President Robert Henry formed a long-lasting bond with Dr. Mohamed Daadaoui, professor of political science, at the beginning of his tenure.
They met during Henry’s first week of presidency in 2010. Daadaoui started as an assistant professor and said he was shocked when Henry arrived unannounced in his office to introduce himself.
Henry came because he learned that Daadaoui did extensive research on the Middle East and North Africa.
“That’s a common interest we both share,” Daadaoui said. “He wanted to have a chat with me, and, since then, I’m proud to say he’s become one of my mentors and friends throughout the years.”
Henry will retire as the university president June 30. Martha Burger will assume the role the next day.
Daadaoui said Henry helped expand his sources of information and gave him books he added to his personal library.
Daadaoui said the most important thing Henry taught him is to cultivate friendships.
“It’s a lost art,” Daadaoui said. “In this age of social media and phones, we are constantly cloistered on these things. I think he himself loves to invest in new friends constantly and invest in new friendships with interesting people, whether it’s faculty, students or people from the community.”
Daadaoui said he is sad to see Henry retire as president. He said Henry has led OCU in a positive direction as far as outputting excellence in education within a liberal arts college environment.
Daadaoui also said he will miss Henry’s speeches most.
“I think he’s a gifted auditor. I’ve heard a lot of speeches in my life. I think he can draw on multiple references. I think he’s so versatile in his knowledge–encyclopedic,” he said. “It just comes to him naturally.”
I think he will go down in history as one of OCU’s greatest presidents, not only because he has kept
us on a path of financial stability, but also because of the prestige that he brought to OCU and the kind of people that he has brought to the university.
For me, President Henry is a person who strives to be open to the wisdom of all faiths and all peoples. At heart a learner, an erudite scholar, and then a teacher. His discussion of Shakespeare and international relations in my class was exceptional.
His several lectures on the judiciary to my government classes have always been a hit with students. And I always have had such a tough task lecturing after him.
President Henry is truly a renaissance man, and an enlightenment man in the sense Voltaire spoke about it in Candide’s adage “il faut cultiver notre jardin” (We must cultivate our garden).
President Henry has literally cultivated his many gardens, for he is a master gardener, but beyond Voltaire’s philosophical call to horticultural quietism, President Henry, in his corpus of life work, both public and private, has also embodied the moral maxim that I believe Voltaire intended in Candide, that we must strive to be the force of change in our milieu, finding real solutions to real world issues in order to improve our human coexistence and social condition. All things, President Henry has done and continues to do.
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