Alexa Stoczko
Staff Writer
After 41 years of service, Chancellor Emeritus Charles B. Runnels will be assuming a less active role on campus at Pepperdine.
Beginning in January 2009, Runnels, 83, will be stepping back from full employment, according to his wife, Amy Jo. He will be spending less time in the office on campus, but will remain in his office at home, maintaining connections.
“Charlie won’t retire; it isn’t in his DNA”, said President Andrew Benton. “He will work for and on behalf of Pepperdine for many more years and we will be the beneficiaries.”
The relationships Runnels built between major donors and the University will not come to an end. He will be maintaining some relationships, but still is helping fundraisers establish connections with other members on campus.
“He helps us transition those long term relationships to include some other people, introducing others of the team with other donors,” said Claudia Arnolds who has worked with Runnels for 32 years. “We’re trying to make it as seamless as possible. We’ve been working on this transition for several years so it’s not going to be a shocking change for us.”
Runnels said he will miss being on campus every day, but will still come back to visit. He added that he loves attending the Waves athletic events and plans to continue doing so.
“I enjoy things most with the kids, to see you in action,” Runnels said. “Whether they’re on stage or on the gym floor. I’m here for the students and that’s the only reason. If we admit it, that’s the reason everybody’s here: the administration, the faculty, the janitors, the yard people — we’re all here because of the students.”
Runnels has held various titles at Pepperdine throughout the years, but he said his love for the campus and its students has never waned. Runnels’ first position at Pepperdine was overseeing a site committee that helped re-locate the campus and purchase the Malibu property in 1967 where the University moved in 1972. His original plan was to stay for only two years, but after acquiring the property he started to raise money for the construction. It wasn’t what he said he was trained to do, but he found himself enjoying it and wanting to stay.
“We just had a dream as to how the campus might look here,” Runnels said. “And, of course, since I was a kid, I’ve liked to have dreams. And, somewhere along the line, somebody told me that ‘dreams don’t have deadlines.’ I figured that we could make it happen someday, and we didn’t give up.”
Runnels worked closely with the benefactors who funded the Malibu campus construction. From 1971 to 1984, he served as vice chancellor, and on Jan. 1, 1985, he was appointed chancellor.
Runnels’ job as chancellor entails maintaining University connections, as well as establishing new ones. He also works closely with scholarship fundraising.
“After I was here for a while working, I realized that I wasn’t really working for Pepperdine, I was working for young people — that’s why we’re here,” he said.
Runnels has dedicated his life to the betterment of young people so they can get a proper education. Every summer for the past 30 years, on top of his regular chancellor duties, he has hosted a leadership program on Pepperdine’s campus for high school students entering their senior year who are at the top of their high school classes. The Youth Citizenship Seminar week draws nearly 250 students and distinguished speakers.
Junior Jennaca Rode attended the Youth Citizenship Seminar in high school and returned to the program to work as a counselor this summer. She said that the through the program, Runnels reminds young people students that they have the power to change the world.
“He lives for that kind of encouragement,” she said.
Rode, who has also come to know Runnels personally by working in the office of admission, said Runnels selflessly devotes himself to the University.
“He lives for everybody else — he lives for the students at Pepperdine,” she said.
Runnels has dedicated so much of his life to Pepperdine that he said it would be impossible for him to ever retire completely and that he always wants to stay involved on the campus he “helped build.”
“I’ve been so completely involved with Pepperdine … no activities have taken my time away from the school,” Runnels said. “I’ll still be doing something [for Pepperdine]. I would not feel right [not to.] I don’t have anything else to think about.”
09-25-2008