Meet David Maxwell, the new chair of the Board of Trustees

By Seth Taylor taylorse@grinnell.edu

This May, David Maxwell ’66 was elected by the Grinnell Board of Trustees to be their new Board Chair.

Maxwell replaces Patricia Finkelman ’80, who will continue to serve as a trustee. Board Chairs are elected for two years and cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.

“I have such a profound sense of gratitude and happy obligation to the College,” Maxwell said in an interview with The S&B. “This is a way that I can in some small way begin to repay that obligation, to help the college keep it’s promise to you, to the students. I’m tremendously grateful for that opportunity and very honored to be in it.”

From the beginning, Maxwell’s life was far from average. His father, distinguished jazz musician Jimmy Maxwell, played trumpet for Benny Goodman’s band.

Jimmy Maxwell gave his son an unusual access to the world, and before Maxwell arrived at Grinnell he had already lived and worked in Switzerland, England, and Russia. It was his time in Russia that convinced him he should pursue a degree in Russian area studies.

At Grinnell, Maxwell participated in intramural sports and the international relations club, played “mediocre guitar” in a rock band, spent time in the forum – then a student center – listening to music and drinking coffee and, of course, he took time off to “relax” on the weekends.

But he spent the majority of his time studying – suffering from what he identified as imposter syndrome. “I was very worried that I was in over my head and that the College was going to discover that they shouldn’t have admitted me,” he said.

In this way, Maxwell discovered a new passion: Russian literature – specifically the work of Anton Chekhov.

Today, Maxwell’s passion for the subject is obvious. He speaks reverently of Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, quoting their work with ease. “I think what drew me in most of all was the power of the questions that they are asking. … They wrote these gigantic novels that addressed these cosmic questions,” Maxwell said.

At the time, Maxwell’s passion was much less clear. But when a Grinnell professor, Richard “Dick” Sheldon, observed that Maxwell referred to work for his Russian classes as “reading” and work for other classes as “homework,” Maxwell knew where his interests lay. With Sheldon’s guidance, Maxwell applied to graduate school.

He was accepted, and at Brown University he developed a close relationship with Thomas Winner, a leading authority on the work of Chekov. Maxwell received his masters and doctorate degrees in Slavic languages and literatures from Brown.

The influence of these Russian authors in Maxwell’s life is not confined to academia; it extends to his approach to leadership and even his personal life. “I think that [Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky] have had a tremendous impact on the ways in which I explore the questions of, ‘Why I am here?’ and ‘What is my purpose?’” he said. “Those three in particular are in some ways … my holy trinity.”

Then he quickly added, “I hope that doesn’t offend anyone.”

After graduating from Brown, Maxwell’s career took some unexpected turns.

He first taught Russian language and literature at Tufts University. In 1981, however, he became Tufts’ Dean of Undergraduate Studies. In this position, he found “the satisfaction of working with faculty and staff and students and my administrative colleagues to continually improve the experience of the students.”

He has since served as the President of Whitman College, the director of the National Foreign Language Center in Washington DC, and most recently as the president of Drake University—a position he singled out as being especially rewarding. He retired in 2015, and in 2016 he joined the Grinnell Board of Trustees.

He has also served—and continues to serve—in various national education organizations, including as a Senior Fellow of the Association of Governing Boards and as the chair of the Board of Directors of the Council on Higher Education Accreditation, among others. In Iowa, he has been inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame, named the “Person of the Year” by the Chinese Association of Iowa, and received multiple awards for his volunteerism and leadership.

Still, even in the midst of all these accolades, when asked what he is most proud of, Maxwell hesitated. “I’m hesitating a little bit,” he said, “because, I mean, my first reaction is that I don’t like to be proud of myself.”

“I would characterize myself as very spiritual and morally grounded. I do have this sense of purpose – that there’s got to be a good reason that I’m here. And for me that reason isn’t about me.”

In a follow-up email, he described the most “rewarding” experience of his professional life as having “the opportunity to play the same role in the lives of hundreds of students as a teacher, advisor, and mentor” that others have played in his own life.

Throughout the interview, Maxwell emphasized the importance of these mentors in shaping his life. In an essay written for his 50th class reunion at Grinnell, he wrote that “virtually everything that ‘I’ did was really the consequence of the generosity, commitment, and friendship of others – my Grinnell experience is really about them, not me.”

His success, Maxwell told The S&B, comes down to “mentors and role models, from Beth Nobel [a Grinnell professor] telling me to get a haircut to Dick Sheldon and Thom Winner helping me figure out what my path was.”

Looking ahead, Maxwell declined to discuss what priorities the Board may address this year until they meet in October to officially set their agenda. However, he said hopes to ensure the Board focuses on issues “for which the resolution will have an immediate impact on the future of the College” and does a good job “hearing the voices on campus and off campus.”

“I don’t think that I always know the answer to the questions,” Maxwell said. “I think it’s my job to make sure we’re asking the questions properly and to collectively figure out what the right answer is.”

Maxwell, who has two sons, now lives in North Carolina with his wife, Madeline and their dogs, Moose and Tug.

David Maxwell has served in various positions in his life, including as professor of Russian literature and as the president of Drake University.