In a move that will certainly come as a surprise to many faculty, staff, alumni and students, University President William Brody has announced that he will retire on Dec. 31.
"After a dozen years in the best job I'll ever have, it is nearly time to move to the next phase of my life. I informed the Board of Trustees today that I will retire," Brody wrote in an e-mail sent out Monday to members of the Hopkins community.
His retirement is scheduled to coincide with the conclusion of the Knowledge for the World Campaign. Brody's 12 year presidency will make him the fifth-longest serving president in the history of Hopkins.
At times the highest-paid University president in the country, and currently a member of the board of directors of IBM, Brody has not yet told the News-Letter his plans immediately following retirement. But, according to the Baltimore Sun, he "plans to live in the city and write books."
Hopkins is well-prepared for a presidential transition, Hopkins Board of Trustees Chair Pamela Flaherty said in a University press release. She also reflected positively on Brody's tenure.
"Bill Brody has been an extremely successful leader at Johns Hopkins University," Flaherty said.
Brody and Flaherty held a joint press conference at noon to discuss the retirement.
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, previously mayor of Baltimore, praised Brody's leadership in a statement issued on Brody's Hopkins Web site.
"All of us who love the city are very fortunate that at a critical time in Baltimore's comeback, a man of such vision, integrity, and courage was leading Johns Hopkins," said O'Malley.
Brody, the first president to live on campus in the Nichols House since 1971, has B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford.
Brody's purchase of a $1.5 million home in Federal Hill last year spurred rumors that he might be considering stepping down, according to the Baltimore Sun. However, University officials denied these allegations at the time, calling the acquisition an "in-town getaway."
"I simply love this job," wrote Brody. "But leaving is inevitable. And I feel, moreover, that there comes a point when leaving is most natural, least disruptive and, in a way, most constructive. I feel we are about to reach such a point."
