Remarks by Timothy P. White
Chancellor, California State University
President Horace Mitchell Retirement Celebration
Bakersfield, CA
June 9, 2018
Horace and Barbara…
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, your president and spousal colleagues across the university… executive vice chancellors and vice chancellors… students, faculty and staff…
Karen and I thank you for your consequential leadership of this remarkable campus… and to the California State University writ large.
As you leave for retirement, it is certainly bittersweet…
Focusing on the sweet side… you leave Cal State Bakersfield in a better place than what you inherited.
And through your work, you have made a transformational and positive impact on this community, region and state as a whole.
Indeed, you have earned a legacy that is rich, fulsome and consequential on so many fronts… academic, athletic, community, a mentor to the lucky…
To the folks gathered this evening, you have heard a lot this evening about President Mitchell…what a wonderful testimony to a leader of – and for – the ages.
So please, lift a glass and allow my toast to emphasize six memorable traits that we would each, and all, benefit by emulating:
- Driven by values that matter
- Giving, supportive and encouraging to others
- Inspirational by thought, by word and by deed
- Students first, students second, students third… you got it first, last and everything in between.
- An amazing and resilient pair
- A friend
Cheers…and Godspeed in all that is next.
Thank you.