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HAMILTON — Time is like a river at Miami University Hamilton.
In addition to dozens of photographs from the 42-year history of the campus, a wavy blue line representing the Great Miami River flows through eight panels of a mural recently installed in the Jack Rhodes Study in Mosler Hall.
The mural will be officially unveiled and dedicated at a reception at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday that also will honor the 2010 and 2011 retirees from the campus.
“To capture the history of the campus was very challenging,” said Bob Rusbosin, regional senior associate dean of students. “We wanted to include as many landmark events as we could.”
The project began two years ago during the campus’ 40th anniversary celebration at the urging of then-Dean Daniel Hall, who was inspired by timeline installations in Oxford and Middletown, Rusbosin said.
A committee waded through thousands of photos and Robert Bell, an architect from the Oxford campus, served as the project manager and chief designer, aided by MUH’s Chelle Dienno and Carla Ledford, who helped compile the photographs, Rusbosin said.
In addition to MUH dignitaries, such as past deans Jack Rhodes and Bernie Phelps, the mural includes images of notable visitors such as Mario Cuomo and community members who have been instrumental in the campus’ development, such as historian Jim Blount and the Rev. Norman Townsel.
The words “Accessibility,” “Diversity” and “Innovation” earn prominent spots in highlighting the campus’ values, Rusbosin said, and small blocks of text among the photographs detail some of the key events.
Running through it all is the river, a wavy pale blue line with white text that begins in 1963 with “Ohio Board of Regents establishes regional campuses across the state and offers $1.8 million for a Hamilton campus of Miami University if citizens of Hamilton raise $600,000” and ends with “First Regional Campus Dean appointed” in 2010.
Below it are a series of display cases containing artifacts from the campus, creating a mini-museum.
Although a strategy hasn’t been developed for expansion of the timeline, Rusbosin said people are already providing input about how to add onto it in the future.
As it stands, the timeline will be book-ended by a “Retirement Tree” in which retiring employees are recognized with a brass leaf and a photograph of the original ground-breaking that is being prepared.
At Wednesday’s reception, the following retirees will be recognized: Debbie Delano, Howard Epstein, Ron Harkins, Donna Hoffman, Edie Hornschemeier, Dave Shanks, Rob Sommer and Rob Speckert.
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