IT WAS A FITTING gesture for the University of Maryland, College Park to name its physics building for John S. Toll. He has meant so much to the campus.
But his impact over the decades has been far greater: No one has had more influence on the course of higher education in Maryland over the last half-century than Johnny Toll.
He helped transform a "cow college" famed only for its football team into a well-regarded academic university.
In 1953, he took over a moribund physics department; when he left in the mid-1960s, UM had a national reputation in physics and astronomy.
He returned to Maryland in 1978 as president (and then chancellor) of an expanding University of Maryland system, with 11 campuses in Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore, suburban Washington, downtown Baltimore and Baltimore County. In his 12 years, progress was palpable.
Even in "retirement," Mr. Toll found another way to contribute to Maryland higher education. At 77, he's in his seventh year as president of private Washington College in Chestertown.
He took over a small, liberal arts school in turmoil, with little money and not enough students. That has been reversed. Washington College - 220 years old next year - is thriving financially and academically. He's even set up two research institutions on the banks of the Chester River - one to study the Chesapeake Bay, the other to study American history.
In his stewardship of UM, Mr. Toll was a relentless empire builder and high-energy fund-raiser, a promoter of greater state aid for college education and a hands-on manager.
That became a problem when he clashed with Peter F. O'Malley, chairman of the board of regents, over the new shape of the growing university system in 1989. Campus administrators were clamoring for more autonomy, too.
Mr. Toll lost that fight, but not his devotion to higher education in Maryland. His resurrection of Washington College could only be accomplished by a master educator and communicator with limitless optimism, skill and fortitude.
