FARMINGTON – Though she’s nearing the typical retirement age, Theodora “Theo” Kalikow, president of University of Maine at Farmington, said she has no plans to do so.
“They’ll have to take me out of here with a tag on my toe,” she said with a grin last week.
“If I retire, I’d just be another little old crazy lady,” she added.
The 64-year-old from Swampscot, Mass., studied chemistry and philosophy at Wellesley College before earning a doctorate in history and philosophy of science from Boston University.
In 1962, she found herself working as a lab technician at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York but found the classroom environment there “too hierarchical.” Of about 100 students in a class, only two of them were women, she said.
So, she moved on. She received a master’s in philosophy of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later her doctorate.
Specifically, Kalikow studied Latin paleography – the study of reading ancient Latin texts, she explained. So she was particularly enthralled when a recent exhibition of ancient texts were displayed at the college’s Mantor Library.
“I looked at all those books and all these neurons started firing that hadn’t since 1963,” she said.
Kalikow also dabbled in theater while in school but quickly decided, though she enjoyed the technical side of it, that it wasn’t for her.
“I don’t like staying up late,” she said.
She likes her job, she said, because “I like being the one in charge. I get to make positive change.”
Having served in the leadership role here for 12 years, she’s seen a lot of change at the university and in the community.
“We have become more like what our mission aspires us to be, more well-known and more connected to the community,” she said.
Former President Michael Orenduff made decisions that are responsible for the college’s success today, she said. Focusing on four-year liberal arts degrees and instituting an enrollment cap, the school hasn’t tried to do everything, she added.
She said Farmington is a “fabulous” town and though there have been some changes over the years, “its basic character hasn’t changed,” she said. “It’s still a close-knit community as cute as a button.”
Having gone from the Boston area to New York, back to Cambridge, and then to Greeley, Colo., and Plymouth, N.H., by the time she moved to Farmington, she was ready to settle.
“By the time I got here, this was heaven,” she said.
Kalikow, known on campus for her openness, dons sneakers and baseball cap each fall and helps freshmen move into their dorms. She also suggests, in her message on the college’s Web site, that students invite her to lunch.
A triathlete who also enjoys rowing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, gardening and reading, she has a Zen-like attitude to her role as president.
“My approach to presidenting is this: Some things you make happen – some things you let happen. The trick is knowing which one to do when,” she wrote in her Web page message.
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