Geoffrey Gamble

Gamble was born in 1942 and raised on a farm near Fresno, California. His father was a cotton farmer with a seventh grade education who was dismissive of educational achievement. A veteran of World War II, Gamble's father wanted his son to become a boxer. and attended Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno), where he played football for a year. During his seven years in the insurance industry, he was promoted to manager. He was in his early 30s when he started teaching a night class to aspiring insurance agents, and realized that he really wanted to teach. Gamble enrolled again at Fresno State, and began to pursue a degree in law. But he switched to linguistics, and received a master's degree in 1971. By this time, Gamble had married and had children. He continued with his education and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1975. His specialty was Native American languages. ==Early academic career==

After receiving his doctorate, Gamble served as a Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for a year. In this role, Gamble oversaw the university's budget and all academic operations. His pay at the time was about $163,000 a year. ==Montana State University==

Appointment In December 1999, Montana State University president Michael P. Malone died suddenly of a heart attack. Gamble also pressed for the university to be designated the "University of the Yellowstone" to reflect the high level of research MSU conducted in the greater Yellowstone National Park ecosystem. The university applied for a trademark on the name, and Gamble worked to establish and enlarge the Big Sky Institute in Big Sky, Montana (an interdisciplinary research and public outreach institute). Gamble made enhancement of diversity a major effort of his presidency. The university lost a 1974 gender discrimination lawsuit brought by female faculty members. Gamble sought out women for leadership training activities, and encouraged their promotion within the university hierarchy. He appointed Cathy Conover to be vice president for communications and public affairs — making her the university's first permanent female vice president. By the time of his retirement, women outnumbered men among MSU's deans by five to four. Gamble also created a Council of Elders to bring leaders of the tribal colleges together twice a year at MSU to discuss governance, academics, funding, and integration issues. Sports scandal In 2006, a major sports scandal engulfed Montana State University. MSU hired successful football coach Mike Kramer away from Eastern Washington University in 2000. By 2002, Kramer's Bobcats football squad was tied for first in its league and made it to the NCAA Division I-AA first round playoffs. Kramer's team succeeded in tying again for first in its league and making the playoffs in 2003, tied for first in its league again in 2005, and tied for second place in its league and made it to the NCAA Division I quarterfinal playoffs in 2006. By most measures, Kramer was a highly successful football coach. On June 23, 2006, however, the body of local Bozeman man Jason Wright was discovered lying in an MSU experimental agricultural field on the edge of the MSU campus. He'd been kidnapped, beaten with a blunt object, and shot 10 times. Seven days later, former MSU basketball player Branden Miller and former MSU football player John LeBrum were charged with Wright's murder. Wright, a known cocaine dealer, was believed to have been murdered for drug-related reasons. After an 18-month investigation, six additional current and former MSU athletes — including former basketball player Aaron Rich, former football cornerback Andre Fuller, and former football wide receiver Rick Gatewood — were charged with buying and selling cocaine. Three of the six were charged with running a cocaine smuggling ring that sold of cocaine in Bozeman between June 2005 to May 2007. In August 2007, Sports Illustrated ran a front-page article, "Trouble in Paradise", that recounted drug use, violence, theft, intimidation, and illegal activities by current and former MSU student athletes and the complicity of low-level coaching staff. /> The crimes committed by the student-athletes led to an automatic, routine investigation by the NCAA. The NCAA found no recruiting violations by the school, although it cautioned that many recruiting practices were lax. Gamble quickly fired Kramer, who then sued MSU for unlawful dismissal. Lebrum entered into a plea bargain agreement, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Kramer and MSU settled out of court, and Kramer received a payment of $240,000. In 2009, Gamble said his hardest time as president was dealing with the sports scandal. Criticisms Gamble's tenure as president was not without criticism. Faculty members Ed Mooney and Gary Harkin argue that Gamble's focus on research led to increased costs for undergraduates and less focus on high-quality undergraduate teaching. An internal university "report card", created by Gamble, showed that faculty and administrative fell under Gamble fell to just 78 and 73 percent, respectively, of the national average for like-sized universities. When he retired, Gamble admitted that he failed to achieve some goals. These included launching the MSU Foundation's $100 million capital fundraising campaign, and raising $8 million to build a Native American Student Center. ==Post-MSU activities==

Geoff Gamble was 58 years old when he was appointed president of Montana State University. Gamble and his wife, the former Patricia Moneyhan, decided before accepting the position that Gamble would retire in 2009 at the age of 67. Other events reinforced Gamble's decision to retire: Patricia Gamble was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Gamble's mother was in frail health, and Gamble's daughter had given birth to a child. Gamble stayed on as an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, teaching one or two courses a semester. On May 15, 2012, Gamble was appointed UNT's vice president for research and economic development at UNT. In May 2013, he hired Dr. Thomas McCoy away from Montana State University. McCoy had been MSU vice president for research, creativity and technology transfer since 1998. McCoy took over at UNT's vice president for research and economic development, and Gamble took on a new position, vice president for strategy and operations. Endowments In October 2009, the Gambles bequeathed much of their wealth to Montana State University. Two endowments were made. One was the Florence and Monty Moneyhan Scholarship Endowment, created in honor of Patricia Gamble's parents. The other was an endowment for the Geoff and Patricia Gamble Center for Student Success. The center will assist students in learning habits and skills that will keep them in school as well as provide training to faculty to improve the quality of teaching. The two endowments totaled more than $2 million, and were called "unprecedented" for an MSU president. The Gambles attributed their wealth to the highly successful insurance career Geoff Gamble had in the 1970s, a lifetime of saving, and prudent investments. In October 2010, the Gambles announced a $1 million gift to California State University, Fresno. One part of the gift will endow the Dr. Geoffrey and Patricia Gamble Professorship in Linguistics/Endangered Languages. The other part will establish the Dr. Geoffrey and Patricia Gamble Endangered Languages Program Endowment, which will provide financial support to scholars studying languages in danger of disappearing. ==Publications==

• Wikchamni Grammar. University of California Press, 1978. • Yokuts Texts. Mouton de Gruyter, 1994. ==References==