Volunteer leader serves, unites fellow Bearcats-for-life

“If you want to stay in Cincinnati and have a career here, there’s no better place to go than UC, because you’ll build relationships and your roots will be here.”

That’s what Judge Chase Davies told his grandson, Rusty Myers, in 1977 as Myers was contemplating his various college options. Stay home and reap the benefits of an interconnected community, or chart a different course elsewhere.

Myers remembers his young self’s reaction. “At 17 you’re like, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ but he was absolutely right. I’d grown up with UC, going to basketball and football games as a kid, being at alumni events with my folks, and working at the alumni center when I did. It’s always just been in my bloodstream.”

In Myers' mind, there is virtually no distinction or difference between what’s good for UC and what’s good for Cincinnati. He’s big on the idea of connectivity — the organic linkages between people, organizations, groups, and how they’re all striving in a synergistic way to elevate each other. It’s what he finds most irresistible about the UC Alumni Association, and why he has faithfully served as a board member for nearly 20 years.

“The UC Alumni Association does a great job keeping people in touch and letting them know what’s going on and what the university is doing,” he says. “They do killer events — always have, always will, they just get better and better. And bringing people together like that — especially physically, in the same place — is really important. Yes, technology and communications have changed, but the relationship piece hasn’t. I don’t think you build strong and lasting relationships over a Teams or Zoom call — it has to be in person.”

Myers sees the connecting relationship also spanning from the “college version” of a Bearcat to the person that he or she will ultimately be.

“Most people come to UC to chart their course for their career. It’s the stepping stone to the rest of their life, and we need to keep them engaged. It can’t be, ‘It’s been four years, here’s your piece of paper, now go get ’em.’ Rather, it’s, ‘Hey, we’re here to help you for the rest of your life.’ Whether it’s through career development or mentoring students or however else they want be involved, that lifelong connection is what’s important.”

Around the time Myers was a UC student, brokerage firm E.F. Hutton pierced the national consciousness with a clever ad campaign. The TV spots featured a variety of scenes in which two people were having a conversation about investing, often in settings full of noise and action. One would say to the other, “That’s what my broker thinks … What does your broker say?” The second would reply, “Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says…” at which point everything stopped and fell silent so that everyone could hear the rest of the answer. And then every commercial ended the same way: After the dead-quiet pause as all heads cocked toward the speaker to hear Hutton’s sage advice, the tagline intoned, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”

Myers' brand of volunteer leadership is kind of like that. Almost stealthily, he calls virtually no attention to himself. He’s always curious, taking in the various facts and opinions, processing them against the realities he understands well from his decades of professional experience and knowledge of his university’s inner workings, and countless personal connections. He doesn’t talk often, but when he does, people listen. In today’s world of analytics and advanced metrics, he would lead the league in IPWS — Impact Per Word Spoken.

With such a service-oriented persona and a long list of organization achievements coming largely through his efforts and influence, it was no surprise that Myers received the UC Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award four years ago. Beth presented her brother, and her admiration for him transcended her acknowledged familial bias. Many in attendance knew well the man Beth described.

“It’s not a list of accomplishments that makes Rusty deserving of this award,” she said that night. “It is his distinction. It is his character. It is his humility and his humanity. If such praise was coming only from his sister, you might rightfully be skeptical. But over the years, many others keep describing Myers in similar terms: Wise … Kind … Generous … Collegial … Loyal … Respectful … Supportive. As his bio in your program states: ‘His intelligent, thorough and sensitive analysis in tackling important issues and decisions is legendary. He brings to any discussion an uncanny ability to hear and consider alternative perspectives and approaches. He practically provides a template for volunteer leadership.’”

A smile comes easily to Myers' face when he contemplates this larger notion of UCAA’s role, the connectivity that weaves through it, and the unity inherent in the UC family. When he saw the wisdom in heeding his grandfather’s counsel, he fell further in love with UC, and that passion has only intensified over the years. He cherishes the full scope of the relationship he shares with his fellow alumni — from paving the way for others to benefit from their lifelong UC journey as he has done, to the unique snapshots that depict the joy that comes from doing so.