Cal Poly hires NASA astronaut to propel its Learn by Doing charge
By Stephen Ellison
Special to the Business Times
He has spent much of his adult life soaring through Earth’s atmosphere and beyond, and now retired U.S. Navy pilot and NASA astronaut emeritus Victor Glover has embraced a future planted firmly on the ground, starting a new chapter back where his story lifted off.
Glover, the pilot for NASA’s historic Artemis II mission around the moon in April, started a new position Sept. 10 at his alma mater Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, working directly with university President Jeffrey D. Armstrong and other senior leaders on shaping the future of what is already one of the top institutions in the nation.
The transition to a civilian role was by no means a quick and easy decision, Glover told the Business Times during a phone interview on his first day back at the SLO campus. But it also wasn’t as difficult as he imagined after talking it over with his family and realizing it was time for a new venture.
“It would have been easy to go into commercial space or aerospace defense, but what I really care about is the future of tech,” said Glover, a 1999 engineering graduate. “There are so many people focused on the technology and the science, but the future of tech needs leaders, and building the humans to do that work is what I think is interesting. And the part of the Navy and NASA that I’ve enjoyed the most is the teams that I’ve been blessed to be a part of. So, it was a no-brainer when Jeff offered me an opportunity to come here.”
In a news release, Cal Poly said Glover, 50, will help university leaders identify, develop and accelerate strategic initiatives, partnerships and philanthropic efforts that could help develop leaders in engineering, applied computing, aerospace and other STEM disciplines.
Armstrong added that Glover is made for the role because he embodies how far the university’s Learn by Doing mission can propel a Cal Poly graduate.
“When he told me he was thinking of transitioning to his next phase, I couldn’t contain my excitement at the possibility of bringing him back to Cal Poly in a full-time role to help us continue to enhance Learn by Doing and ensure that our graduates remain leaders in their chosen professions for generations to come,” Armstrong told the Business Times via email.
Glover said he’s looking forward to growing Cal Poly’s relationships with research institutions NASA Ames and Caltech, as well as private-sector companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. However, he emphasized that the job has yet to be defined, and that now is a time for him to learn, listen and temper his tendency to jump in and help.
“It’s important for me to just be comfortable being a student in a sense and be patient,” he said. “This is a long-term relationship, and I think the big risk to me is overly prescribing what I’m supposed to do, and then missing opportunities.”
One of the most intriguing prospects for Glover is working with the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in the Bay Area, learning about its student body, the corps cadets, the Merchant Marine training and seeing “that fantastic ship.”
“I’m excited about really getting immersed in that mission and that campus,” Glover said. “As a naval officer — even though they work on the oceans of Earth — I’ve worked in the oceans of space and on the oceans of Earth. I think there’s a lot of overlap there, and it could be just great potential.”
Of course, being much closer to his four daughters, three of whom are Cal Poly students, is a big plus for Glover and his wife Dionne. The young woman even stopped by to greet him on his first day, he said. And he wanted to clarify that his daughters have embraced the idea of having Dad nearby on campus.
“Really, they’re excited for us to be close together. They know we love this place,” Glover said. “But they’re adults, and they have their own dreams. We don’t plan to be helicopter parents. We want them to have the same opportunity to grow and learn that we had when we were students here. We’re going to be respectful of their adulthood, but we’ll be close by, you know, when they want to come home and have dinner or wash clothes.”
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