Striking a New Chord: Former Chief Financial Officer Charley Gillispie Uses His Retirement to Give Back

Charley Gillispie’s retirement from his post as the chief financial officer of Valparaiso University in July 2013 was the end of a chapter filled with hard work that defied expectations, but it certainly won’t be the end of Gillespie’s story at Valpo.

Even though Gillispie has retired, Valparaiso will still be his home. He is serving as a special assistant to the president and working with minority and first-generation college students in a program he has tentatively titled “Mentoring for Success.”

The opportunity, he said, is a chance to share what he’s learned in his climb to the top.

“People look at me, and because I’ve been the CFO and the first African American partner in an accounting firm, they think I was born with a silver spoon,” he said.

But Gillispie’s story is much more complex. Gillispie grew up in Kentucky in the 1950s. His mother had a college degree, but his father never finished eighth grade. Unable to attend the “whites-only” school just down the road from his home because of racial segregation, Gillispie took an hour-long bus ride to school.

He remembers not being allowed to dine with his white colleagues at the A&P grocery store where he worked as a teenager. And even after he’d graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and began working for an accounting firm, Gillispie would only be allowed to take on clients after his boss had called to be sure those clients were “comfortable working with an African American.”

In spite of these inequities, Gillispie maintained his work ethic and refused to let racism stand in his way.

Eventually, he became a partner of the accounting firm. Then he went on to serve as the chief financial officer of the Chicago Public Schools and, for the past 17 years, as the CFO at Valparaiso University.

“We like to think that we bring students to Valpo, and the ground is equal,” Gillispie said. “But it’s not an equal playing field. When your parents have not been to college, they can’t help you as you try to navigate a career and or tell you what do you need to do.”

Gillispie continued, “For first-generation college students and multicultural students, an education is a way to the future. Access is not enough. We must see that they have success.”

The “Mentoring for Success” program is designed to help students gain a better understanding of what success looks like. For instance, Gillispie said, “students who don’t come from professional families often don’t know the importance of networking.”

“Especially for our minority students, quite often I think they look at a job and think, ‘I’ll get the job, and then I can separate myself,’” Gillispie explained. “But in order to move up, people around you have to get to know you. People like to work with people they know.”

In addition, Gillispie wants to use Valpo’s network of successful alumni to connect first-generation students to people who are already established in their careers.

Recently he met an engineering student who said she dreams of being a patent attorney but was struggling to find information about how to get into such a career. Gillispie called some friends he knew at local law firms to put her in touch with someone already in the field.

“The best way to prepare students adequately to know what to expect is to put them in touch with people who can talk with them about what it’s like to transition from college into their career,” he explained. “It’s important to make contact with people who’ve been out in the business world as professionals.”

Though Gillispie has only been in this new role for a few months, he’s excited about the connections he’s making on campus, and he believes the mentoring program can make a real, tangible difference for multicultural and first-generation students.

“I had to work very hard to get where I am,” Gillespie said. “I want to be able to give back and do anything that I can do to help make the playing field more equal for those who follow.”

Read the full magazine online at valpo.edu/valpomag.