Dan Ritchie Comes Home to IAALS at the University of Denver

Daniel Ritchie, and his longtime assistant, Carolyn Foster, are moving into offices here at IAALS this week.

They left campus eleven years ago when Dan stepped down as Chancellor of the University of Denver. But, throughout his various stints in the interim—the most recent of which was at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts—Dan has always said he wanted to return to campus at some point.

And, now he has.

Dan is an extraordinary visionary, who transformed this University and who has transformed many other entities with which he has been affiliated over time. IAALS is one of his brain-children: he, together with John Moye, Charlie Gates, and I, created IAALS. Dan has continued to serve on the Executive Committee and the Board of Advisors of IAALS over the past decade. We have flourished under his care.

Dan’s return to campus is a gift to all of us. He will be closer and his energy will be palpable. Students and faculty will see him walking around campus, picking up stray pieces of litter, and engaging with people about everything from the layout of the flower beds to the most serious issues confronting the University and our world. Dan’s presence has a tendency to raise the bar for everyone; everyone he touches wants to do a better job, no matter what they are doing. He inspires people to try to be the very best they can be.

We at IAALS expect that traffic into our building will heat up—with folks from outside and inside the University coming to ask for his advice, his participation, his wisdom. His projects will undoubtedly continue to include ways to improve our state and our country, across a variety of subject areas.

Dan has been called a national treasure: his contributions to our world are that global and that profound. And, he is returning to our fold.

Let us all welcome him and celebrate all that he has done and all that he has yet to do. And when you see him walking around campus, say thank you…