President David Roe, Ph.D.
Welcome to Central College! These are truly exciting times. As I look around, I see a marvelous institution: a picturesque campus, talented and dedicated faculty and staff, students with great potential eager to learn and grow and assume responsible roles in our world society.
Central has a long tradition of excellence, one I invite you to come and see for yourself. This tradition was built by our dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and our commitment to empowering students with skills that help them succeed in their careers and in life.
It is my honor to lead Central as we live our mission of helping students discover and reach their highest potential.
I make this my personal commitment.
About Central's President
David Roe, Ph.D., a retired Air Force brigadier general and a former financial services company executive, became Central College's president on Jan. 1, 1998.
Roe is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who also holds a doctorate degree in physiology from the University of Illinois in Urbana.
Following his graduation from the Air Force Academy in 1962, Roe attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned a bachelor of medicine degree. In 1975, he was named a White House Fellow and worked for a year as special assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
When Roe retired from the Air Force in 1986 after 24 years of service, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., as director of the U.S. Defense Department's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) policy. Among the other key posts he held during his military career were special assistant to the director of the joint staff at the Pentagon from 1983-1985 and defense planner with the U.S. mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, from 1980-1982. He was an associate professor and division director of the department of life and behavioral science at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs from 1970-1974.
In 1986, Roe joined USAA, a San Antonio, Texas-based insurance and financial services corporation with $21 billion in assets split among five divisions covering property and casualty insurance, life insurance, investment management, banking and real estate.
He left the company in 1991 to become president of United Services Life Co. in Arlington, Va., a $3 billion life insurance holding company. He turned the company around from showing $10.5 million in operating losses in 1991 to reporting $21.8 million in earnings by 1994. In 1995, the company merged with a Minneapolis, Minn., operation, Northwestern National Life Cos., to become ReliaStar Financial Corp., the nation's 12th-largest, publicly held insurance holding company based on revenues.
In addition to serving as President of Central, Dr. Roe coaches the kickers on Central's football team and teaches a seminar on leadership. His wife, Betsy, serves the college as an ambassador to the alumni and the community, as affirmative action counselor, as a consultant on academic excellence, and as a guest lecturer in classes. The Roes, along with their twin daughters, make their home in Pella.
