Campus mourns Robben W. Fleming, former chancellor

Robben W. Fleming, former provost who became the first chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, died on Monday, Jan. 11 at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 93.

A memorial service will be held in Ann Arbor at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17 at First Presbyterian Church, 1432 Washtenaw Ave.

“The loss of Robben Fleming, a thoughtful, even-handed administrator who led the campus during the trying and turbulent times that accompanied the Vietnam War, saddens the UW–Madison community,” says Chancellor Biddy Martin. “Our thoughts and best wishes are with the Fleming family at this most difficult time.”

Friends and colleagues praised Fleming’s “down-to-earth solidity” and approachability, honed by years mediating labor-management disputes.

“The fact that I have had a long experience in the labor field means that I don’t get excited in the way some people do about either controversy or challenges,” Fleming once told a reporter. “I don’t take flights of rhetoric quite so seriously as some people do. And I don’t view showdowns as the end of the world.”

Fleming first joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1947 as head of the Industrial Relations Center. In 1958, he moved to the University of Illinois to assume joint positions as director of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations and professor of law.

This somewhat unconventional background came in handy when UW–Madison leaders recruited him back to Wisconsin in 1964. On the brink of student protests, he became provost, a position renamed chancellor in 1965.

Fleming may be best known for his role in the Dow Chemical Company protests in February of 1967. After protesters barricaded campus buildings, he called police to end the takeover. He then wrote a personal check for $1,470 to bail the protesters out of jail.

“I think he was most proud, both at the UW and later at the University of Michigan, that, during the protests, no one was hurt,” says son Jim Fleming, who recently retired as a host on Wisconsin Public Radio. “He didn’t believe in violence as a solution to problems, and even went so far as to personally stand bail for these protestors.”

Fleming left UW–Madison a few months after the Dow riots to become president of the University of Michigan, a post he held for 12 years. He then became president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and was instrumental in securing $150 million in funding for educational programming to create the Annenberg Project. He briefly returned to the University of Michigan in 1988, serving as interim chancellor.

Born on Dec. 18, 1916 in Paw Paw, Ill., Fleming came to Madison as a law student after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Beloit College in 1934. After receiving an LLB in 1941, he spent four years in the Army during World War II.

His spouse, Aldyth “Sally” Fleming, passed away in 2005. A strong partnership for 63 years, the University of Michigan honored them by naming the university’s central administration building for the couple, not just Robben Fleming himself.

“They made an awesome team,” says Jim Fleming. “He always said ‘we’ when he referred to his positions as the head of two Big Ten universities.”

In addition to his son and daughter-in-law (Mount Horeb, Wis.), Fleming is survived by daughters Nancy (Eugene, Ore.) and Betsy (Saline, Mich.) and their spouses, as well as five grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Memorials may be made to HospiceCare, 5395 East Cheryl Parkway, Madison, Wis. 53711 or the National Alzheimer’s Foundation.