EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is featured in the Fall 2024 edition of The Tartan magazine. Read more from The Tartan at alma.edu/tartan.
By Robert W. Murray ’88
There was once a guy who wrote a book that became most famous for its title: “You Can’t Go Home Again.”
I guess I’m living proof that the opposite is, in fact, true. My name is Bob Murray, and I’m a proud member of the Class of 1988 at Alma College.
I returned to Alma College as the vice president for advancement in October 2023. If my name sounds familiar, it might be because I previously served in the college’s advancement office for 22 years. I was the director of planned giving for most of that time and later added the role of campaign executive director. Coming back to Alma was incredibly exciting for me, and I’m grateful to have received the call from President Jeff Abernathy, asking me to return.
In 2017, I left to join the advancement staff at Ferris State University to build a skillset I didn’t have at the time. Having had those experiences, I’m thrilled to bring them back to Alma — a place that I consider home.
It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Alma College. Our students do amazing work — in the classroom, laboratory, stage, community, chapel, on the field of play, and on so many other fronts. They surpass anything I did when I was in school, I can assure you. Our staff, faculty, and administrators are a high-caliber group, deeply motivated and devoted to student success. Our mission and values have never been more clearly expressed on this campus, or, frankly, needed in our world.
But that is not exactly why I answered President Abernathy’s call, not the real reason I came back to Alma College. When I considered whether to return, I thought of my first year at the college. I did not know what I wanted to do, except to focus on all things non-academic and have fun doing it. While I had an exciting time, I wasn’t living up to my potential.
Several professors were looking out for me, but Dr. Ronald Kapp, a longtime biology professor and provost, was my “North Star.” Kapp Honors Day and the Ronald O. Kapp Science Laboratory Center are named after him.
For some reason, Dr. Kapp saw fit to write me into his busy schedule. After my first year, he told me he wanted to see me once a week, every week; this continued until I graduated. So that’s what I did, every Thursday at 11 a.m.: go see Dr. Kapp at Swanson Academic Center and tell him how I was doing in class and in life. Thanks to Dr. Kapp’s guidance, along with my other inspirational faculty mentors, I graduated, moved on, and have had a very gratifying career.
He wanted to make sure I was going to be okay. Unfortunately, Dr. Kapp passed away in 1990, not long after I graduated. However, my family and I were pleased to continue a vibrant friendship with his wife, Phyllis, and stayed close with her until her own death just a few years ago. I will never forget Dr. Kapp’s kind gesture as this has shaped my work and view of the world.
That’s the real reason I came back to Alma College, I think: the people who are here. Not just the people who “were” here, but the people who are here now. They are the next generation of campus leaders, like Dr. Kapp and so many other extraordinary faculty, who are helping guide our students onto wonderful life journeys. I am here to help them.
I hope you will join me. Advancement work is an adventure, and it’s more fun the more people who get involved. We have some very exciting projects in the works, including our new athletics fieldhouse, science facility, and building our endowment. You will hear more about those projects in the future.
For now, I have a simple favor to ask: wear your Alma College gear and wear it with pride. I recall Dr. Kapp telling me why he wore an Alma baseball cap whenever he traveled. Wherever you go, he said, it will make you feel like you are back at home.
