J-W Staff Reports ? A former dean of Baker University urged students, faculty and staff to promote harmony and embrace diversity in what he described as a “time of great danger.”

Neal Malicky, former dean of Baker’s College of Arts and Sciences, returned to the school Thursday for Baker’s annual convocation.

“You may say, ‘But I don’t set international policy,'” he said. “True, but you can reach out and be an agent of reconciliation and peace where you are.”

Malicky, president emeritus of Ohio-based Baldwin-Wallace College, received a bachelor’s degree from Baker in 1956. He holds a master of divinity degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and a doctorate in political science from Columbia University in New York.

Malicky said Thursday he realized how profoundly he was inspired by his Baker professors when he leafed through his class notes several years after graduation and discovered the subjects weren’t as fascinating as he’d originally thought.

“All of a sudden, it occurred to me that what was exciting were the people who were teaching the subject,” he said.

Malicky was dean at Baker University from 1969 to 1975, doubling as interim president in 1973-74. After being named vice president for academic affairs at Baldwin-Wallace College in 1975, Malicky was president of the college from 1981 to 1999 and chancellor from 1999 to 2000.

“He is one of this university’s most distinguished sons,” Baker president Daniel Lambert said.