Dr. William R. Brody, who in 11 years as president of the Johns Hopkins University tripled the school's endowment and expanded its global reach, will step down at year's end, he told the board of trustees yesterday.
Brody, the university's leader since 1996, will move from his campus home to a Federal Hill rowhouse, retiring in a city whose landscape Hopkins has helped to shape under his leadership, including a revitalized Charles Village and the $800 million redevelopment that is transforming a large swath of East Baltimore.
A prolific fundraiser, an engineer, a radiologist, recreational aircraft pilot, classical pianist, lecturer and businessman, Brody seems to be expert in many of the myriad disciplines for which Hopkins is known.
After 11 busy years managing the city's biggest private employer and the state's most prestigious university, Brody, 64, said he wants the freedom to let his attention wander for a change.
"This is by far the best job in America as far as I'm concerned, and certainly the most interesting and rewarding thing I've ever done," he said. "I liken myself to a bee going from flower to flower. Except if I land on one that has particularly good nectar, I can't stay and focus on a deep dive."
He said he has no immediate plans, other than to write a book or two and brush up on his piano playing.
Brody is timing his retirement to coincide with the end of an eight-year, $3.2 billion capital campaign. Hopkins' endowment has grown from nearly $983 million when Brody became president to about $2.8 billion at the end of the 2007 fiscal year, officials said.
Hopkins' buildings and schools are dotted with names of multimillion-dollar donors he has courted: the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Raising billions of dollars - increasingly a chief occupation of American college presidents - is taxing, Brody said.
`Timing is right'
"It seemed like I was not going to have the energy to do another campaign," Brody said. "The timing is right. ... The university is firing on all cylinders, so I think it's a good time to leave."
The retirement will present a rarity, an open seat at the highest echelons of the nation's academic leadership.
Pamela P. Flaherty, chairwoman of Hopkins' board of trustees, said a national search for Brody's replacement will begin soon. University officials want to select a new president by the time Brody steps down Dec. 31.
