Carl W. McIntosh

Carl Weston McIntosh, Jr. (December 1, 1914 – January 19, 2009) was an American professor of forensics and acting. He served as president of Idaho State College (now Idaho State University) from 1947 to 1959. He was acting executive dean when the college achieved its independence from the University of Idaho in March 1947, and he elevated it into a four-year, bachelor's degree-granting institution in December 1948. He left Idaho in 1959 to become president of Long Beach State College (now known as California State University, Long Beach). He oversaw the college's rapid growth from less than 10,000 students to 28,000 and two name changes (to California State College at Long Beach in 1964 and to California State College, Long Beach in 1968). He was named president of Montana State University in 1970. He established the university's nursing and pre-medical education programs and completed its first football stadium and creative arts complex, but also faced a years of fiscal austerity imposed by the state legislature. He retired in 1977.

Life and career

Early life and education Carl McIntosh was born on December 1, 1914, in Redlands, California, to Carl Weston and Cora Lulu (Williams) McIntosh. His father was born in Bay City, Michigan, on September 20, 1883. He moved to California in 1887 and became a real estate salesman. His mother, Cora Lulu Williams, was born in Morristown, Tennessee, on November 8, 1882. Her family moved to California in 1899.

McIntosh attended public schools in Redlands, and graduated from Redlands High School in 1932. He loved collecting insects, and drew extensive pictures of them. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Redlands in 1936. He considered majoring in entomology, but decided speech and debate were more fun. He was promoted to assistant professor of speech in 1940. McIntosh received an honorable discharge in 1946, While McIntosh was president, Long Beach grew tremendously. Enrollment surged from about 10,000 to more than 30,000,

McIntosh left Long Beach in 1969, and became president of Montana State University in 1970.

Montana State University Bobcat Stadium, shown here in 2013, opened in 1973 and was originally known as Reno H. Sales Stadium. It received its current name in 1998. Dr. Carl W. McIntosh was named MSU's eighth president in June 1970.

McIntosh brought a consultative and deliberate style of decision-making to the university. He faced a poor fiscal climate: The state was entering a decade-long depression brought about by a steep drop in commodity prices, In 1974, women faculty at MSU sued, alleging gender discrimination. They won their suit in 1976, leading to a $400,000 damages award, a back-pay award, and extensive promotions (which also increased salaries). To accommodate these fiscal realities, McIntosh ordered several doctoral and master's degree programs terminated, and all advanced degree programs in the social sciences and liberal arts canceled.

But McIntosh also scored a number of successes. In 1972, he persuaded the legislature to allow MSU to participate in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) medical program, which allowed 20 MSU graduates a year to complete medical school at the University of Washington. The college of nursing (Sherrick Hall) was finished in 1973, and after three long years of construction Reno H. Sales Stadium (now Bobcat Stadium and Martel Field) and the Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center both opened.

McIntosh's arrival at MSU coincided with a confidential report by state auditors which revealed that the university's accounting system was 80 years of out date. Although not a single incident of embezzlement or misuse of funds had occurred (a fact McIntosh found remarkable), the state legislature seized on the report to denounce MSU as "irresponsible" and "profligate" in its spending.

In 1976, the "hidden million" controversy ended McIntosh's tenure as president. In 1975, Montana's first Commissioner of Higher Education, Dr. Lawrence K. Pettit (a former MSU professor of political science) launched an investigation of several Montana colleges and universities. He was particularly interested in MSU, where McIntosh's laid-back governance style was widely considered to have hurt the university. In March 1976, Pettit announced he was confiscating $1 million in surplus student fees from MSU — money he argued the university was trying to hide from state auditors and the legislature. In fact, the monies were the result of excessively high enrollment in the 1974–1975 school year, and were intended to help see the university through the 1975–1976 school year (when the legislature would not meet, and thus could not provide the needed budgetary boost to handle the over-enrollment). Pettit all but accused MSU and McIntosh of fraud, and McIntosh refused to attack Pettit's statements as mischaracterizations and slander. The public outcry about the "hidden million" led the Board of Regents to consider whether to request McIntosh's resignation. On June 30, 1976, by 4-to-3 vote, the Montana state commission of higher education voted to retain him.

Retirement and death McIntosh continued to live in Bozeman after his retirement. He lived alone, assisted in his later years by friends, receiving his meals from Meals on Wheels, and receiving regular deliveries of books from the Bozeman Public Library.

McIntosh was a popular public speaker, and gave several commencement addresses in retirement. He fished often,

Long Beach State University renamed its Humanities Office Building, erected during McIntosh's tenure as president, the Mcintosh Humanities Building in 1980 in his honor.

McIntosh received several awards during his lifetime. Among them are an honorary professorship bestowed by Tamagawa University in 1962 and a "Famous Fifty" Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Pi Kappa Delta honorary society in 1963.