Elon trustees have elected Dusty Rhodes a life trustee in recognition of his service to the university.
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Warren G. “Dusty” Rhodes, a member of the Elon University Board of Trustees and one of the university’s most generous supporters, was elected by the board to serve as a life trustee, an honorary position that recognizes his many years of extraordinary leadership and service to Elon.
Rhodes joined the board on March 11, 1997, and has served on its campus life, academic affairs, and athletics policy committees.
Rhodes and his wife, Peggy, provided key funding for the construction of Rhodes Stadium, the centerpiece of Elon’s north athletics complex that opened in 2001. The library and main lecture hall in McMichael Science Center, and several rooms in Belk Library have also been named in recognition of their contributions. They have also provided educational funding for a scholarship in sports medicine and financial assistance for individual Elon students.
The Rhodes have also supported a Kresge Foundation grant that continues to provide the latest technology and equipment to students in McMichael Science Center. The university awarded Rhodes with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Elon’s Convocation for Honors in 2006.
The Rhodeses’ son, Larry, graduated from Elon in 1986, and their son-in-law, Mike Ford, is a 1984 Elon alumnus.
Dusty Rhodes is a 1956 graduate of Purdue University, and was a four-year letterman in baseball for the Boilermakers. He continued his interest in athletics after graduation, taking a position at Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn, Mich., as a science teacher, coach and athletic trainer. During his spare time in the late 1950s he traveled with the Los Angeles Rams football team as an assistant athletic trainer.
Dusty Rhodes held many positions in education, engineering, communications and the computer industry during his career. In 1964, he sold General Electric computer equipment to NASA to support the Gemini and Apollo space programs. In 1965 he worked with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese, adding computer data and statistics to the New York Yankee’s Game of the Week on CBS television.
In 1988, he joined Cisco Systems Inc., a small start-up company that grew to become the world leader in networking technology and equipment for the Internet. He managed the company’s first direct sales team in 1989. In 1990, he opened a Cisco sales office in Research Triangle Park, and the couple moved to the Elon College area. He retired in 1992.