says in the article about Rhodes, “One of the things that we’ve done that’s been extremely successful is we’ve built a lot of partnerships with the city, partnerships with great institutions.” Read more.