Honoring Provost Netzhammer

i am pleased to be here to honor mel netzhammer the first provost at keene
state college
and may i say hes the best provost at keene state college
so youre the first and only so far
seriously
increasing in academic acumen brought to this institution
i can credit to your leadership as provost of working with the faculty with
the deans to make sure that our curriculum was recognized across the
nation as an exemplar
thank you mel for your contributions to this college
thank you for all that you've done
for me as president in working with me
well i met mel
sometime ago now and i specifically recalled my first interaction with mel was over lunch

when i first met mel
i was helping with uh... move in of the freshmen moving day
i recall spilling a glass of water
on his lap and in my mind it was gallons of water quarts of water i think that it's
actually about this much water i was very embarassed
I didn't know who mel was at the time and i was with all my friends and we were being
vile swearing and cursing and
that led to a series of introductions meeting mel on appian way
id wave to him and suddenly my briefcase would fall out everything on the road
he would say hello nevertheless
i remember a pen exploding in my hand as i'm talking to mel all kinds of interesting things
at the end of the day mel came up to us and said do you know who i am
we go no who are you and he goes im mel
the provost okay what's the provost
you know like the president well i'm the vice president we were like oh my gosh
what did we say
what's strange about that is that mel is one of the most approachable provosts
people in positions of authority that one could imagine
why it is
i felt that level of anxiety i have no idea
what i do think about is how fortunate we in the theater and dance
me in particular
are to have someone
that was in such a high position
that truly loves and support the theater and dance and that
comes to our shows i'm very grateful to mel for his openness about working
out of the box when it comes to administrative work
my favorite is to see you in the orchestra
and i wave at you and you turn around and wave back with a big smile
years back i was applying for uh... sabbatical
and i submitted a proposal
ended up there to due to an administrative glitch i was invited
to apply semester to too early makes me really happy to know that
were able to see the work that we do and that you truly enjoy it and supported us thank you
mel read the proposal got very excited about it and said no this thing should
happen
uh... seems possible and so he bumped up my sabbatical leave
and the and the stories that we now have a neuro lab up and running we're seeing
families every friday and it's really happening i don't know that it would
have happened so quickly without that kind of out of the box
administrative works so i'm grateful to mel for being that way
hello everyone
and mel
great to be able to talk to you this way i do have a
uh... incident to share maybe we shouldn't call it an incident but uh... certainly
one of the values of mel as a colleague has always been his ability to tutor me
regarding the iPhone as far as funny stories
we did once miss a plane together now would it be that funny except
uh... we could have completely made the plane at least one incident where we
were traveling and we were in between flights in the airport
and i was a little panic my iphone was brand new
and i was looking at it working at it and realizing
it's broken it's totally broken ive ruined the iPhone we had somehow misinterpreted
our tickets we had somehow got into our heads that the departure time was
actually boarding time so we just lackadasically wandered up to the gates
as the plane was pulling away
mel came over in said
in very short time andy
you have to turn it on it wouldn't be funny at all except that
i have never have never seen
mel
uh...
obsess about something so much that he had particularly gotten this one
thing wrong
actually kind of fun to
see mel mess up on that one thank you mel i appreciate your assistance and i
know it's much much more than iphone tutoring
its ipad tutoring as well
but i appreciate you as a colleague collaboration insight and sharing has
always been wonderful
well i think i also realized something that day which is
uh... about
fifteen to twenty percent of what makes mel work is actually pat hitchner
when she's out of the equation
you know you you don't lose everything but you lose a little bit of the edge
this is to mel from nona with profound apologies to elizabeth barrett browning
how will we miss you
let me count the ways
well miss your cabinet tails
when each day's theater of the absurd bursts
well miss your calming voice
your summer shirts miss you for the passion you put into ADP and red
balloon
we'll miss you cause you left for washington
too soon
will miss your bounce your intellectual verve
you'll miss the gonfalons as students the go on to serve
but when the next big broadway show takes new york city by storm
drop by
well keep the keene fires burning warm
when redferns evening of danse explodes next spring
ill look for you and lee
to share the joy it brings
now
who will provide the rye
ironic touch
who will remind us why we love this work
so much
it was in early fall
must have been around
halloween because we were coming back
the student center
and we looked and there was this squirrel
holding
a baby ruth bar
in its mouth do you remember that we both cracked up now whenever i see a baby ruth bar
i think of the squirrel and of you
take care were gonna miss you
what i remember of mel that will bring a smile to my face
was his light touch
when we academics
were being outrageously academic
debating some fine point under discussion
with a smile or a glint in his eyes
he had a way of reminding us that it was time to get a grip
for me personally ill remember his e-mails and voicemails about began
hey gordon
took me back to my childhood days when
kids in the neighborhood would come over
say heyyy
and i wont use my childhood nickname
can you come out and play
mels hey gordon has always felt like an invitation
to come out and play because whatever it was it was going to be fun hey mel
it really was fun well mostly


from all of us
here are keene state thank you
your passion and enthusiasm helped keen state
right another
capture of the story we wish you
only the best
as you continue
to write their own



so mel this is a special this is just for you
if things don't work out
if things don't work in vancouver
my cousin sergei says
you are very good person he like you a lot says always find you a job in
the fish business
you call me ill call sergei well work it out