Bill Johnson Installed as YSU’s 10th President

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – If Youngstown State University continues to cultivate a culture of servant leadership, it will achieve its vision to be an institution of opportunity, President Bill Johnson said.

Johnson, who’s been in office since January, was formally installed Thursday as the university’s 10th president in a ceremony in a full Chestnut Room at Kilcawley Center.

YSU will continue to be an institution for everyone who comes on campus “to inspire individuals, enhance futures and enrich lives,” he said. “And achieving this vision is my heart’s desire for each of you, our faculty, our staff, our leadership team and the tens of thousands of students who place their trust in us and the hundreds of thousands of alumni all over the world.”

Chuck George, vice chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees, administered the oath of office to Johnson, and he and Chairman Michael Peterson draped the presidential medallion around Johnson’s neck.

“President Johnson, the presidential medallion is a symbol of the authority and the responsibility of the president of this university …,” Peterson said. “It is with our fullest confidence that we look to you as the leader of this institution with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities pertaining there to.”

Johnson said Ohio has a long history of servant leadership. He listed Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and members of President Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet as examples.

Johnson’s family members and military members with and for whom Johnson served also attended the ceremony, with retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove delivering the keynote address. Another retired USAF service member, Brig. Gen. Rick Zehrer, who also attended, taught Johnson more about leadership than anyone he worked for.

“He was influential in my promotion to lieutenant colonel,” Johnson said. “He was instrumental in getting me my first major command opportunity.”

Zehrer also spoke at Johnson’s 1999 retirement from the Air Force, was there when Johnson’s grandson died in a fire in 2001 and when Johnson was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011.

Johnson grew emotional when he talked about his children and the sacrifices they made. The oldest three moved with him about every two years while he was in the military. During his youngest son’s childhood, Johnson was serving in Congress and wasn’t home a lot.

He said his grandfather also taught him about servant leadership. He not only worked on his family farm in North Carolina but also served as the superintendent of a small church.

True leaders understand that the most important thing they can do with their lives is invest in the lives of others, the YSU president said.

“It wasn’t what he said. It was what he did,” he said.

From the leaders in his life, Johnson said he learned what it is to be in the people business.

“I believe here at Youngstown State University, well, we’re in the people business,” he said. “And to succeed in the people business, there must be strong leadership. Leaders, I believe, with servants’ hearts.”

Johnson said he believes YSU understands that kind of leadership too.

“You see, our region, Youngstown, and specifically, Youngstown State University are known for that same spirit of servant leadership,” he said. 

He pointed to when the steel mills closed in the 1970s “and it was YSU that stood in the gap.” People turned to the university to learn to make a living and provide for their families in industries other than steel, Johnson said. 

“From 1975 to 1990, the enrollment at YSU dropped below 15,000 only three times,” he said. “And today, on the side of our shopping mall in Boardman Township, you find this phrase, ‘You can’t break a city built from steel.’ My friends, in Youngstown, we bend, but we don’t break. We’re adaptable. We’re resilient. We’re persistent and we deliver.”

Pictured at top: YSU President Bill Johnson poses for a photo Thursday in Kilcawley Center after his installation ceremony.

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