February 19, 2002

ISU alumnus, Sears executive
returns to alma mater for Founder's Day

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Ron Culp has been out of college for more than 30 years and has climbed some of the highest rungs in the corporate ladder.

Still, the Sears, Roebuck & Co. executive says he reflects often on his Indiana State University education.

“I think about it every day,” Culp said during a Founder’s Day visit Jan. 29. “There’s something that happened here that directly relates to everything I do.”

Culp is executive vice-president for public relations and government affairs for Sears, the nation’s fourth-largest retailer. He previously served in public relations for Pitney-Bowes and Sara Lee Corp. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and for political leaders in Indiana and New York.

Culp came to ISU in the fall of 1965, shortly after what had been known as Indiana State College was designated a university.

“We really thought we’d hit the big time,” said Culp, a native of Remington, a northwestern Indiana town of 1,105.

Attending ISU enables students from small town middle America to “get into a bigger pond,” he said. “You’re able to do a lot more here than I think I would have been able to do at other schools. You can quickly become a big fish and the young people who don’t are missing a major opportunity.”

During five years at ISU, Culp was president of Cromwell Hall. He also served as president of the Young Republicans at the same time he was editor of the Indiana Statesman; a combination of jobs he acknowledges was somewhat controversial.

“The access to being involved in things on campus was phenomenal,” he said. “I was perhaps at times a little too involved. It was so easy and exciting.”

Culp gave journalism and public relations students the same advice he gives journalism classes at Northwestern University. He speaks about twice a year at the suburban Chicago school, not far from Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

“In the end you have to enjoy what you do,” he said. “Too many young people graduating today … feel that they’ve got to go this way or that way because this is what the literature says I’ve got to do in order to make money in the future.”

“You’ve got to really be excited and committed to what you’re all about or it’s just not going to work. Enjoy what you do. Build your resumé … That’s what's great about Indiana State — you can do things on this campus you can’t do other places.”

Thousands of alumni share Culp’s heritage, ISU President Lloyd W. Benjamin III noted during the Founder’s Day program.

“There are legions out there of people who call Indiana State their alma mater, their home, the entity that changed their lives, that opened the door to opportunity and success,” Benjamin said.

“I have never witnessed an institution that evokes the kind of pride in people that belonging to Indiana State and being a Sycamore does. We’ve carried out our responsibilities with an unswerving commitment to the fundamental academic values inherent in our mission.”

Founders would be proud of the University’s continued commitment to teaching and learning, said trustee Charlotte Zietlow.

“We as trustees feel this is the heritage that we have to pursue,” she said. “This is a particularly important day because we’re all thinking historically and about our roots these days, given the events of the nation.”

During the most recent presidential search, a faculty member spoke of ISU as being “ ‘an institution which particularly exhibited a value added to the world and to the community and to the students,’ ” Zietlow said.

“That really stuck with me,” she said. “It’s something I see all the time. The commitment of the faculty, the students, the administration, the community — all of us — to this institution really adds value to the lives of people who come from small towns and large towns around here, many of whom come from families which have no tradition of college graduates.

“It is a particularly wonderful thing to work with students and bring them from one place to another, open up the world for them. This is a particularly important time in history to do that because we do need the knowledge of the world. We do need the ability to think critically and to understand. We do need the opportunities to meet new ideas, both from this country and internationally, and Indiana State University does that in a particularly wonderful and personal way.”  

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Writer:
Dave Taylor, assistant director, public affairs
(812) 237-3743 or devtaylo@isugw.indstate.edu

ISU Public Affairs:
(812) 237-3773 or http://isunews.indstate.edu