Former Knox Presidents Attend Amott's Installation

The May 5 installation of Teresa L. Amott as the 19th president of Knox College drew two of her predecessors back to campus: John McCall, the 15th Knox president, and Roger Taylor '63, the 18th Knox president.

Both had plenty of praise for Amott.

"She's definitely a leader. She knows what she wants," said McCall, who led Knox from 1982 to 1993. "I think the college is very lucky, and I think she'll have tremendous support from everybody."

Taylor added: "She knows what she's doing. I'm going to stay in the background and watch and admire."

"It was a wonderful vision, eloquently delivered," Taylor said of Amott's installation address.

Taylor was president of Knox from from 2001 to 2011. When he retired on June 30, 2011, he said he would stay away from the Knox campus for two years. The idea was inspired by a former president at another college who wanted to "get out of the way" of the new president.

"I thought: Well, that's a good idea, I'm going to do that. So I've done it," he said. Then, Taylor got a phone call a few weeks ago from Amott, who encouraged him and his wife, Anne, to attend the installation ceremony.

"So of course, I said: OK, we'll be here."

McCall and Taylor agreed that Knox College remains a very special place to them.

"It's the sense of community," McCall said. "It was evident from the time I visited campus as a candidate for the presidency. From the first meetings with faculty on the business of the campus, having a sense that people here knew how to talk to one another."

Taylor highlighted "the fact that I met my wife of now 48 years here on Sept. 7, 1959."

(Photo at top of page: Knox College President Teresa Amott stands with two of her predecessors -- John Mcall at left and Roger Taylor at right -- just before her installation ceremony on May 5.)