Dr. Robert Garland Landolt ’34 will celebrate his
100th birthday anniversary October 28, 2013.
Dr. Landolt, who earned his master’s degree and Ph.D., at University of Texas at Austin, retired as professor of economics and business management and chairman of the Professional Education Division of the University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia, in 1979.
He had served as president of Lees Junior College, a Presbyterian school in Jackson, Kentucky, from January 1949 to August 1958.
From 1980 to 1985, Dr. Landolt taught regular curriculum college economics and business courses to crew members on five U. S. Navy ships for colleges under contract with the Navy’s Program for Afloat College Education (PACE). He enhanced his own cultural education on tours while in ports in Japan, The Philippines, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Italy, France, and Spain.
Additional travels have included tours of China, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Switzerland, Russia, central Europe, Great Britain, and the Scandinavia countries.
His beloved wife and his children’s mother, Mary Ella Campbell ’37 (MA ’38), died in 1977.
Two of Dr. Landolt’s sons are Austin College alumni: Robert ’61 and John ’65. Robert earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Texas in 1965. He retired from Texas Wesleyan University as emeritus professor of chemistry in 2010.John earned his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Oklahoma in 1970.He served 38 years as biology professor at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown West Virginia, retiring in 2009. He continues as research professor biology –emeritus. The elder Dr. Landolt’s youngest son, William, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, is a senior marketing analyst at Hewlett Packard Company in Houston. Daughter Mary Landolt graduated from the University of Charleston and died in 2009 after a too-brief career teaching in Virginia and overseas, in Norway, Papua New Guinea, and at several institutions in Hawaii.
The approaching centenarian, except for somewhat inhibited walking due to painless neuropathy nerve loss in his lower legs, continues to enjoy excellent health, according to his sons. To compensate for limited mobility, they wrote, he pedals 10 miles daily on his stationary exercise bike.
His sons also reported that Dr. Landolt, a Presbyterian elder since 1944, strongly supports, in articles and op-eds, the challenge for Christian leaders and denominations to subordinate controversial differences and unite to end political gridlock, control big banks operations, reverse the escalating disparity between the very rich and all others with increasing poverty, and enact legislation to utilize scientific and technical advancements to improve health, education, and climate control, and to provide an equitable immigration policy.
Alumni interested in sending congratulatory greetings to the soon-to-be centenarian may email editor@austincollege.edu or call 903.813.2414 to receive Dr. Landolt’s postal or email address.