Fed Chief tapped as next A&M chancellor
By Pam Easton
Associated Press
Austin American Statesman
October 14, 2004
Houston-Texas A&M University System regents selects the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas as the sole finalist for its chancellorship Wednesday.
Robert McTeer, who became the bank’s president in 1991, would replace the late Howard Graves at the system based in College Station near the flagship university. Graves was A&M’s chancellor from 1999 until he resigned last year while battling cancer.
State law requires regents to wait 21 days before officially voting to offer McTeer the job. “He is very willing to accept it,” said Regent Erle Nye, who led the search. “It is highly highly likely he will be elected chancellor.
Nye said McTeer was selected from 70 applicants for the system’s top job. The chancellor oversees nine universities, a comprehensive health science center and nearly 100,000 students.
“We think he introduces a new energy and enthusiasm to the system that we need,” Nye said. “He is a person with a substantial persona and gravitas, and he is just an awfully capable fellow that I think will take us forward.”
Nye cited McTeer’s success as an economist and researcher, his leadership and managerial skills, and speaking and writing abilities.
“He has been successful at everything he has done,” Nye said, adding that McTeer’s name has been circulated as a possible successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
McTeer, 61, said his selection is an honor and if appointed he would retire from the Federal Reserve, which he said he would “obviously miss.”
“My highest priority will be to justify the confidence the Board of Regents has placed in me,” he said in a statement.
McTeer grew up in rural Georgia, earning his doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia. He spent two years teaching at the school before joining the Richmond (Va.) Federal Reserve in 1968 as an economist. Two years later, he became an assistant to the bank’s president.
A decade later, McTeer moved to the bank’s Baltimore branch, where he remained until 1991.
McTeer has taught at the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and John Hopkins University. He also has led courses at several state and regional banking schools.
Nye said McTeer and Texas A&M University President Bob Gates, a former CIA director who became president in 2002, will work well together to improve the system’s profile.
“Bob McTeer can be to the system what Bob Gates has been to the university.” Nye said. “He is an ideal choice.”