RON HORNE ODU Gave Him Passion to ’Go out and See the World’
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85 YEARS OF PROGRESS HOW FAR WE’VE COME At first, there were no degrees. No residence halls. Only one classroom building. The school didn’t even have its own name. Now look. Old Dominion University has nearly 25,000 students, more than 140 buildings including 14 residence halls, and a reputation for cutting- edge research in areas as diverse as sea-level rise and cybersecurity. The university has experienced remarkable changes since 1930. But among the constants has been its accessibility to less-affluent students and its flexibility to adapt to society’s changing needs and demands. Sit back. Take a quick stroll through 85 years of progress, community service and innovation, and relive some of the moments and meet some of the people who have made ODU great. CAN YOU NAME THESE MONARCHS? First row: Frank Batten (first rector), Al Rollins (former president), First Lady Kate Broderick, Tim Seibles (poet and English professor). Second row: Roseann Runte (former president), Ruby Milteer (longtime cafeteria worker at Webb University Center), philanthropist Ted Constant, Wendy Larry (former women’s basketball coach). Third row: Hugo Owens Jr. (former rector), David Harnage (chief operating officer), Cecelia Tucker (community relations director), Bill Whitehurst (Kaufman lecturer in public affairs). Fourth row: John Toomey (music professor and chairman), Ticha Penicheiro ’97 (former women’s basketball star), Bud Metheny (former athletic director and coach), Ulysses “Van” Spiva (former dean of Darden College of Education). AMERICA LUNA From sergeant to mentor for veterans AMERICA LUNA spent five She realized, though, that work as a program specialist at years in the U.S. Army, with two something was missing from the Tidewater Community College’s tours collecting intelligence in experience. “When I finally got Center for Military and Veterans Iraq. Then she earned two degrees involved,” Luna said, “I saw how Education, where she matches at Old Dominion University. Now many different opportunities they veterans with mentors. she’s working to help veterans had here to do so many different “ODU helped me become more transition to civilian life. And she things.” She became active with in tune with community service,” hasn’t even turned 30. the Women’s Center, Gamma she said. “It really did prepare me Sigma Sigma and the Student The Brooklyn, N.Y., native joined to branch out to the professional Veterans Association. the Army straight out of high world and create a strong net- school. “I was a child when I And that fueled her desire to help work.” started,” Luna said. “It taught veterans, a challenging mission: me how not to be a kid anymore. “You come out thinking you know Things are going to get difficult, it all, you can conquer it all. You and you have to suck it up.” don’t ask for help.” She left the service as a sergeant She received her bachelor’s degree in 2009 and moved to Virginia in human services in 2014 and because her best friend lived there. her master’s in higher education She enrolled at Old Dominion in in 2015. One month before she 2011. “I came to learn,” said Luna, earned her graduate degree, she who is 29. “Being a veteran was introduced U.S. Secretary of State one of my identities, but now I John Kerry, who spoke on campus. needed to become a student.” One month later, Luna began EMBRACING THE NEW MILLENNIUM 2001-16 2001 Roseann Runte is named the seventh president. She expands enrollment, increases the number of residence halls, promotes international education and pushes forward the Board of Visitors’ plan to resurrect football. 2003 Old Dominion receives the largest gift in its history – $32 million – from first rector Frank Batten. John Sokolowski becomes first person ever to receive a Ph.D. in modeling and simulation. He later is appointed to lead ODU’s modeling and simulation center. 2008 John R. Broderick becomes the eighth president. He creates Student Success Center, increases diversity of student body and administration, promotes community service and wins increased state funding, boosting STEM-H (science, technology, engineering, math and health care) programs. 2009 Football resumes after a 68-year absence. The team’s 9-2 record is the best of any first-year team in FCS history. 2010 President Broderick creates Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative. ODU hires top researchers to take a multidisciplinary approach and to educate others in coastal cities beyond Hampton Roads. 2014 University receives $11 million gift from alumnus Mark Strome, a California investment executive, and his wife, Tammy, to expand entrepreneurial initiatives for students inside and outside the classroom. 2015 Barry Arts Building and Hixon Art Studio open in University Village. In a speech on campus, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says university’s sea level rise research is “work that every university should be doing.” RUFUS TONELSON From pioneering student to dean of education A. RUFUS TONELSON’S misfortune turned into a brilliant stroke of luck. He spent the spring semester of 1930 at William & Mary, but after his father suffered a severe accident, the family no longer could afford to send him to Williamsburg. Tonelson was among the first three students to enroll in the Norfolk Division later that year. In a 1975 interview, he said many students at the division felt “a very, very close relationship” to the professors, seeing them as surrogate parents. One even loaned him tuition money when he was short, said his younger son, Steve. Outside class, Tonelson disorders and special education at the university and played basketball and baseball – “He felt he was the a past chairman of the Norfolk School Board. His worst pitcher to win so many games,” Steve said – other son, Louis, is a retired principal of Kempsville and wrote for the student newspaper. High School in Virginia Beach. Tonelson later received bachelor’s and master’s Steve Tonelson said his father “absolutely loved” the degrees from William & Mary and a doctorate Norfolk Division: “He felt like he owed his life to it from Michigan State University. He spent 25 years in terms of what he was able to do.” in Norfolk Public Schools, ending as principal of Maury High School, where he challenged “massive resistance” to school integration in the ’50s. Tonelson A. Rufus Tonelson’s returned to what was then Old Dominion in 1966, memory lives on at the first as professor of education, later as dean of the university. An athletic Darden School of Education and assistant to the scholarship, a faculty president. award given by the Tonelson, who died in 2006 at the age of 94, spread Alumni Association and the garden in his love of education and the university to his family. the middle of Webb His wife, Sara, received her bachelor’s and mas- University Center all ter’s degrees from Old Dominion and was a special bear his name. education teacher. Steve, who received his master’s in education at ODU, is a professor of communication THE EARLY YEARS 1930-60 1930 The two-year Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary opens in a former elementary school with 206 students – 125 men and 81 women. Tuition is $50 a year. 1932 Lewis Webb, for whom Webb University Center is named, joins the faculty. He later serves as director and president from 1946 to 1969, the longest tenure of any leader of the school. 1939 The Norfolk Division begins classes in civil aeronautics, a precursor to training students for service in World War II. 1941 The division disbands the football team. William Hodges, dean of the division, resigns after inflating some students’ grades. He defends the practice, saying he helped students “in their adjustment to life and its problems.” 1952 The Norfolk Division offers its first noncredit TV class, “Science is Simple,” beginning the school’s tradition of exploring alternative modes of education. 1956 The first bachelor’s degrees are awarded, in business administration and medical technology, to 15 graduates. RON HORNE ODU gave him passion to ’go out and see the world’ He wore a tie to school practically every day. “I had to represent, represent, because I wanted more of you to come follow me,” he said during a Black History Month speech sponsored by ODU’s student chapter of the NAACP. Horne was influential during his last year at Old Dominion. He was elected senior class president. He persuaded administrators to hold a baccalaureate ser- vice and graduation banquet (“I’m a Southern Baptist; I love traditions.”). And he carried the American flag into Foreman Field at the beginning of commence- ment. “In 1969, what a risk for the university to take as an institution, but what a very strong message it was sending,” Horne said. Horne spent more than 24 years in the Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1995. “Old Dominion gave me the motivation and passion and incentive to know RONALD “RON” HORNE enrolled at Old that I could actually go out and see the world,” he Dominion University in 1965 because, he said, “I said. Horne, who is 69 and lives in Arlington, works wanted to go out on my own and not know a single with the U.S. Department of Defense to assist transi- soul.” Four years later, he knew plenty of souls and tioning service members – for instance, advising them had made history. Horne became the first Afri- of benefits and helping them write resumes. can-American to receive a bachelor’s degree – his A scholarship in his name provides support for major was political science – at ODU. textbooks for minority stu- His first semester, he didn’t see another black student.