A professor who gets personal Carnegie Foundation honors UM’s Strong for commitment to undergraduates

ORONO – Robert A. Strong, a University of Maine professor of finance, has been selected the 2007 Maine Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Established in 1981, the Professor of the Year Award is the only national program that recognizes undergraduate professors for outstanding commitment to their students, educational institutions, profession and communities.

“Obviously I am very pleased with this honor,” said Strong, “but there is a certain amount of luck involved, after all, considering that there are so many other people out there qualified to win it.”

Maybe so. But for Matthew Rossignol’s money, none of them could be more deserving than his former business professor and mentor.

“There is no one, in my opinion, more worthy of this honor than Dr. Strong,” said Rossignol, who received an undergraduate degree in business administration in May and now works for State Street Global Markets in Boston. “His commitment to excellence in teaching, on a personal level, has inspired me to achieve a career in finance that I would not have been able to do otherwise.”

Strong, winner of the 2005 Distinguished Maine Professor Award at UM, earned an engineering degree at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree in business administration from Boston University and a doctorate from the Pennsylvania State University.

Now in his 24th year at UM, the highly regarded finance professor is convinced that campus life trumps the private sector as an outlet for his abundant energy and passion.

“Everything’s a tradeoff,” said Strong, an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys sea kayaking and fly-fishing, “but I’ve found that academics is the best job in the world for me. I like teaching very much, I like writing textbooks and I also enjoy the public service part.”

Strong’s scholarly output is voluminous and far-reaching. He has written more than 75 articles for business journals, many of them about his teaching methods, and books on a variety of financial topics. His three textbooks are used in more than 100 universities around the world.

Over the years, he has generously shared his considerable financial and investment prowess with many private and non-profit boards in the region, and is in demand as an expert witness and consultant.

“Bob’s strong leadership in the business community and service in the nonprofit world complement his significant contributions to academic teaching and research,” said Jim Conlon, president and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank, which has benefited from Strong’s involvement as trustee, foundation director and adviser. “His expertise, dedication and ethics make him a professional colleague and decision maker of absolute first rank.”

The license plate on Strong’s car reads BUA 353 – a cryptic message to most people roaming the UM campus, perhaps, but instantly recognizable to students of the Maine Business School. The plate refers to Strong’s undergraduate investment strategy course, the biggest class he teaches and one of the most thought-provoking.

“It’s a class that sparks their interest,” said Strong, the University of Maine Foundation Professor of Investment Education. “People are naturally interested in the topic, because everyone is going to wind up investing money in their lives, whether it’s a 401K at work or whatever. The class really gives them ideas.”

In 1993, Strong, working with the University of Maine Foundation, started a club that has allowed 30 to 40 students a year to put some of those ideas to the test by acting as real-money portfolio managers for UM Foundation funds. The Student Portfolio Investment Fund, or SPIFFY, has since increased its original $200,000 allotment to more than $1.2 million today.

Because of its success, SPIFFY has become an ideal adjunct to Strong’s investment class and an ambitious, student-driven model for other universities. A contingent of SPIFFY students travels each year to New York City, where they mingle with Wall Street investment pros and witness firsthand the frenzy and clamor of the stock exchange at work.

Rossignol, SPIFFY president in his senior year, calls his investment club involvement “the most positive and worthwhile experiences of my UMaine career.”

“The opportunities Bob makes for his students are invaluable,” said Todd Saucier, president and executive director of the UM Alumni Association. “He provides a solid basis for their growth and is continuously cultivating their minds and whetting their appetites about the world of finance.”