Tom Crady, the vice president of student services at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, visits Dartmouth Wednesday to interview with the search committee for the Dean of the College position, vacated by James Larimore last May. He is one of four finalists for the post.
In his 25-year career at Grinnell College in Iowa, Tom Crady has risen through the ranks, starting as a resident adviser and reaching his current position in 1999. Grinnell recently named its new mailroom after him in honor of his long career and contributions to the college.
During his time at the 1,500-student liberal arts college, Crady has dealt with protests, the planning of a new student center, a student's suicide and most recently, the disappearance of a sophomore, who is still missing. Crady spearheaded the response to this crisis last fall, organizing searches for the student and bringing in extra counseling help.
"He did a very good job of making sure everyone stayed calm and comfortable, but also did everything that needed to get done," said Grinnell senior Chris Hall, president of the student body, of Crady, who oversees the student activities and residential life offices, among others. "He put in long hours. Every member of that office was up midway through the night working."
Crady responds well to crises and is accustomed to dealing with them, according to Kino Ruth, who graduated from Grinnell in 1979 and is now the director of Hamilton College's Career Center.
Ruth first met Crady in 1982 when the two worked at Grinnell as resident advisers, who perform a role similar to that of community directors at Dartmouth. Crady served as the best man at Ruth's wedding, and Ruth helped donate the money necessary to name Grinnell's new post office after his longtime friend.
"He is absolutely a student advocate," Ruth said, adding that Crady is well respected by his peers at other liberal arts institutions. "Grinnell is a small liberal arts college, but it's a college that really believes that students should be responsible for their college and students should be responsible to plan and handle their events. He really wants to work with students to make that happen."
To accomplish this, Crady works closely with Grinnell's student government and is in touch almost daily with Hall, who said the two work well on a professional level but have also become friends.
"He's very well respected because he knows how to accomplish things and how to do so in a pretty efficient manner," Hall said. "He knows how to keep himself out of trouble and get done what he wants."
Grinnell junior Brad Bishop, the treasurer of the school's student government, however, said that even though Crady is almost always on the students' side and plays an irreplaceable role on campus, at times he could be "wishy-washy" and misplace his efforts.
"He very much wants to know everything about everything and so sometimes he likes to give advice or opinions about departments or items that are not directly his areas of expertise," Bishop said. "It's not anything malicious on his part. He just tries too hard."
Ruth and Hall, however, disagreed with this characterization of Crady.
"On any college campus, there's a lot of politics that go on behind the scenes," Hall said. "I think of him as being good as a politician here on campus. He's good at making sure people are comfortable."
Hall said he was aware Crady is being considered for the dean of the College position at Dartmouth and that he recently notified the rest of the student government officers of his possible departure.
"The response was basically that he is the best administrator we have to work with in many ways," Hall said. "We like Tom and we would love to keep him here."
Crady, a Detroit native, came to Grinnell after working at Northern Michigan University's counseling center, where he also received his undergraduate degree in speech and a master's degree in counseling.
He spends much of his free time with his wife Lisa and their sons, Peter, 15, and Scott, 10, with whom he frequently goes skiing and fishing.
For many years though, Crady was unable to do many of his favorite outdoor activities due to a painful hip injury, which made one leg shorter than the other. A hip replacement has since enabled him to return to these activities and Crady's passion for the outdoors has played a role in his interest in Dartmouth, Ruth said.
"I think he's looking forward to interviewing," Lisa Crady said.
She describes her husband of 22 years as someone who gets along with people who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
"He is someone who likes to joke and will laugh at his own expense sometimes," Lisa Crady said. "You'll see what you get. It won't be fake."