The Heart of Business

By Ted Brengle '02 MA '05

Getting up from a small, circular table in his Laws Hall office, Bill Madison walks over to his highly organized and polished desk and opens a drawer to remove a bundle of envelopes.

Sifting through postcards and letters from former students, he smiles and his posture relaxes as he sits back down. Previously, while discussing his duties at Miami since 1987, he spoke with a touch of professional distance. Now his voice softens.

"Whenever you get a little of the "why do I do this?' type of stuff, you just have to think about these kids."

This is a bittersweet time for Bill Madison '61 as he concludes an 18-year career with Miami's Richard T. Farmer School of Business. His history with Miami actually goes back to 1955, when, as a student at Cincinnati's Walnut Hills High School, he competed in joint high-school and college track meets.

"When I first saw this place, I said, "Now this is a college campus. I could grow to love this. "

And he did. After graduating with a major in mathematics and minors in history and economics, he went into the Air Force and then worked at Kroger as a corporate personnel manager. No matter where he was, he remained an active alumnus.

Pointing to Alumni Association certificates on his walls, he says, "There have always been issues around recruitment of students of color, particularly African Americans, to Miami. So every time alumni input was needed, my name got called. We were always trying to assist the University in finally breaking through the issue of attracting African-American students. I remained on as a sort of hell-raiser."

After surviving two stressful rounds of downsizing at Kroger, Madison decided not to stay for a third and took early retirement. While weighing his options, he returned to Miami to give a presentation and was stunned when John Douglas, then department chair of management, offered him a permanent position.

"I think he took a risk. Nobody knew who I was or what I could do."

Bringing humor and his corporate experience into the classroom, Madison became a popular instructor and was nominated for several teaching awards. Part of his success stemmed from taking to heart two pieces of advice.

The first came from his wife, Brenda, who emphasized he be sensitive to students. "She said, "You might be the best thing they see or that happens to them all day. " The second arrived courtesy of "an old alumni buddy" who told him, "Students don't care what you know, until they know that you care."

Embracing these sentiments, Madison soon moved to an advising capacity and then became director of student organizations and development and the business school's manager for diversity enrollment. No matter his title, the common denominator was his drive to provide students with what they needed.

"When I took Mr. Madison's class, I was coming out of a four-year enlistment in the Army," says Ray Vargas '97, now an MBA/master's of health administration candidate at Ohio State University.

"While I was highly motivated, I was also a bit rough around the edges. He helped me make the adjustment back to school. He could understand my situation as both a minority and a veteran."

Vargas, who is the MBA diversity recruitment chair at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business, points to Madison as an enduring influence.

"He had a lot of patience and let us voice our ideas, no matter how bad, without shutting us down. Of course, he would then challenge us and force us to explore our ideas, but the way he challenged us made it clear that we should continue to explore our ideas, not hide them for fear of the idea being belittled or simply being wrong."

For Madison, the job isn't just helping students hone their business skills, but also making sure they get through their college years in one piece. That explains the music that fills his office and the SpongeBob stress toys on his desk; all are part of an effort to get students to relax.

"One thing that has changed over the years and gives me pause is that fewer and fewer young people are having fun nowadays," he says. "They come in and my first objective really is to settle them down. Say, "Look around you. The founding mothers and fathers placed this facility here to develop your thinking. And no, it's not on a divided highway, and no, it's not in a metropolitan area. Thank God, it will never be. It is here for you to contemplate and view yourself and nature. That's what liberal education means. "

Now Madison's work to share this message and to make minority student recruitment a priority is being commemorated with the new William J. Madison Educational Opportunity Fund. Part of The Miami University Campaign For Love and Honor, the fund, which already has more than $350,000, will benefit minority students in the business school who require financial assistance.

"We need to do a better job of attracting students of color to Miami and to the school of business," Madison says. "We have to find ways to reach those talented kids out there that our competitors are just swooping down on."

The fund was secretly put together right under his nose. Difficult, considering he served on the pertinent committees.

"I was working with the Business Advisory Council and Diversity Initiatives Task Force, and they announced at a meeting one morning that they were suggesting the name William J. Madison III be put on [the fund]. I couldn't talk. It was very much a surprise. And it's still a great honor, very humbling.

"But you know, it's more pleasing to me because of my parents," he continues, and again his voice warms. "That their only child would have done anything to convince a few people to put that name of Madison on there ... in that way I feel so happy about it, not for me, but for Mom and Dad."


Ted Brengle '02 MA '05, a graduate assistant with Miamian, is earning a second master's, this time in theater.


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