Harold D. Bibb, Professor and Associate Dean Emeritus
By Keith T. Killingbeck, Associate Dean

Development. That was his passion. As a developmental biologist, Professor Harold D. Bibb studied the ontogeny of organisms as diverse as frogs and chicks. Fowl chicks, that is. But perhaps the development he was best known for was the development of the graduate program at the University of Rhode Island. Professor Harold D. Bibb retired from his positions as Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Biological Sciences in January 2010 after more than 37 years of exemplary service.

For 15 of those years, Harold served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School. That in itself is a laudable accomplishment. At a recent national meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools, the hundreds of graduate school administrators assembled were asked to stand when their number of years of graduate school service had been reached. By the time the number reached 12 years, Harold was one of a mere handful of deans who had not yet stood to be counted.

In that decade and a half, Harold displayed a level of diplomacy and tact that totally defused one potential disaster after another. The phrase 'smooth as silk' comes to mind, and for those of you who have had the good fortune to know Harold, I need not explain its meaning. Harold was indeed a model of elegance and class for all of us. As Lynn Pasquerella, former URI Vice President, Dean, and President-elect of Mount Holyoke College, shared in a letter on the occasion of Harold's retirement, "I am grateful to have worked so closely with you, for you provided a model of excellence in academic leadership. I learned so much from watching you deal with the most complex dilemmas in educational administration and profited enormously from the lessons you taught by honoring and valuing people's stories and perspectives." I could not have said it better.

Harold holds an A.B. in Biology from Knox College, along with M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology from the University of Iowa. After leaving Iowa, he continued to hone his expertise in developmental biology during postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia and Brown University. Hired by the University of Rhode Island after finishing his postdoc at Brown, Harold joined the former Department of Zoology, later became Chair of that department, and helped forge a plan for what developed into our present Department of Biological Sciences. In addition to these accomplishments, Harold was an Advisor to the New England Board of Higher Education and shared his expertise in higher education as a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of his undergraduate alma mater, Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. His steadfast commitment to promoting diversity was formally recognized last year when he was presented a 2009 University of Rhode Island Administrator Diversity Award.

At the University of Rhode Island, Professor and Associate Dean Emeritus Harold D. Bibb will be remembered as a gifted educator, a talented scholar, and an unsurpassed champion for graduate education.

Back to Newsletter | Back to Top