Indiana University Foundation

How can I convey to you what the past 20 years have meant to me? It is not merely the professional satisfaction of having spent my life in a career that I love, nor even of finishing that career as president of one of the strongest university foundations in the country. No, it is much more than that. It is the inexpressible delight of having been able to return to the University I love, the place that took me in, molded me, and gave me my start, to exert my energies in its service and begin in some small way to repay the enormous debt I owe.

Some days I simply cannot believe my good fortune.

It goes without saying—but I will say it anyway, because such things all too often do go unsaid—that an enormous part of my enjoyment, and of whatever success I may have had, is due to your encouragement, kindness, and support. I stand in awe of Indiana University’s donors: your generosity of time, of resources, of energy. Every challenge we have ever set before you, you have accepted and conquered. Your spirit has made my job an easy one.

I will be stepping aside in a few months, but one of the remarkable truths of an institution like IU is that there is always someone willing to step up and take the baton, to continue moving us forward. That fact has been true for 188 years, and I do not doubt that it will remain so. The University is in good hands. Indeed, I am convinced that IU today is entering an era of even greater progress. It does so from a position of real strength, with one of the strongest endowments of any public university in the country.

And that is entirely your doing, not mine.

Curtis R. Simic