{"id":1446,"date":"2016-02-17T19:40:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/17\/put-me-in-coach-interim-president-carl-kohrt-speaks-on-life-liberal-arts-and-saying-yes\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:15:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:15:42","slug":"put-me-in-coach-interim-president-carl-kohrt-speaks-on-life-liberal-arts-and-saying-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/put-me-in-coach-interim-president-carl-kohrt-speaks-on-life-liberal-arts-and-saying-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Life, liberal arts, and power of yes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Interim President Carl Kohrt ’65 began his Furman experience in football pads and cleats. And when he took the mantle of leadership this July, his self-described “Put me in, Coach!” attitude quickly became his approach to the presidency.<\/p>\n

On July 26, Kohrt took the words to action when he spoke at the Atlanta Furman Business Breakfast.<\/p>\n

Kohrt\u2019s speech centered on the theme of life\u2019s ambiguity, and being willing to take the risks and chances associated with the unpredictable future. With a few examples of his own life\u2019s twists and turns, including the one that led him to White Oaks (the president’s home), he credited the core liberal arts education he received at Furman as the key influence on his life.<\/p>\n

Early in his career, Kohrt\u2019s trajectory led to Eastman Kodak in Rochester, N.Y. as a research chemist. \u201cImmediately after Lynne and I arrived, the operation I was supposed to work for shut down,\u201d he said. His new boss gave him six months to discover new ways to make images. \u201cHe told me to be curious and talk to some real people.\u201d The scientist who thought his days would be spent in the lab, smelling chemicals and testing theories, was confounded. \u201cI eventually worked to try a new idea and helped to create the world\u2019s first thermal digital print, which now rests in a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, the Kohrts faced another turning point \u2013 a potential move to China.\u00a0 \u201cIn making the decision, we thought about an old Chinese proverb: \u2018If we are to go forward together, we must first look back together.\u2019 In other words, we needed to respect the culture we were entering.\u201d In looking back, Kohrt said the liberal arts basis formed at Furman made him feel prepared to approach the adventure in China. \u201cI recognized the way my liberal arts foundation proved its value through the decades thus far and I was sure it would also cross cultures.\u201d And cross cultures it did. Kohrt helped establish a new way of foreign investment with Kodak, and his work was transformative for the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liberal arts education is all about outcomes, not processes, and not specific disciplines at the exclusion of others. It helps students become hunters of knowledge through integrated disciplines, hands on research, and the understanding of global relevance. It is more important to be able to think and solve problems above all else,\u201d Kohrt said.<\/p>\n

And now Kohrt is putting that education to use in a new way once more \u2013 as an interim president who is not a caretaker but an active leader. \u201cAs long as I am responsible, we will tackle the tough questions. I hope to set the path for the next leader after me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interim President Carl Kohrt ’65 began his Furman experience in football pads and cleats. And when he took the mantle of leadership this July, his self-described “Put me in, Coach!” attitude quickly became his approach to the presidency.<\/p>\n

On July 26, Kohrt took the words to action when he spoke at the Atlanta Furman Business Breakfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":1447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}