Northern Michigan College and the area as an entire just lately misplaced a determine who performed a significant position in shaping the college’s trajectory and bodily presence in Marquette: former NMU President John X. Jamrich.
Jamrich handed away Sunday in Savannah, Georgia, on the age of 101. He served as NMU’s eighth president from 1968 till his retirement in 1983. His 15-year tenure — the third-longest of any Northern president — was marked by super development in enrollment, tutorial packages and neighborhood outreach, NMU mentioned in a information launch.
“Dr. Jamrich was the president who handed me my diploma at graduation after I was a Northern graduate,” mentioned NMU interim President Kerri Schuiling, a 1973 graduate. “In his 101 years, he set the instance of what it means to be a lifelong learner. He was a devoted Wildcat all through his time as president and thereafter.
“Beneath his management, Northern loved many outstanding achievements. We owe him a deep debt of gratitude for the inspiration upon which the college continues to construct as we speak.”
In keeping with “John X. Jamrich: The Man and the College,” Northern’s bodily campus grew considerably below his management, with development of the Studying Sources Heart, Jacobetti Expertise Heart, Bodily Academic Educational Facility and Cohodas Corridor. It was additionally a time of latest university-business partnerships, the beginning of girls’s athletics, pupil protests, union group and — close to the top of his time period — monetary hardship attributable to state funds cuts.
“John was personally on high of every little thing throughout his presidency,” mentioned historical past Professor Emeritus Russell Magnaghi, the guide’s writer, in a Northern Journal story on Jamrich’s a hundredth birthday. “Actually, it’s onerous to search out issues that had been occurring on campus throughout his administration that he wasn’t concerned in. He wasn’t involved about searching for one other job and was fully dedicated to NMU. He fulfilled the philosophy of Edgar Harden of turning Northern into a high quality undergraduate/ graduate establishment.”
Northern remained an integral a part of Jamrich’s life after he retired.
Jamrich and his spouse, June, who handed away in April 2020, had been longtime philanthropic supporters of NMU. They established the John X. and June A. Jamrich Endowed Music Scholarship, which the household has requested these wishing to precise sympathy for John’s loss of life think about supporting, and the John X. and June A. Jamrich Household Artwork Endowment.
As well as, they helped to maintain a wide range of scholarships and funds over time, and gave to the Heart for Higher Peninsula Research, the DeVos Artwork Museum, NMU athletics and plenty of different packages and initiatives.
In 2014, Jamrich was honored with the naming of a brand new tutorial facility on the NMU campus, John X. Jamrich Corridor, serving as speaker on the opening ceremony.
Jamrich’s achievements in life had been many, and are unimaginable to adequately sum up on this small house — or perhaps a a lot bigger one — however his management, forward-thinking, generosity and take care of others won’t ever be forgotten.
A short stroll or drive by way of the Marquette space makes it clear that Jamrich left a permanent legacy on campus and all through the neighborhood. You’d be hard-pressed to discover a Marquette resident who hasn’t entered — or at the least seen — a college constructing bearing Jamrich’s identify, or that he was invovled in creating. His management empowered the college and its college students to be taught new issues, set new objectives and dream massive.
Schuiling summed it up completely — we owe him a debt of gratitude for the place we’re as we speak.
Jamrich, and his late spouse, June, touched many lives all through the NMU neighborhood and past. He won’t ever be forgotten.
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