News story by BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
Oral Roberts University Provost Ralph Fagin, a fixture at the university since the 1960s, has announced he will retire at the end of the fall semester.
As provost, Fagin is the chief academic officer at ORU. He served as interim president for 18 months during the transition from the resignation of President Richard Roberts in late 2007 until the installation of current President Mark Rutland in July 2009.
Fagin came to ORU from St. Louis on a basketball scholarship in 1968 with a good friend. Both Catholics, they had never seen the raised hands and exuberant worship of the charismatic university.
"It was pretty much of a culture shock," he said.
"At the first orientation prayer service, my friend looked at me with big eyes wide open and said, 'We're packing.'
"But we never got around to packing. As we got to know folks, we came to appreciate what was here," he said.
"All the things that might have seemed weird, as you got deeper, you got to understand the reality. There was a real joy on campus, and a realness, a genuineness that was too much to deny."
Fagin graduated from ORU in 1970 and went on to get his master's degree, and eventually his doctorate, in sociology from Oklahoma State University.
He returned to ORU as an instructor in 1972, and 10 years later moved into administration, serving in a variety of positions until becoming provost in 1998.
He watched the university go from its financially strong early years to many lean years when it was saddled with a huge debt and struggling to survive.
"The concern (that it might close) was there for a significant time," he said, as school leaders worked themselves out of one crisis only to find themselves in another one.
"There were daily miracles of manna," he said. "But you never felt like you broke out into the clear."
All that changed in late 2007 when the Mart Green family of Oklahoma City, founders of Mardels Christian book stores, stepped up with a $70 million donation, contingent on the reorganization of the university's management structure. Green is now chairman of the ORU board.
In 16 months, the $55 million debt was gone, Fagin said. The Green family made other major donations to take care of deferred maintenance and upgrade and beautify the campus.
Construction will begin early next year on the Armand Hammer Alumni-Student Center, just east of the prayer tower in the heart of the campus. Some $8 million has been pledged in an on-going fundraising campaign for the student center.
"I'm feeling really good about ORU," Fagin said.
"We have not arrived, but we're a significant way down the road from where we were just a short time ago."
Despite all the changes, he said, ORU has stayed close to its original mission, which he called the stabilizing factor through it all.
That vision is to develop students to become whole persons and to empower them to take the message of Christ into the world, he said.
"The strength of ORU is its vision and mission, and its people," he said. "ORU attracts really good people."
Fagin said he planned to travel with his wife, Darlene, and "have a great time" in retirement.
He also has talked to Rutland about helping out at the university.
"I would love to work for ORU on a voluntary basis ... for the rest of my life. I've got a lot of investment here, and I want to look after it."
Rutland said in a statement that Fagin had served the university long and well. He said they were discussing ways Fagin could continue to be a blessing to ORU.
Original Print Headline: ORU's Ralph Fagin retiring after 39 years
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Posted on
Fri, September 30, 2011
by Hugh Morgan