His Ohio State roots run deeper than Michael Jenkins on a post pattern, and on Dec. 31, Alumni Association president and CEO, Dan Heinlen, will retire after 38 years of service.
After acting as president for 30 years and relocating from the small east wing of the Fawcett Center to a brand new $11 million alumni house in October 1999, Heinlen has accomplished more things than he could have imagined.
Heinlen was born in Columbus and roamed around the OSU campus as a youngster.
“When I was 12, I walked all over campus,” Heinlen said. “I would go to places like Long’s. I knew it real well.”
Heinlen’s parents were both graduates of OSU, and his father was a member of the marching band. One of his grandmothers was a cook in Baker Hall, and his other grandmother was a secretary for the Department of Entomology. Even his great aunt was involved with the university as the director for the School of Home Economics.
“I was enrolled in the Campbell Hall nursery school,” he said. “My mother was a part-time teacher in home economics and my dad worked for the YMCA in Chillicothe.”
Heinlen remembered when we would tie on an apron and help the football players bus dishes in Baker Hall.
“I was real young, and everyone else was much bigger. I bussed dishes while the football players sat and talked to the ladies,” Heinlen said before laughing.
Going into the eighth grade, Heinlen and his family moved to a town just outside of Pittsburgh. When it came time for him to go to college, he decided OSU was just too big for him.
“I was overwhelmed at the size of the campus,” he said. “The dorms were bigger than my hometown.”
He attended smaller Thiel College in Greenville, Penn., but would come back to work in Columbus during the summer.
“I had a summer job at Lazarus, making $1.25 an hour,” he said.
He decided to transfer to OSU after his freshman year and was put on academic probation for a quarter until he did well. He then realized what college was all about.
During his time at OSU he served as president of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, vice president of Ohio Staters, Inc., executive director of the Fraternity Affairs Office and was a member of Sphinx, the senior honorary.
Heinlen graduated in December 1960 with a degree in social work and went to work as the director for the YMCA outside of Pittsburgh.
Heinlen became a member of the Alumni Association staff in 1965, and was hired as president in 1973. The alumni secretary, John Fullen, was retiring, and the Board of Directors hired Richard Mall, professor of speech and communication, to replace him.
“He had his own television show from 1965 to 1968 on Channel 10. It was called ‘Traffic Court,’ ” Heinlen said. “Mall was the judge on the show and very popular. He was a very smart guy. In August of 1973, at the age of 54, he dropped dead of a heart attack. There were around 144 applications to replace him, and they hired me.”
The Association started in 1879 and has been going strong since.
“There are over 200 alumni clubs and 58 alumni societies around the world,” he said. “We also put out an alumni magazine at least eight times a year.”
The Ohio State Alumni Association is the second largest dues-paying association in the country, behind Penn State’s.
“We have to appeal to a broad variety of people,” Heinlen said. “It’s like playing a piano. You need to play the right keys to get the right harmony. Some people want different things.”
He said they research their alumni to see what types of things they like participating in.
“We use the talents and assets of what we have at the university to appeal to their interests.”
There are over 123,000 members in the association, and in comparison to the size of the university’s classes over the past 120 years, it seems like there should be more.
“There are about 327,000 to 350,000 alumni with good addresses. We have roughly 36 to 37 percent of those,” he said. “It is the second highest percentage of alumni membership in the country, behind the Naval Academy who has around 98 percent.”
When something happens on campus, like a riot, the association usually gets letters from their members expressing unhappiness.
“Those things don’t really affect membership, but it does affect a sense of pride,” Heinlen said. “People join out of a sense of loyalty and a sense of what they did when they were here. When something like that happens, people don’t unjoin. They are more stable than that.”
Heinlen will turn 66 in November and said he is in no rush to retire.
“It just makes sense to leave while on top,” he said with pride. “My wife always told me to leave the audience wanting more. I wanted to leave when things were good, not bad. And with a national championship under our belt, it can’t get much better than that.”
For over 28 years, he has been consulting for other alumni associations, and plans on continuing.
“They will ask me to come in and look at the organization to see how it’s doing; what’s right, what’s not,” he said. “I will also try to be available to our university if they need me.”
For now he plans on reconnecting with his family and living in his soon-to-be remodeled home in southern Delaware County.
“I have three daughters: a vet, a poet and a radiologist,” he said. “My wife and I also just became grandparents for the first time. That’s pretty exciting.”
But no matter what he chooses to do, he will be missed by many at the university, in a variety of capacities.
Dr. Bob Moser, vice president of University Outreach and Agricultural Affairs, said he has known Dan for about 15 years, and in that time he has seen him as a tremendous leader for the Alumni Association.
“I’ve known Dan for the nine years I have been here, as our departments have a strong relationship and have worked together on a number of activities,” said Andy Geiger, OSU athletic director. “He is a good friend and it is hard to believe that we will be doing all the things we do without Dan in his role.”
David Frantz, secretary of the Board of Trustees and a professor of English, said he has known Dan for over 30 years, and some of their interactions go beyond the university setting.
“We’ve played tennis and gone to bowl games together,” Frantz said. “Dan’s a person whose judgment matters. Through the good times and the rough times he has always been a very positive voice. He has really helped the Alumni Association grow.”
At this point, no one knows who Heinlen’s successor will be, but Dan hopes that person won’t keep the association at the status it’s at. He hopes they improve it dramatically.
“They’ll need the ability to keep lots of balls in the air at one time,” he said.
On the coffee table in his office sit a few magazines covered with national championship glory alongside a bucket of buckeyes.
“I go to all the home football games, and I think coach Tressel is a miracle worker,” he said with a bright smile.
Regarding the Buckeyes national championship, Heinlen said, “I told my friend, ‘You don’t have to ask how I am for the next nine months.’ “
