Jan. 9, 2002

By Teresa Myers
Special to the Denver Post

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - For a man who grew up poor and black in the heart of the South, becoming "the Citizen of the West" can seem like pretty big boots - make that cowboy boots - to fill.

"It took a while for it to sink in," said Colorado State University President Al Yates, the 24th recipient of the prestigious Citizen of the West award, bestowed annually by the National Western Stock Show. "When they first told me, the only thing I could say was, "Wow." The second thing out of my mouth was, "Why me?"

"I was with him the night after the delegation met with him," confirmed his friend Stan Schmidt, who works as vice president of advancement for CSU. "He was totally overwhelmed by the honor. He was very humbled by it."

Each year, representatives from the Stock Show give their highest honor to a person or people who "best exemplify the spirit and determination of the Western pioneer."

Past honorees include Vice President Dick Cheney, Supreme Court Justice Byron White and cattle mogul Ken Monfort. Yates will receive his award at a dinner Jan. 16 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown Denver.

The "why me" question Yates posed isn't difficult to answer, say his peers and family. Yates, the 12th president of CSU, is a man of high integrity and ideals who works hard to achieve admirable goals, who values people, family and life, and who is concerned with doing the right thing. He has led Colorado's secondlargest university to a period of high achievement, recognition and prosperity, all while garnering the respect of politicians and academics alike.

It was those qualities that made Yates a perfect fit for the award, said Dan Ritchie, chancellor of the University of Denver and co-chairman of the Steering Committee that selected Yates as this year's honoree.

"CSU is the most important institution for agriculture in this part of the world," Ritchie said. "Under his leadership, they have made enormous improvements. He's had the patience and vision to do that."

Yates is the first African-American to be named Citizen of the West. While he doesn't want to diminish the significance of that, Yates said he believes the award is above color.

"If there is a symbol to be taken from this, let us always take time to look at people as people," said Yates after taking pondering the question silently for a minute. "It's who we are as individuals. There are good people no matter where he or she comes from."

The early years

Albert Yates, 59, was born in Memphis, Tenn., the third child of cafe owners John and Sadie Yates. Neither parent had a high school diploma, but both pushed their seven children to achieve, both academically and financially.

Yates said he wasn't a particularly good student as a youth. After an uninspired high school career, Yates enlisted in the Navy, where he served on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. After two years of service, Yates returned to Memphis and attended Memphis State University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1965 with degrees in chemistry and mathematics. He went on to earn his doctorate degree in theoretical chemical physics from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1968.

He laughs as he recalls working on his dissertation, trying to prove the theories of quantum mechanics. Yates said he labored day and night on huge mainframe computers, working equations on what now are considered slow, cumbersome beasts.

Today, he said, his 13-year-old daughter knows more about computers than he does.

"My computer knowledge is very much lacking," he said, chuckling.

Yates taught at Indiana University and the University of Cincinnati before accepting the provost position at Washington State University, a land-grant institution with a mission similar to that of CSU.

That's when Yates began cultivating his love affair with the West. The vast openness first made an impression, Yates said.

"Growing up as a kid, growing up in a city, the biggest impression I got from living in western Washington was the sky," Yates said, in his soft-spoken, thoughtful manner. "If you grow up in a city, the sky isn't really prominent at all." Soon Yates began to embrace the people, too.

"Being Western is about what's in your heart," Yates said. "It's about the values you embrace. It's about the importance of family and friends. There is a tendency in the West simply to look beyond the exterior of people, to probe and look inside."

Pat Grant, executive director of the National Western Stock Show, said Yates now exemplifies the West.

"He understands and fully supports the role of agriculture, that it is critical to the future of our state," Grant said. "He reflects the best of Western values. He stands a mile high."

While at WSU, Yates met his friend Schmidt, who was working as the vice president of university relations and development.

"The two of us were both young guys, and we were kind of the senior management of the university," Schmidt said. "It was fun. We had both come to WSU to make a difference. He was an easy guy to form a partnership with."

Through Schmidt, Yates met his second wife, Ann, who worked for his friend in database management. Although they were from vastly different backgrounds, Ann recalls the couple had much in common.

"Both Al and I come from big families," said Ann, who is one of 10 children. "There are a lot of commonalities."

After nine years as provost of Washington State, Yates was hired to take over the helm of CSU. The university President Yates came to in 1990 had endured a decade of instability and uncertainty. CSU had seen six presidents in 10 years, and it seemed the only way the university made headlines was when its students rioted during the annual College Daze celebration or when its football team had another failed season.

It was the kind of environment Yates thrives in, he said.

"I find it extraordinarily more exciting and invigorating to build a great university, instead of just presiding over one," he said. "If you look at CSU, we have a history of turning adversity into advantage."

"His style is not just maintaining the status quo," Ann added. "If he isn't doing a significant new initiative and making sure it gets done right, he's not happy."

One of his first major decisions was firing football coach Earl Bruce in 1992. He hired current coach Sonny Lubick, who is credited with turning the football program around.

"It gave us the opportunity to talk about what a university stands for, and what is the relationship between athletics and academics," Yates said. "There is a challenge to win by doing it the right way. You have to believe we've gotten some parts of that right."

Yates said he also committed to improving the agricultural mission of the university while elevating CSU to a true research facility. He sought to modernize the College of Agriculture, drawing more students of color. He pushed programs that emphasized sustainable agriculture and agriculture business, while continuing the cooperative extension and other outreach programs mandated by a land-grant institution.

"We are today absolutely committed to agriculture," Yates said. "Yet, agriculture doesn't define us anymore."

Yates saw an opportunity to create outstanding national programs at CSU, while bringing in more research dollars. During his 12-year tenure, CSU's budget has increased 70 percent to $547 million, while fund-raising has nearly tripled to an annual $30 million. Forty percent of CSU's academic programs are not offered anywhere else in the state, he said.

"We've gotten to a place where we are pretty pleased with the overall quality of the institution," Yates said. "But we want to do more. We want to get to that next plateau. We know there are only a select few programs that will achieve excellence. We need to be very judicious and very thoughtful about where we make our institutional priorities."

In 1997, Yates faced perhaps his greatest challenge as leader of CSU. In June, a flood in nearby Spring Creek covered much of the campus with muddy water and silt. The historic Oval, with its centurian elm trees and turn-of-the-century buildings, was under water. Nearly 500,000 books were submerged in the library's basement. Floodwaters cascaded through the basement of the Student Center, carrying thousands of new books and sundry items from the CSU bookstore. Dozens of other buildings were damaged.

Yates said he didn't have the luxury to despair. He told staff and faculty in a hastily written speech that the university would open as planned in late August.

"I told them, if at the end of the day, when all this was done, if this institution is not better, then we will have to consider ourselves not being able to take advantage of the opportunity," Yates said.

Yates went to the legislature and secured funds, not only to repair the damage, but to improve several buildings slated for remodeling. Flood-control measures were taken, and Yates met his deadline to start the semester on time.

The man

While Yates revels in the achievements of CSU under his direction, he said his family and the people around him give him the greatest satisfaction.

He has a son, 38, and a daughter, 33, from a previous marriage. He and Ann have two daughters, Aerin, 13, and Sadie, 6.

"They are great kids," he said, giving a sideways smile. "They have a way of teaching you what life is all about."

Yates points to a picture that hangs above his desk. It's his older daughter holding a tiny infant, who has an oxygen tube protruding from her nose. Sadie, the infant in the picture, was born prematurely at 26 weeks gestation, nearly four months short of her expected delivery. At a little over 2 pounds, her life hung in the balance, Yates recalls.

"It was probably, emotionally, the toughest time of my life," he said. "We were afraid to answer the phone late at night, afraid it was bad news."

After 12 weeks in the intensive neonatal unit at St. Luke-Presbyterian Hospital in Denver, Sadie was sent home. Except for a few scars where she was repeatedly poked with needles and underwent surgery, she has few remnants of the ordeal, Yates said.

Ann Yates, who also works as the director of the Office of Advancement for CSU, admits it's sometimes difficult to balance the never-ending demands of her husband's job with the needs of the family. But, she said, they all understand the good in what he does.

"Frankly, we have less of him than we'd like," Ann Yates said. "There's always something urgent. There's always something long-term. But, what he's doing is important. When we chose to be public servants, that's the price we pay."

Yates, who is looking toward the end of his career, said he still has lofty goals for CSU.

"Something pretty extraordinary and unexpected would have to happen to get me to leave," Yates said. "We still have a good bit we want to do. We just want to be the best at everything."