Robert A. Oden Jr. (pronounced "oh-DEAN") is the current president of Carleton College. He began his tenure on July 1, 2002. On September 25, 2009, Oden announced he will retire at the end of Carleton's current academic year, in June 2010.
Biography
Oden was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University. He then earned a second bachelor's degree and a master's from Cambridge University (where he was a Marshall Scholar) and a master's in theology and a Ph.D. in near Eastern languages and literatures from Harvard. He served on the faculty of Dartmouth College as a professor of religion from 1972 to 1989, where he was the first recipient of Dartmouth's Distinguished Teaching Prize.
Oden then served in administrative positions, first as headmaster of The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut from 1989 to 1995, and afterwards as president of Kenyon College from 1995 to 2002, when he accepted the presidency at Carleton College. He also currently holds a faculty appointment in the religion department at Carleton, and regularly teaches a fly-fishing course at the college. He said of his decision to come to Carleton, referring to his childhood just across the border from Minnesota: "Perhaps all Americans have come to know parts of this great country in which we feel special comfort and a sense of being at home; it is this that has meant for [me and my wife] Carleton College's special appeal."[1]
Oden is a "staunch civil libertarian".[2]
Oden is a longtime recreational runner who enjoys the trails of Northfield's Cowling Arboretum, and is also an avid fly-fisherman. He and his wife Teresa Johnston Oden reside in Nutting House. He holds regular office hours, giving students an opportunity to communicate with him directly about the College.
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