History professor Hilty named acting dean of Temple Ambler

Hilty

A nationally recognized professor of history is making an important contribution to the history of Temple University Ambler.

James Hilty, a nationally known scholar of the American presidency, has been named acting dean of Temple University Ambler and the Ambler College, which includes the community and regional planning department, the landscape architecture and horticulture department and the Center for Sustainable Communities.

A national search will be conducted for a successor to Sophia Wisniewska, who resigned her post as Ambler dean in July to become chancellor of Penn State’s Delaware County Campus.

“Jim Hilty is a highly regarded scholar and teacher whose familiarity with Ambler’s offerings ensures that the suburban campus is in capable hands during this interim period,” Provost Ira Schwartz said.

Hilty has been a member of the Temple faculty since 1970. In 2001, he received the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished University Teaching.

He has been a longtime advocate for the Ambler Campus, currently serving as coordinator of the history program at Ambler while continuing to teach history courses and supervise a student internship program, helping place Temple history students with regional historical societies and organizations. The founding chair of the Ambler Collegial Assembly, he also helped to establish the Ambler Collegial Assembly Academic Achievement Awards to recognize and promote academic excellence among students on the Ambler Campus.

“I am honored to be entrusted with guiding Ambler during this transition,” Hilty said. “There are many great things happening on the Ambler Campus, and we will continue to enhance our programs while seeking a new dean.

“The campus is beginning to establish a firm identity with an emphasis on our environmental programs — landscape architecture, horticulture and community and regional planning. We want to position Ambler in the broader academic markets, particularly with those who work in and around the area and nontraditional students.”

The Ambler Campus, Hilty said, “is a major resource for Temple and the community.”

“I want Ambler to be accessible and at the same time continue to maintain the high standards of Temple. Its location — close proximity to the turnpike, Route 309, and many major business enterprises — makes the campus not only accessible but accommodating,” he said. “My goal is to make it even more accommodating for our students and for individuals who live and work in the area and are interested in personal enrichment or seeking professional advancement.”
Hilty is no stranger to leadership positions at Temple.

During his career at Temple, he has served as acting dean of the Graduate School, associate provost and director for planning, assistant to the president for planning and chair of the history department. He helped oversee the planning and launching of Temple University Hospital, the University dental clinic, and SEPTA Regional Rail line locations at the Main Campus.

While acting dean at Ambler, Hilty will help officially open the campus Intercollegiate Athletics Field House, a new athletics building for the men’s and women’s soccer, baseball and softball teams, which will include a working demonstration of green roof technology on its rooftop. He also will guide the opening of the new Ambler Learning Center, an $18 million facility currently under construction and scheduled to open in fall 2006.

Hilty has published articles on presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and his most recent book is Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector. Nationally regarded as an expert on the Kennedy administration, he also wrote “The Presidency of John F. Kennedy” for Presidential Administration Profiles. Additionally, he wrote the introduction and edited the memoirs of former Temple President Marvin Wachman, The Education of a University President (Temple University Press, 2005), and provided an article in 2004 for USA Today Magazine: “2004 An Election for the Ages?” He has consulted and appeared in several television documentaries for NBC, A&E’s “Biography,” PBS and the History Channel, and been a key resource for major breaking news stories such as the impeachment of President Clinton, the Republican National Convention, and the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.

- By James Duffy