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Cutting the ribbon for the Haak
Administrative Center are Mrs. Betty Haak and President Welty.
Behind them is Vice President Cynthia Teniente-Matson. Others
are Dr. and Mrs. Haak’s daughter Alison Kaiser and her family:
husband Jared and sons Alex and Josh. |
A ribbon-cutting ceremony
today (May 28) dedicated the Harold H. Haak Administrative Center in the
Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno.
The Haak Center, the official name for the entire fourth floor, will be
open for business June 8. It will be the new home for the offices of the
President, the Provost, the Vice President for University Advancement,
the Vice President of Administration and their staffs.
The Library’s grand opening was in February, but because of state
funding problems the move into the fourth-floor Haak Center was delayed.
President John D. Welty said the naming of the Haak Center provides a
permanent memorial to Fresno State’s president from 1980 to ’91.
Illustrated panels and memorabilia sketch Dr. Haak’s life and his
university and community accomplishments. An engraved marker in the
floor and a smiling portrait greet visitors as they enter the Haak
Administrative Center.
Joining Welty in the dedication ceremony were Dr. Haak’s widow, Betty,
one of their two daughters, Alison Kaiser, her husband Jared Kaiser and
their sons, Alex and Josh. Two of Dr. Haak’s close friends and former
Fresno State colleagues – Dr. Peter Klassen and Dr. Lynn Hemink – also
shared memories and thoughts of Dr. Haak, who was 68 when he died in
2003.
President Welty, who succeeded him, said, “Dr. Haak brought people
together on campus and led the healing that followed a period of
significant discord. His use of humor was very effective in getting
people to work together.”
Welty said important facets of Dr. Haak’s legacy include significant
campus building, increased diversity of student body and faculty,
creation of an advancement division to expand private giving and
enhanced community connections. Dr. Haak, said Welty, was an
enthusiastic Bulldog athletics fan who persuaded Bulldog backers also to
invest in the university’s academic programs.
Dr. Haak never forgot his core mission, said President Welty: “He was
always a teacher at heart. He described himself as a ‘professor,
temporarily assigned as president of Fresno State.’ When he stepped down
from the presidency to take a classroom role, Dr. Haak said, ‘It’s not
stepping down; it’s stepping up.’”
In his remarks Thursday, Welty described Dr. Haak as a “remarkable man”
who gave “extraordinary service to Fresno State.”
Dr. Haak served the university for nearly 21 years: two years as vice
president for academic affairs, 11½ years as president and seven years
as a professor of political science.
He also was interim president of Fresno Pacific University for two years
beginning in 2000 and was president of University of Colorado at Denver
for seven years before his presidency at Fresno State.
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