Outgoing chair of the Kutztown University Council of Trustees Robert Grim, Esq., recently reflected on carrying on the Grim family legacy: “Education is the key to success.”
“People that go to a post-high school institution are better off: better served intellectually, character wise, politically, naturally,” Grim shared with MediaNews Group. “I think the more educated people we have in our society, the better off we all are.”
Grim — a Maxatawny Township resident who practiced law in Kutztown from 1969 until his retirement two years ago — recently completed his two-year term as chair of the KU Council of Trustees. His last day was June 30. Previously, he served a two-year term as vice chair.
The 11-member council sets broad policy and direction for KU with the assistance of the university president.
“Because of the fact that my family has been so heavily involved in the university for 140 years, it was natural for me to gravitate toward helping,” Grim said. “I did a lot of nonprofit work when I was a practicing lawyer and (the KU trustees) fit right in with my way of helping people.”
Grim Family Legacy
The Grim family connection to Kutztown University dates to the 1880s.
His great-grandfather Dr. George Washington Grim, a physician in Bucks County, sent all nine of his children to Keystone State Normal School in the 1880s. Of those nine children, three became physicians, two became lawyers, and four became teachers, the youngest being his grandfather James S. Grim, who was head of the science department at the school from 1900-45. The Grim Science Building at KU is named in his honor.
James Grim’s five children all graduated from the Normal School. Of those five, his father, Judge Allan K. Grim, married his mother, Ruth Susan Ackerman, who also graduated from the Normal School. Judge Grim was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of Kutztown State Teachers College in 1964, according to the Sept. 22, 2022 trustee minutes, https://www.kutztown.edu/Departments-Offices/G-L/Governance/Documents/COT-minutes-9-22-22.pdf.
While Robert Grim and his three brothers and sister did not attend Kutztown, they were raised in what was his grandfather’s house and attended the campus Laboratory School. Continuing the tradition, Robert and his wife, Jane, sent their three children there as well.
The former home to generations of Grims – and current office space previously known as Maple Manor at 15195 Kutztown Road – was renamed the Grim Family Homestead in 2020 in recognition of the family’s lasting impact on the KU campus, according to the university magazine, the Tower, in fall 2020, https://publications.app.kutztown.edu/Tower/TowerFall2020/20/#zoom=z.
A Greener KU
In his opening remarks in 2022 when he became chair of the KU trustees, Grim stated that he wanted to carry on his grandfather’s work for a better environment by making KU even greener.
In the early 1900s, his grandfather James S. Grim taught botany and planted trees making the campus greener. Several of the old trees remain on South Campus today, according to the Sept. 22, 2022 trustee minutes.
“I said that I want us to be greener and I think that we succeeded because we’re now in the process of getting a 15-acre tract on the south part of campus approved for a solar farm,” Grim told MediaNews Group.
Grim explained that the Kutztown University Foundation lead project will not only provide electricity to the campus but eventually provide income for scholarships.
‘Good to stay golden’
At the final trustees meeting for the 2023-24 academic year in June, Grim posed a final question: Is Kutztown University a better place than when he assumed office?
He said he concluded that KU is relatively better because the university met many challenges and continues to thrive, mostly because of the adjustments and leadership of KU President Ken Hawkinson and his team, https://www.kutztown.edu/news-and-media/announcements/remarks-by-council-of-trustees-chairperson-robert-grim.html.
“KU flourishes as new scholarship money for its students becomes available, as our faculty gets more students excited to learn, as we adjust the curriculum to focus on getting our students ready to do their jobs after they graduate, as we improve and fine tune the contributions a residential college experience has on our students’ character – and the list goes on and on,” Grim said in his remarks.
“Ultimately, the answer to the question of whether this is a better place is whether each one of us, including our students, has grown better at what we do, and that is to continue to strengthen Kutztown University as the regional powerhouse that it is. It is my humble opinion that, indeed, we, all of us, have accomplished that.”
Grim also noted that new buildings and rebuilt buildings — such as the Wells-Rapp Center for Mallet Percussion Research and de Francesco Building — made the university stronger, livelier and more respected than ever.
Because Grim grew up on College Hill, the preservation and the renovation of Poplar House as the new Admissions Welcome Center is particularly noteworthy to him because “it demonstrates that KU honors its history while adding new luster to its physical plant.”
Grim said one of its greatest successes is KU’s ability to attract students who, in many cases, are the first in their family to go to college.
“Then, to top it off, the percentage of our students who have been retained and did not quit has steadily and surely risen,” Grim said in his final remarks. “May I respectfully say that, not only is it ‘good to be golden,’ but it’s ‘good to stay golden.’”
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