"To all of you, and to the Board that hired me, I offer my fond thanks," said Gerety at the meeting in Johnson Chapel.
Gerety said that the departure was well-timed since his major projects have been completed or are wrapping up. Included in those accomplishments are "the comprehensive campaign, the strengthening of fiscal and fundraising disciplines, the reorganizing of orientation and our residential arrangements, the renewal of our academic and athletic facilities, the reforms at NESCAC and in our own admissions, the improvements to our support of research and teaching," said Gerety. "Others, like the architectural and academic planning now underway, should be completed within the next year."
"I certainly felt welcome to stay 10, 12 years," said Gerety in an interview with The Student. "I am a little ready to go, a little restless. I just felt this is a good time to look."
"It's not a good job that you can hold with a life tenure," Gerety added. "It's not that kind of job."
When he first arrived on campus in 1994, "Amherst was the flagship of the liberal arts colleges," said Gerety at the meeting. "I believe that more now then I did eight or nine years ago."
"I'll finish up with tremendous pride," he added. "I am proud to have been president of Amherst College and I always will be."
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Amos B. Hostetter, Jr. '58 also spoke at the meeting.
"Transitions like this are bittersweet moments for all of us," Hostetter said. "Bitter because Tom's departure is the departure of a beloved colleague. He will be missed as our president for almost a decade and as a friend. Sweet, however, because Tom is making a positive decision to undertake another career. While there are no specifics yet, I am confident he will reincarnate probably in refugee or environmental work. He feels there is more to be done out there, and we take pride in his commitment to further public service."
"We're at a place where civility has re-emerged in our dialogue," said Hostetter. "This institution is in good shape."
Gerety also said that any new job for him would not be in the world of academia. "I'd like this to be my last academic job," he said, adding that he would like his next one to be "something more involved with the world of practice."
But Gerety added, "I don't have anything at hand."
When Gerety arrived in 1994 to serve as Peter Pouncey's successor and as 17th president of the College, it was not without controversy. Having served five years as the president of Trinity College, many at Trinity were angered by an early departure. According to Gerety, a preferred tenure for a president is roughly 10 years.
"Trinity was much more self-conscious about the relationship they had with Amherst and Williams [Colleges]," said Gerety, who added that the move was a "shock to their pride."
"I thought [Trinity and Amherst] were in a different category and Amherst was a leader of these schools," said Gerety of his reason for accepting the College's offer. "If Trinity sometimes needs to have its confidence bolstered, Amherst sometimes needs to have its confidence punctured."
According to Gerety, "the first couple years [as president] went very well and easily."
However, controversy arose when Associate Dean of Admission Michael Whittingham was first passed over for the position of senior associate dean of admission and then removed from his post, a dismissal which was approved by Gerety. Whittingham filed a lawsuit alleging race discrimination in November of 1994; however, documents submitted to the court by the College said that Whittingham "was someone who others in the office found uncooperative, untrustworthy and continually difficult to deal with." The courts eventually found in favor of the College.
A couple of years of battles followed the Whittingham case, according to Gerety. In November of 1997, Gerety began the process of ending rent-subsidized faculty housing. There was "tremendous protest" from a significant number of faculty members, according to Gerety.
"I feel strongly it was an important step for us as an institution," said Gerety. "The most vocal part of the faculty was opposed to it."
As the housing debate continued, another controversy arose when Gerety decided to implement a "common first day," where all freshmen would undergo orientation at the same time. Up until this point, different orientations were held for different student groups. Originally the split orientation program was used to orient each diversity group to the College separately. Eventually, athletic teams and other student groups were arriving early for orientation as well; according to Gerety, two-thirds of the freshman class was undergoing orientation early.
"This was an administrative question," said Gerety, who added that former President Bill Ward had attempted to abolish "common first day" in his last year in office.
In October of 1997, Gerety was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has been in remission since his surgery in November of that year and dispelled any concern that the resignation was health-related at the meeting. "I'm in good health, I feel energetic again," he said.
"Everybody assumes they're immortal," said Gerety. "I thought, 'Gee, I'm going to die any moment now.'"
Gerety took a one year sabbatical while undergoing treatment and Dean of the Faculty Lisa Raskin stepped in as acting president.
While on sabbatical, Gerety learned that his older brother, Pierce, had died in the Swissair flight 111 crash off the coast of Nova Scotia on September 2, 1998. Pierce Gerety was the Great Lakes Regional Humanitarian Coordinator within the Department of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations.
After two rough years, Gerety said that his last few years in office went smoothly. During those years, he shepherded through many of the projects that he lists as his accomplishments while in office. Gerety worked to increase the size of the endowment, which was at $327 million when he stepped into the post in 1994, to $890.5 million, where it was last recorded in 2001. He also has overseen the forthcoming renovations to the freshman quad, beginning this summer with the installation of modular housing and utilities work on the freshman quad.
However, one criticism leveled against Gerety by students is that his primary place of residence is in Hartford, Conn.
Gerety said that he did not believe it was appropriate that he force his wife, Adelia Moore, to follow him to the five-college area.
"Adelia's based in Hartford," said Gerety. "She wanted her own career to continue. I love her and I love her independence."
"I sleep [in Amherst] more than people realize," added Gerety, noting that many faculty have a similar living situation. "I've tried to be present at a lot of things."
Gerety is not precisely sure of what the future holds but said that he would like to do refugee or relief work internationally or work on issues of inequality and poverty domestically.
"I've always had a passionate interest … in inequality and poverty," said Gerety.
Gerety added that there is a side to him with which many at the College are not familiar.
"I love the outdoors," he said. "I canoe and kayak all the time."
"The strongest principle that Amherst teaches is that it's always okay to ask questions and it's always okay to have arguments," said Gerety of the single principle that most guided his tenure at the College. "Amherst in its argumentativeness, in its ferocity, represents that really well. Amherst is an endlessly questioning place. It has tremendous integrity."
"I'll miss a lot of things about this place," added Gerety. "It's a big, huge theater of people."