Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press

On his final day as president of Missouri Western State University Friday afternoon, Dr. James Scanlon attended a bill signing at Benton High School with incoming president Dr. Robert A. Vartabedian.

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Dr. Jim Scanlon is Irish, Catholic and spiritual. So it’s not surprising that he believes God has a hand in his good fortune.

“And I’m eternally grateful that providential design has me here — best place I’ve been,” the retiring president of Missouri Western State University said from his office last week.

He makes his final Western-related public appearance today at an alumni association function in Kansas City. From there, he and his wife, Lauren, will navigate a van (the Clampett van, as they refer to it) stacked with their belongings to their beach home in North Carolina.

Being back on the East Coast brings Dr. Scanlon’s life full circle.

Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Scanlon lost his father at a young age. His grandmother on his mother’s side, who immigrated from Ireland, moved into the home soon after the death of his father, who also was of Irish stock.

“There is a very poetic strain in the Irish — a strong interest in literature and poetry,” he said of his path in education that led to a doctorate in English literature.

In a house full of Irish women (and a younger brother), Dr. Scanlon learned one truth: “It was never a question in my mind after that experience that women and men are equals,” he said. “They were strong, capable women.”

He paid his way through Manhattan College, taking the subway to jobs in neighboring boroughs, studying in his spare time and

eventually earning a graduate position at an Ivy League school — Brown University. He took his first job after graduation at the University of Illinois as an English professor. A year later, he was chairing the school’s rhetoric program.

Dr. Scanlon came to Western, his fifth university in a nearly 40-year career, to fill the vacant president’s seat in 2001. Under his watch, Western earned its university designation, garnered more than $10 million in private donations and saw campus building improvements and additions. He also established the foundation of the new American regional university, a phrase he coined that describes a university steeped in applied learning and community involvement.

In the final week of his presidency, the university released findings that suggest three athletes were given a total of more than $1,000 cash, which is in violation of NCAA rules. Asked if the event would mar his legacy, Dr. Scanlon said, “No. Not at all.”

“The forthright and thorough way the university dealt with this demonstrates the university’s integrity,” he responded. “Western is an institution of integrity.”

Former president Dr. Janet Gorman Murphy’s retirement, announced in 1999, was followed by a fruitless round of searches for a successor. Finally, the governing board came across Dr. Scanlon, a provost at Youngstown State University in Ohio. Although he was Ivy-League educated, it wasn’t in administration. Rather, Dr. Scanlon was and is a man of Shakespeare.

“Shakespeare helps us understand human motivation, how humans interact in a way that is very helpful when you work with people,” he said.

Taking questions about his retirement, Dr. Scanlon’s eyes, on occasion, well with tears. But it’s not in thinking about his nearly four decades in education that provokes the water works.

“The people make it most difficult to leave,” he explained of leaving the students, faculty, and staff at Western and residents of St. Joseph. “For both Lauren and me, it has been our best time.”

Dr. Scanlon, 64, asked a retired friend some time back how he knew when it was time to retire. The friend replied, “You just know.”

“I think about a year or so ago, I think I just knew,” Dr. Scanlon said.

Karen Elifrits, Dr. Scanlon’s executive associate, has worked side by side with him for the past seven years. She described Dr. Scanlon as a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy who hasn’t changed since Day 1.

“He taught me that everyone is equal,” she said. “He always said, from the custodian on up, he values everyone. He values people, and that’s his greatest strength.”

Though his doctorate is in English literature, Dr. Scanlon loves to read mysteries. As he relaxes at his beach home in North Carolina, he’ll start work on mystery books of his own.

“God only knows if they’ll ever be published,” he said of the novels he plans to pen. “But that isn’t a critical factor, in my point of view.”

Retirement, he said, will allow the Scanlons to “reconnect” with family on the East Coast. Birthdays will no longer be celebrated through the phone lines.

“This is a wonderful life,” he said, “but it doesn’t go on forever.”

Jimmy Myers can be reached at jimmym@npgco.com.