Bob Rutter has served St. Norbert College in a variety of capacities and with great distinction since 1987. As a member of the education faculty, Bob is known for his teaching excellence and dedication to advising. In addition to being an excellent professor and scholar, he served as the chair of teacher education for 10 years, and under his leadership, our teacher education program flourished. As a result of his knowledge, wisdom and interpersonal skills, teacher education at St. Norbert College has become an exemplar of teacher preparation programs in the state and throughout the Midwest. Suffice it to say, Bob has been a transformational figure in our teacher education program. More recently, as associate vice president of office institutional effectiveness, his work on behalf of the institution is legendary. Bob was instrumental in obtaining the college’s first Title III grant in 2001 and thereafter became the administrator of the grant and the first director of the office of institutional effectiveness (OIE). Under Bob’s leadership and direction, the OIE guided the college’s first comprehensive program of assessment of student learning outcomes, began a series of detailed studies of factors affecting student retention, and Bob assumed coordination of TWO accreditation reviews by the Higher Learning Commission, and we all know how those turned out … in typical Rutterian-style, both reviews were highly praised by the HLC.

Biographical Note written by Joe Dyal, 2019.