Frank Brewer, associate vice president for Facilities Management, announced yesterday he will be retiring from his post at the end of June after more than 40 years at the university.
Brewer, who said he informed his staff of his retirement at the end of last semester, cited age as the main reason for his departure. He is 66 years old.
“I’ve been here a long time,” he said. “There’s other things [my wife and I] would like to do.”
Brewer completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at this university. Although he said it’s the right time to step down, the decision to leave wasn’t an easy one.
“This university has been very good to me,” he said. “I’ve been here 41 years and part of me will always be here.”
Before assuming his current position in 1998, Brewer rose through the ranks of Facilities Management for more than 30 years. Since his tenure as associate vice president, the department has experienced what many called tremendous success with the construction of several key buildings, such as the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the Kim Engineering Building and Knight Hall.
Jack Baker, director of operations and maintenance, said Brewer’s leadership has been invaluable to such projects and campus growth.
“He’s a tremendous individual, and it’s truly hard to describe how much he’s done for this campus,” Baker said.
Director of Capital Projects Carlo Colella said the news of Brewer’s retirement came as a surprise.
“My entire time here, he’s always been there,” Colella said. “I started thinking about it and he’s been here for over four decades, so my surprise turned to happiness for him. Now he can bookmark this part of his life and start a new chapter.”
Brewer also served as interim vice present for administrative affairs in 2007 during the search that eventually found Douglas Duncan to assume the role permanently later that year.
Brewer said his successor — who will be charged with leading a department responsible for nearly 13 million square feet of campus space with a $70 million budget and more than 800 employees — has not yet been selected. A search committee has already been assembled and is in the process of selecting a replacement, he said.
Brewer also serves as chair of the Facilities Management Master Plan Steering Committee — which is charged with updating the university’s campus construction and growth plan over the next 10 years — so an additional successor will be named to that position.
He declined to give any further information on either search.
Brewer is the most recent vacancy in a slew of administrators to step down over the last several months, including Provost Nariman Farvardin, several deans and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Osteen.
But Brewer said this unusually high number of vacancies is most likely a matter of long tenures, like his own.
“There’s a large number of folks that have been here a long time,” he said. “So I think that’s why we’re seeing this trend.”
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