Cultivating Success:

Bob Courtney’s Visionary Leadership and Legacy at Central Methodist University

BY ANDREA WANER

Former Board of Trustees President Bob Courtney remembers his time at Central Methodist University in three phases: survival, positioning for progress and planning for the future. Despite not being an alumnus of CMU, Courtney decided to join the then-Central Methodist College board of curators in 1994, after a nudge from fellow church member and longtime CMU curator Louis Bailey. The standing of the University at that time was unsteady at best. He remembers board members advocating on behalf of the institution in order to gain access to much-needed credit to keep the doors open and the lights on. He watched closely as Dr. Marianne Inman shored up the foundation of CMU and shifted the focus from survival to one of progress.

In 1997, Courtney and other members of the board began to see solutions to the back-end problems that had plagued the institution. The governing body was able to concentrate on investing in the campus’s beloved – but aging – physical structures. Under

Courtney’s guidance, CMU renovated the five-story co-ed residence hall, McMurray Hall, and secured $35 million for a capital campaign to construct the Inman Student and Community Center. All moves aimed to position the institution for greater progress.

In May 2004, the body voted to change the institution’s name from Central Methodist College to Central Methodist University, signaling the growth in graduate and extended studies programs the school would use to increase student recruitment and retention while strategically planning for the future. Among the strategic planning sessions the board undertook, came the origin of CMU’s most prescient investment – Digital U.

“I remember sitting in a meeting and asking the group, including Dr. Inman, ‘What if we spent $200,000 to improve our information technology infrastructure?’” Courtney recounted. “Dr. Inman gasped. But we needed to move [the institution] into the online educational space.”

Courtney’s vision for CMU was well ahead of its time. The institution had recently secured funding for a fiber optic loop around campus, ensuring quality internet access for its students. Courtney wanted to take that initiative one step further. He wanted to provide students with the tools they needed to grow their educational outcomes in the digital era. He wanted every student to have an iPad of their own to use in their classes.

The board and key staff and faculty members from CMU met with Maryville University, which was already seeing success from its own digital program. Courtney remembers the group getting three-fourths of the way through the Maryville presentation before they all agreed, “We’re doing this.”

“It changed the manner in which we could educate young people,” Courtney said of the Digital U rollout in 2017. “This move has been very important to the security and future of the University.”

It was the investment and rollout of Digital U that allowed students to continue their education without much interference after the CMU campus closed its in-person classes amid COVID-19 concerns.

“We didn’t have any choice but to send them home,” Courtney explained. “The biggest issue was access to quality internet services in smaller communities, but the success of our students during the pandemic was a byproduct of [Digital U].”

At the spring 2023 commencement ceremony, Courtney provided the commencement address. His speech spoke of the “pillars to a fulfilling life.” He detailed four areas he believed to be instrumental in one’s success: family, personal profession, industry, and community.

“My thought was if I could set goals to achieve some level of success or satisfaction in each of those areas, the result would be a meaningful life,” Courtney explained.

He went on to outline how the four pillars influenced his life. First, from marrying and losing his first wife, then marrying his second wife and loving a blended family, to navigating tremendous grief and finding gifts of resiliency and hope. Then from the United

States Army to a successful businessman. Next, from a small business with five employees to an international sale and more than 60 employees. And, finally, from a loosely Catholic upbringing, to advising former bishop of the Missouri United Methodist Conference, Robert Schnase.

CMU President Roger Drake credits Courtney with the institution’s successful weathering of an uncertain time in American college education.

“He has played some of the most pivotal roles in periods of positive transition for Central,” Drake said. “He has given, sacrificially, as a non-alum in a lot of ways. It was a special day when Bob Courtney was attracted to get involved with CMU. One of the better days this college has experienced.”