SUCCESS STORY | DR. JOSEPH GRUNENWALD Educator brings experience, stability to post

Once Dr. Grunenwald started at Clarion University, he never left.
By NANCILYNN GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Joining the family business is a given for some people, but others must experiment in another field before returning to the fold.
For Joseph Grunenwald, Ph.D, teaching is the unofficial business of his family. Numerous relatives are or were teachers, including his mother, siblings and in-laws. Recently, a nephew decided to become a math teacher.
Grunenwald took another route. He received his bachelor's degree from Youngstown State University with a major in engineering. But over time, he also found himself in the classroom. Grunenwald is the president of Clarion University.
The former New Bedford, Pa., resident began his education at St. Edward's School in Youngstown, where his mother was a teacher. He continued his formal instruction at Ursuline High School.
After college, he worked eight years for the Department of Transportation in Ohio.
"I worked for about a year in Youngstown. I worked on the Division Street river crossing and the Route 11 north paving job. I moved over to Summit County. I was the Summit County area construction engineer for the Department of Transportation," he said.
Important decision
During his time as a construction engineer, Grunenwald made the decision to change fields.
"Certainly engineering was a wonderful thing for me, but as I was going through it, I wanted to find a way to grow. I decided to take a look at the business administration area," he said.
"I went part time to graduate school before I came here [Clarion University] to teach. My full-time job was engineering. I was in graduate school the entire time I was an engineer," he recalled.
His MBA from Kent State University gave him the additional education to begin his university teaching career. His first teaching position was as an associate professor at Clarion University. He received his doctorate in marketing from Kent State University.
"I finished my dissertation here [Clarion University]," said Grunenwald.
At Clarion University, Grunenwald has held various positions. During his time there, he moved from the classroom as an associate professor and full professor into administration as dean of the College of Business Administration.
Though his career has taken him away from teaching, he still fondly recalls those days.
"I taught marketing. I was a professor for 10 years. There is absolutely nothing like the feeling you have when a young person has the lights go on, when a student gets through a difficult concept, achieves an accomplishment. Those things are just beyond description," he said.
Significance of move
Grunenwald viewed his relocation into a decision-making position as an opportunity to affect more than just the students that he taught. He described the responsibilities of the position in the following way.
"Academic leadership is the overarching responsibility of a dean. You are talking about program development and refinement, maintenance of high quality, achievement of accreditation standards, attracting faculty members, recruiting and retention."
As the millennium approached, he became interim provost and academic vice president. The job became his permanent position after a year as interim until he was named president.
Grunenwald is a rarity in today's employment world. He has stayed with the same institution for his entire academic career.
"I think too often these days, people skip around the country picking up opportunities here and there. I think what that contributes to is lesser quality in the organizations you're in and, more importantly, it weakens your region. The strength of your local community isn't nearly as strong.
"The commitment tied to the community where people not only have a career in their business or in their university or in their retail operation, they also give something serious back to their community. When you have people jumping around, they're less likely to do that," said Grunenwald.
Grunenwald is involved with various civic endeavors including Clarion YMCA fund drive and Sawmill Center for the Arts Board of Directors.
"This place is more about my life than it is about a career. I've built a wonderful career here and I suppose to somebody looking in from the outside, all the trappings of success are there. But more importantly, I've had a wonderful life with the people who are here. They support me. They help me carry on the work of the university," he said.
Valley values
Many of the things he has learned about being part of a community, be it the university or where he resides, were acquired while growing up in The Valley.
"I think hard work, commitment, good, strong values. I think those are the things that I learned back home that stay with me today," he said.
Grunenwald said an important concern of higher education is access for everyone who seeks it.
"We operate an activity called e-university which is a partnership with Indiana University of Pennsylvania. We're offering an associate degree by the Web all over the world. In that program, we have a skier on the United States Olympic team. We have a soldier in Iraq. It's a surreal kind of thing. That kind of stuff never happened in the '60s and '70s," he said.
Though he has been at Clarion for more than 25 years, Grunenwald still looks forward to every day there.
"When I can help to make decisions that move the university ahead in terms of quality, whether it means new programs, recruit a really special faculty member, bring a new facility online, all of those are just wonderful.
"I think the biggest joy comes from the day-to-day contact with faculty and students as faculty are helping students to sort out their lives and come to know how good they can be and come to know all the strengths that they really have that they may have not recognized until they got here."