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Here's an article about dad that appeared posthumously in the December 2003 issue of the Carolinian:
   




In a career focused on USC students, Paul Fidler listened with his mind and his heart.
BY  C H R I S  H O R N

Students at USC during the Vietnam War protest in 1970 might remember a young administrator named Paul Fidler who seemed to be everywhere at once, trying to keep rioting students from doing anything truly crazy.
   That fired-up students actually stopped long enough to hear him out was a testament both to his relative youth--he was about 30--and his calm, attentive manner of listening. Fidler, who died this past June after a long bout with leukemia, crafted a nearly 40-year career of listening to students and responding to their needs.
   "He always cared about the person he was listening to--you could see it in his face. He never got that bored, plastered-on look," said Julia Eccles, '96 master's, an assistant registrar at USC who earned a graduate degree with Fidler as her advisor.
   Anecdotes about Fidler's concern for students and his pioneering programs aimed at helping the student body are abundant. But if you never knew Paul Fidler, here's a story that tells just how good a listener he really was.
   As a young lieutenant, Fidler was aboard a u.s. Navy destroyer anchored near Guantana'mo Bay, Cuba. It was 1961, and the Cuban missile crisis was brewing.
   One night, while most of the ship's officers were on shore, a U.S. marine frantically called on the radio, relayed a set of coordinates, and asked the


destroyer to commence firing on the bay.
   "This is not a drill!" the marine shouted. "We are being attacked!"
   Fidler was obviously perplexed. With his superiors on shore he was the ranking officer, and the request sounded legitimate. But opening fire could light the powder keg for World War III.
   The plea for help again crackled over the radio. Fidler listened carefully. He heard urgent words--but no gunfire or artillery. The ship was close enough to shore to hear either. He ordered the ship's gunners to sit tight and averted what would have become an international incident and probably war. The marine was identified, admitted the hoax, and was court-martialed.
   Fidler finished up his Navy duty with a less harrowing assignment as an ROTC instructor at USC and earned his master's degree in 1965. He earned a Ph.D. from Florida State and returned to USC in 1967 as assistant vice president for student affairs. That’s when his concern for students really began to bear fruit.
   As USC's first director of student financial aid, Fidler dispensed newly created grants and loans to undergraduates. Later he expanded the Career Center to assist graduating students in job placement and linked it to the Center for Undeclared Majors, which provided academic advisement to thousands of freshmen. For 25 years he was faculty secretary to Omicron Delta Kappa, an honor society for student leaders, and he organized Awards Day to recognize student achievers. Fidler also initiated the stoles worn over graduation robes to honor student leaders, a practice later adopted by ODK chapters across the country.
   As a tenured faculty member, he chaired dissertation committees, assisted graduate students with their research, and taught courses in student personnel and university administration.
   Perhaps most important, Fidler conducted seminal research on USC's then-new University 101 course, proving
that the program increased freshman retention and participants' GPAs. With Fidler's research data, University 101 became one of USC's most emulated programs by universities across the country and was recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report.
   Stuart Hunter, co- director of University 101, remembers Fidler as "one of those quiet, unassuming people who always does the right thing. I don't think the University would be where it is today without Paul."
   Janice Hartsoe, an associate registrar at USC who earned her degree under Fidler's tutelage, repeated what several others have said: "I never heard him say a negative thing about anyone, and never heard anyone say something negative about him. He was completely selfless."
   Fidler was diagnosed with leukemia in 1997; students and colleagues immediately organized the annual Fidler 5K run, which continues to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They also established the Paul Fidler Fellowship, which supports a graduate student in education.
   Fidler had two gifts, said Dorothy, his wife of 44 years. He could listen to and mediate among faculty, students, and administrators.
   And he had a vision for where higher education should go. The two went hand-in-glove with his concern for students, she said.
   Dan Berman, also co- director of University 101, put it simply: "He was the one person who symbolized the best of USC. If I could be half the person Paul was, I'd feel I led a fulfilling life."
   







The Carolinian
the magazine for alumni and friends
of the University of South Carolina

www.sc.edu/carolinian

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