G.P. ‘Bud’ Peterson speaks about his family and background

Last week, The Whistle asked incoming President Dr. G.P. “Bud” Peterson some questions about his thoughts and expectations for Georgia Tech and its students, faculty and staff. This week, we take a more personal tone with Tech’s 11th president.

You taught high school math and science early in your career. How did this ultimately lead you to a career in higher education?

	Incoming President G.P. ‘Bud’ Peterson and Val Peterson met with students, faculty and staff during their campus visit.

Val and I got married in college, we graduated and then moved to Kansas City, where I went to work for Black and Veatch Consulting Engineers working on the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system project and Val worked as a swimming and diving instructor.

Shortly after I started, President Nixon went to Russia and canceled the project I was working on. That left a group of engineers sitting around with security clearances for a project that had been terminated. I had a brief assignment, where I helped to develop a “new employee training program,” which not many companies had in the ’70s. I helped develop a six-week training program to teach engineers the “Black and Veatch method of engineering.” I really enjoyed it—it was like teaching at a university. New employees would come to classes a half-a-day, a couple of days a week for six weeks, which was kind of a new concept then.

I really enjoyed the teaching aspect and as a result, decided to go back and work on a Ph.D. so I could teach. Val and I both quit our jobs and moved back to Manhattan, Kansas, to go to graduate school. Much to our surprise, soon after we moved, we found out that Val was pregnant with our oldest son. Because we had changed jobs and insurance carriers, we had no insurance to cover the pregnancy, and at that time pregnancy was considered a “pre-existing condition.”

There was a small high school nearby that needed somebody to teach math and science, so I became the math and science department, while I worked on my master’s degree part time. I also coached football, basketball and track—and I was the co-sponsor of the yearbook. Val stayed home with our son and taught aerobic dancing, delivered eggs from our chickens and worked part time at as a substitute teacher. While I really enjoyed my time teaching high school, I moved to a two-year engineering technology school in Salina, Kansas, and worked there until I finished my MS in engineering.

Once I finished my master’s, I had a chance to go to Texas A&M—I was able to get a faculty appointment in the Engineering Technology Department even though I didn’t have a Ph.D. since I had some industrial experience. When I started my Ph.D., I was 29 and Val and I had three kids with a fourth on the way, so I really needed a full-time position to support them.

How do you characterize your leadership style?

I think engineers have a certain way of approaching issues. You gather information, you assess and analyze the situation, and then you try and identify the best path forward. At the same time, I try very hard to build a consensus. That’s the way I approach these jobs, and while I think it’s important to build a consensus, I also think that ultimately you have to make some decisions.

In the early ’80s, I heard Arthur Hansen, who was then chancellor of the Texas A&M System (and had been a former dean of engineering and also Tech’s seventh president, from 1969–71) say something to the effect that “far too often leaders get hung up trying to guarantee that they’re making the right decision. They try to use some statistical method to gather all available information, or they try to put it through a series of committees.”

While it’s important to build support, at some point you have to decide. I’ve seen situations where no decision was a far worse course of action than any of the other options on the table.

I also try to lead by example. I think people observe individuals in positions of authority to see how they respond to various situations, in particular, how they behave in difficult situations. Those responses and the way they respond to those situations can be contagious, both good and bad.

Finally, I try to manage “by walking around.” I have often thought that to be successful in these types of jobs, you really need to do three things. First, you have to learn as much as possible about every aspect of the institution. It will help you identify issues before they become issues and will help you identify potential problems. It also will help you identify solutions. Being out and in touch with the campus can be very helpful in this regard.

The second thing you have to do is to hire the very best people you can and give them the freedom to do their jobs. These have to be people who will tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. If you think about people who have been successful leaders, they invariably surround themselves with incredibly intelligent people who work with them toward common goals.

And third, you have to be a little lucky.

What are you doing now to learn about Georgia Tech?

During the interview process, I spent an enormous amount of time on the Web, reading as much as I could about Georgia Tech. As soon as the decision was made to accept the position, Val and I subscribed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and it’s delivered here to our home in Boulder every day.

Since the appointment became official, I have been able to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to people as much as I can and to listen. When we were there on the Wednesday of the formal announcement, it was non-stop, from the night before the announcement was made to late the following night. Now, until Val and I actually get there, I am trying to read as much as I can and talk to as many people as I can.

It’s a bit of a challenge because I still have a full-time job here at CU and there are still many things I want to do here and a number of things I need to wrap up before I leave. I want to make sure everything is finished to the greatest extent possible, from [my role in] some fundraising projects to ensuring that the strategic plan we developed here is on track and being implemented.

It sometimes feels like I’m living in two parallel universes.

Considering your penchant for reading, are there any historical figures with whom you feel you identify?

That is a hard question to answer. There are many I admire and respect and some I would want to emulate, but no one individual stands out necessarily above all the rest with whom I “identify.” I like to read history and historical biographies. At one point, I thought I might like to read a biography about each of the U.S. presidents, but I haven’t really made much progress on that. Someday, perhaps, I’ll be able to get focused back on that goal.

Are there any specifically that impress you?

	Members of the Tech community introduce themselves to Val and G.P. "Bud" Peterson during a reception after it was announced he would be the Institute's next president.

Oh, there’s a tremendous number that impress me. I like to study different leaders, to learn about their styles and the way they approach challenges.

I’m a huge admirer of John F. Kennedy. He was thrust into very difficult situations—the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and other things, like the Apollo program. The way he responded and the way he was able to galvanize people to support his vision—I admire that.

I don’t know that I would necessarily single him out, though, and say ‘I want to be like John Kennedy.’ I can’t help but be reminded of the 1988 vice presidential debate when one candidate said to the other “You’re no John Kennedy.”

As for now, I am very interested and impressed with this fellow, George P. Burdell!

Any accomplishments—personal or professional—of which you’re particularly proud that are not in your official bio?

I’m super proud of my family and each and every one of our children. Actually they are not children anymore, but rather young, successful and remarkably well-adjusted adults. And I am especially proud of my wife. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her support, guidance and inspiration and without the support of my family.

In May, you and Val will have been married for 35 years. How do you and she complement one another personally and professionally?

We got married in college, before our senior year. Prior to that I lived in the athletic dorm—bed check, meals in the dorm and all that. When Val and I got married, we moved out into our first apartment. It was my first time living on my own, so to speak, but it was really living with Val. So we have been together for a long time and really we grew up together. Amazing, at 21 you think you are grown up, but there is so much to learn about life and about each other.

In many ways, we’re very different. I’m an engineer, very structured, process oriented and analytical. She describes herself as a “liberal artist.” She’s very engaged and very social. Our children joke with her and say she could “talk to rocks.”

She’ll strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. In addition, she’s a linguist, with a master’s degree in Spanish. She loves languages, almost as much as she loves people.
She has read every paper—conference paper, journal article, book or chapter that I have ever written. She proofreads them and marks them up. Today, if I write a column or an op-ed, I will ask her to look it over. So in many ways, we’re very different, but fundamentally, in what we value, what we believe and how we feel about the world and what is important to us, we are very much alike.

Having been married for 35 years, we understand a lot about each other and how we think. We may not always agree on issues. In fact, politically, we have pretty different views, but we don’t argue about them, either.

She’s a great extra set of eyes and ears. Val’s been very engaged at [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] and here at CU, and I’m sure she will be very engaged at Tech. We have a very busy schedule, and while she works incredibly hard—she kind of makes me feel like a slouch, she helps me keep the balance.

I was very lucky that I went bowling one night in 1971!