"Knox is a very special community," Nahm said. "There are many factors, both personal and professional, and this has not been an easy decision. But there's no better college in the country than Knox, and my wife Sandy and I look forward to watching Knox's continued development and celebrating its future success."
The Knox College Board of Trustees will appoint a committee to conduct the search for Nahm's successor, said Morton W. Weir of Urbana, Illinois, chair of the Board of Trustees. Weir, chancellor emeritus of the University of Illinois and a senior consultant at the University of Illinois Foundation, praised Nahm's accomplishments in office.
"By every measure, Rick Nahm leaves Knox a stronger institution, compared to where the College was five years ago," Weir said. "Enrollment has increased from 900 to nearly 1200, and applications for admission are up three-percent above last year's record-setting pace. Financially, Knox is in excellent shape, the endowment has grown to $43-million, we're in the early stages of a fund-raising campaign that is already succeeding beyond our expectations, the number of donors to the College is up, and gifts to the Annual Fund are higher than last year's record level."
"Knox's reputation, its excellent faculty and student body, and its fund-raising successes all indicate very strongly that we'll be able to attract a first-rate successor to Rick Nahm. All of us wish Rick and Sandy the very best in their new endeavors."
Nahm came to Knox from the University of Pennsylvania, where, as vice president for development from 1986 to 1993, he headed a billion-dollar fund raising campaign. Previously he was a vice president at Centre College in Kentucky, and directed the largest fund raising campaign in the school's history. Nahm has a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from Centre and a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Kentucky.
Colonial Williamsburg is the nation's largest living history museum and an award-winning historic site and educational center. Colonial Williamsburg features hundreds of historic buildings, some dating to the period 1689 to 1781, when the town was the capital of the vast Virginia colony. It draws more than three-million visitors annually.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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