July 2010 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. MMA PRESIDENT LEN TYLER RETIRES


CASTINE – From assistant football coach to president of one of the most prestigious maritime academies in the world, Leonard Tyler’s fifteen year reign has come to an end. He guided MMA through some tough times and every time the academy came out the better. He was also one that gave students a second chance and many of them owe much of their success to him. So after 41 years Tyler has stepped back and will enjoy his retire- ment in Castine in the summer and Hawaii in the winter.


Tyler graduated from Ithaca College in 1966, taught in Connecticut for a couple years and then went back to graduate school. After he graduated he said, “I was looking for a job and I saw that there was a job as an assistant football coach and a basketball coach at this little college up in Maine. It turned out that a good friend of mine from college was the head coach, Bill Matolla. I sent them a letter and came up for the interview in March of 1969. When I came up here they put me up in a guest room, and when I woke up the next morning I heard the national anthem being played and I looked out the window and lo and behold I see this mass of three or 400 students stand- ing at attention and the flag being raised and I thought boy this is the place for me.” In 1972 it was thought that MMA would be a great place to have conferences and programs and make a little extra money. Tyler was asked to head this up and he added, “That was my first taste of college administra- tion so to speak.”


Tyler remained as coach until 1976 when he returned to Ithaca College in New York as assistant football coach with the intentions of staying there. He and his family really did not want to leave, but it was looked at as a career move. However, they kept there home in Castine and returned in the summer as Tyler continued doing his conference job. The following summer Admiral Rogers came to Tyler and said that the admission director’s job was open and he wanted him to apply for it. It was not long before his wife Bonnie convinced him to take it. From 1977 to 1984 he remained as admission’s director and then became vice president for external affairs, which actually now is career services, alumni affairs, admis- sions and financial aid and the conference program. Tyler did this for a couple of years and then Ken Curtis came in to head the Academy and Tyler was asked to help with the capital fund drive. Tyler added, “We didn’t have a campaign manager. We thought we were going to hire somebody, but we were advised against that. Ken asked if I would do it and I said if I can shed some of my other responsibilities I would be pleased to do it. I took a couple of programs to learn how to raise money and did that until Ken left


about eight years later in about 1994. He departed and they did a search for a new president. They thought they had found somebody but about two weeks before he was to come, he sent a note saying that his wife didn’t want to live in Castine I think. They asked if I would do it on an interim basis while they did another full search. During that search time, two things happened, I became convinced I could do the job and I saw enrollment and some things starting to go in the wrong direction. I asked the board if they would mind if I apply. I did and I got the job. I was hoping I would make it through at least a year or two before they sent me on my way.” “Fortunately Ken Curtis left me a pretty strong institution, but the shipping industry was starting to decline,” continued Tyler. “One of the big problems I saw, we had made a commitment to a new training ship. They had already spent $12 million on it and it was awful. It was way too small, the technology was not very good, it wouldn’t have held the number of students that we needed, so that was probably the key thing and I could see that was really going to impact the enroll- ment. If we didn’t have a quality training ship we would have a difficult time competing the other academies for students. So the first thing we did was take a look and see how we could turn that around. We found this other ship and despite being quite a ways in the process with this other ship the Maritime Administration was willing to divert the re- maining money, find some additional funds, in order for us to take the ship that we now have. She was set up to accommodate at the time about 180 people, so we had to increase the accommodations, but that was fairly easy. Today that ship is really bordering on whether it is big enough.”


“We were also starting to see enrollment decline,” said Tyler. “We needed to find ways of attracting more students, especially from Maine. We had a major in Marine sci- ence and we diversify. We looked at power engineering. When I was admissions director I would go into high schools and the guid- ance counselor would say that nobody was interested in Maine Maritime and I would say, “There was nobody interested in engineer- ing?” “There are a lot of students interested in engineering, but not in marine engineer- ing.” So we needed to find a way to talk to those other students and that is when we started our engineering technology. We also looked at a lot of the shipping companies who were now becoming full-service logistics companies. That is when we look at a major in international business and logistics. That opened up more opportunities. There was also concern even though we had our first woman student arrive in 1974, we had not been really successful in attracting more


Welcome


· Expert Repair & Restoration


Jonesport Peapod Elegant · Functional · Fun


· Showers - Laundry · Moorings · Storage · DIY - In/Out


Cruise Downeast


Access Fundy Bay & Nova Scotia Leave Your Boat with Us


www.jonesportshipyard.com POB 214 Jonesport, ME 04649


207-497-2701


419 Harpswell Islands Road (Rt. 24) Harpswell, Maine 04079 207.729.1639


www.greatislandboatyard.com


women. We would get five or six a year, but the majors that we offered weren’t really ones that women would like. So we added marine biology. We went from maybe about 50 women to 160 and that continues to grow.” Back in the 1970s the enrollment was less than 500 and now it exceeds 900 students. With this growth comes another issue, and a touchy one at that, how to grow the campus. Tyler said, “That is a good challenge for Bill Brennan when he takes over. I think they have to look at a variety of ways of expanding. The footprint that we have right here in town would be difficult to do more with. We do have 225 acres out in Penobscot and I can see the housing portions of it moving out there and possibly even a major or two that doesn’t need the ocean. I think we will also grow through electronic means and satellite cam- puses. We are looking to team up with the community college system in Brunswick at the old Brunswick Naval Air Station when it closes.”


When asked if there was something he wanted to accomplish before he left, Tyler explained, “Probably my biggest disappointment…before I left we started this capital fund drive to build a new engineering building and add some components down on the waterfront. We started it, but unfortu- nately the economy tanked just after we an- nounced our campaign. My goal was to have that campaign done before the new president took over so that the new president would have a year or two to really get to understand the institution before he got into the more difficult task of going out and raising money. I plan to still continue to help out in retirement as much as I can to fulfill a dream of finishing this.”


Great Island Boat Yard GREAT Service, Access, Value


Big boat yard service expertise delivered with the personal care and responsiveness of a family business. Call or visit us to discover how you can benefit from our exceptional blend of traditional craftsmanship and state of the art technology.


Protected marina with 110 slips and moorings 20,000 sq. ft. of indoor, climate-controlled work space Maine craftsmen maintain and restore boats year round Yanmar products served by certified technicians Certified Professional Yacht Brokerage Services


Located on Quahog Bay, one of the most picturesque spots on the Maine Coast, and only an hour drive north of Portland.


Tyler said that he was going to take the first six months and figure out what his op- tions were and what he would like to do. He added, “Eventually I want to get back doing something, whether it is consulting or on a board or two that keeps me connected to the shipping industry. I just would like to take a little bit of time off without the day-to-day responsibility. That is always the difficult part, you never know what tonight will bring. Whether it is an accident, funding issues or the ship breaks down as it did last year. It is a lot of fun, it is really interesting, but at some point you just need to step back and decom- press.”


Tyler accomplishments at MMA have been impressive and it is sad to see him step down.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32