FINDLAY — The University of Findlay formally opened a new chapter on Friday, Oct. 16, inaugurating Dr. Richard L. Ludwick as the university’s 18th president in a ceremony on the front steps of Old Main. Ludwick, who took office on July 1, succeeds Dr. Katherine Rowe Fell, who retired after 16 years leading the university, and he used the occasion to return to the themes he has set for his presidency: student success, academic innovation and deeper ties between the campus and the Findlay community.
Ludwick comes to Findlay from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, where his presidency produced seven consecutive years of record-setting enrollment growth, expanded academic offerings and significant increases in institutional revenue. His leadership there helped secure more than $120 million in gifts and grants and built partnerships with industry, community organizations and institutions around the world — a fundraising and growth record the Findlay board pointed to when it selected him.
His career in higher education spans several stops before Houston: president of Independent Colleges of Indiana, provost at St. Gregory’s University, and senior leadership roles at Albany Law School, the University of Florida and the University of Oregon. That mix — small private universities, a statewide independent-college association and large public institutions — gives him a view of nearly every corner of American higher education.
Ludwick is a first-generation college graduate raised in a Christian farming family in Indiana, a background he frequently connects to his commitment to expanding access and opportunity. In Findlay’s telling, his priorities include developing programs that respond to workforce and community needs and protecting the personalized, student-centered experience that the university, with about 4,700 students, markets as its defining trait.
A reception followed Friday’s 4 p.m. ceremony, and Ludwick and his wife, Melynda, have said they intend to be deeply engaged members of the Findlay community. The couple has two children and six grandchildren. He has already been a visible presence on campus this fall, including presiding earlier this month when the university awarded an honorary doctorate to Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine.
The transition closes one of the longest presidencies in the university’s history. Fell’s 16 years included the launch of the $75 million “Together We Will” campaign, new science and student-life buildings, the Conda STEAM Education Center at the Mazza Museum and, in 2025, College Park — a legacy Ludwick inherits along with the task of writing the next one.
What happens next is the work Ludwick has outlined since July: strengthening relationships across campus and throughout Hancock County, advancing distinctive academic programs, and keeping Findlay’s enrollment and finances moving in the direction he achieved in Houston. Friday’s ceremony was the formal start; the measure of the presidency begins now.