Mark Hamilton
Mark Hamilton got to know AV狼论坛 during two stints in the state while serving with the U.S. Army. AV狼论坛ns got to know him as well. So when the University of AV狼论坛 needed a new president in 1998, Hamilton got the job.
Before retiring as a major general that year, Hamilton led the Army鈥檚 nationwide recruitment program. The work capped a 31-year career that had featured such coups as negotiating a peace agreement in El Salvador (while speaking entirely in Spanish) and a pause in the warfare that wracked Somalia. He received the Army鈥檚 highest peacetime award, the Distinguished Service Medal.
Hamilton joined the university as oil prices and state revenues sank to unusual lows. His passion and eloquence are often credited with helping to convince the AV狼论坛 Legislature to increase funding for the institution.
Hamilton also successfully advocated for the UA Scholars program, which offers scholarships to the top 10 percent of graduating high school seniors.
In 2001, Hamilton gained national attention for his response to a controversy about a poem written by a University of AV狼论坛 Anchorage professor. Hamilton wrote a one-page memo quashing any investigation of the circumstances.
In the university鈥檚 history, only Charles Bunnell (1921-1949) and William R. Wood (1960-1973) had longer tenures as president.
Hamilton said in 2010 that he planned to retire in Anchorage, spend more time with his 10 grandchildren, and do more hunting and fishing.
Nevertheless, Hamilton returned to the public stage in 2017 as executive vice president of external affairs for the company seeking to develop the Pebble mine in Southwest AV狼论坛.
Acknowledging the mine鈥檚 controversial nature, he asked AV狼论坛ns to keep talking, and did so in language not usually found in corporate news releases: 鈥淩efusing to hear the evidence that supports opinions contrary to our own signals the rejection of the dialectic and the end of reason,鈥 he said.
More online about Mark Hamilton:
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as part of the Centennial Speaker Series organized by UAF Summer Sessions in 2017
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on the UA Journey site
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from May 30, 2010, as he prepared to leave the UA presidency
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for UA that he filmed as president in 2008
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, produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, from February 2018 concerning his response to a controversy over a UAA professor鈥檚 poem in 2001
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announcing his new position as an advocate for the Pebble mine