Hartford Business.com
July 05, 2008
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Michael Roth’s father was a furrier, a maker of fur coats. And on weekends during high school, Roth worked with him, doing “whatever the lowest level employee would do,” said Roth, now the president of Wesleyan University.
He cleaned, ironed and scraped sharp, heavy staples out of fur pelts that had been stretched and secured into patterns.
“So you invariably cut yourself,” Roth said.
When Roth came home for his first winter break from college at Wesleyan, he picked up the family craft again. But the grunt work and early mornings whittled away any desire Roth had to follow in the family business.
It was a brilliant move on his father’s part, Roth said, because it made him want to study harder to earn something better for himself.
So he found other ways to earn a little cash.
He was a camp counselor and lifeguard, which was “until now, the best job I ever had,” Roth said.
He worked in the kitchen of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, earning room and board for his labor.
He was a gallery sitter during the lazy summer months, keeping an eye on the walls of artwork and reading to help pass the time.
“It was a wonderful job for a bookish person like myself,” Roth said.
Academia Calls
His first full-time adult job came after college, when he went west and landed a job as an associate professor at Scripps College in California. After 12 years there, he left to serve as the associate director of the Getty Research Institute, where his job was to invite scholars from around the world to come do their research in Los Angeles.
“I was very popular because it was my job to give away money,” he said with a laugh.
From there, he was recruited by one of his former students to be the president of the California College of Arts. He’d never been a college president before, but he used the opportunity to learn and grow.
“But when the search firm called from Wesleyan, it was very attractive,” he said.
He loved the university as a student and was honored to be offered the position of president.
“When I was at Wesleyan, I discovered that I loved education,” Roth said. “I love being around young people that are learning.”
And he’s still teaching — has been since 1983. And he can’t get enough.
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