The following is part of a series of historical articles as they appeared in Iowa State’s student newspaper. This article is from the Friday, Feb., 22, 1991 issue of the Iowa State Daily when University of Missouri-Rolla President Martin Jischke was chosen by the state Board of Regents to be president of ISU.

Martin C. Jischke, chancellor of the University of Missouri-Rolla, will be Iowa State’s 13th president, effective June 1.

The state Board of Regents unanimously voted by telephone Thursday afternoon to name Jischke to the post.

Jischke said he and Iowa State were “a remarkable fit.”

Jischke will be receiving a $164,000 salary along with the “usual benefits,” regent President Marvin Pomerantz said.

Pomerantz described Jischke as a man with outstanding leadership and communication qualities and a strong academic background.

Jischke was chosen from a field of seven finalists, which included Interim President Milton Glick.

Jischke called Glick “a fine man,” and said Glick was held in very high regard nationally, as well as in Missouri, as an educator.

Pomerantz also thanked Glick for his service as interim president.

“We hope he stays as provost. We didn’t discuss it,” Pomerantz said. “Whatever he does we wish him luck and thank him for his services.”

When asked about the shortness of the search, Pomerantz pointed out that the search started in July of 1990.

“Dr. Jischke’s been wooed by more than the few, but it was no situation where we had to move this afternoon or he might go somewhere else,” Pomerantz said.

Iowa’s recent budget problem did not cause Jischke to hesitate in taking the job.

“The decision to … commit a significant part of one’s life to an institution is not made on the vagueries of one budget or another.”

His first job as president will be “getting to better know the people at Iowa State,” Jischke said, and “gain a sense of what we need to do to make Iowa State better.”

Jischke said he wasn’t using the ISU presidency as a stepping stone to other jobs.

“I don’t consider this a temporary job,” Jischke said. “I’m here to stay.”

Jischke said he was most impressed by Iowa’s devotion to higher education.

“Repeatedly I have seen evidence that Iowans take higher education, and education in general, very, very seriously and support it,” he said.

“I’m a Midwesterner, a grandson of a farmer and son of a food distributor,” he said.

Jischke said he had degrees in science and engineering.

“I believe very much in the land-grant tradition, marrying practical and liberal education.”

Jischke said he and ISU share values that are very deeply rooted in Iowa. “Values that have to do with family … and hard work.”

Jischke said that he was “intrigued and captivated” in the university’s goal of making ISU the premier land-grant institution in the country.

However, he added, “I have no illusions that this is a simple challenge.”

Jischke said there would be opportunities for personal contact with him. But because of the size of ISU, he said he had to approach it differently than at Missouri-Rolla.

“I will promise that there will be opportunities for … communication, but what I can’t tell you is precisely how to do it.”

Jischke called ISU’s strategic plan “wise and appropriate.”

“A basic direction has been set, and I’m very comfortable with it.”

Jischke will be moving to Ames with his wife, Patty, and his two children.

Jischke said his top priorities were his work and his family. But in his spare time he enjoys reading and playing “a little golf.”

Jischke said he decided to be an educator during his graduate school days under Judson Barron, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

Jischke said he told his wife, “it is hard for me to believe that there is a better job in higher education, for me at least, than the presidency at Iowa State.

“Iowa State plays a pivotal role in the future of Iowa and the opportunity to be a part of that is very attractive.”