A walk across campus with Bob Squatriglia is a revealing slice of Coastal life. On his way to a SGA/ Student Senate meeting, he deals affably with a problem student, warmly greets a staffer who is battling cancer —“You never know when a kind word can make the day of someone who needs it badly”—and wonders why a large, inflatable shark is floating in the pond on the way to the Wall Building.

Earlier, “Dr. Bob,” as students fondly know him, slipped out of an orientation meeting to deal with 300 middle schoolers who unexpectedly showed up for a campus tour. He made certain the group was fed lunch and provided with a good campus tour. Later, he will send the staffer who dropped the ball to the school with a stuffed Coastal mascot in apology. “We don’t want to leave them with a bad taste” says the man who has been an ambassador for this university both on campus and off for 26 years.

Squatriglia (right) helps break ground for the new student center in 1978. He has been instrumental in developing student-oriented facilities on campus.

He is practically a Pied Piper, gathering a trail of students as he walks from building to building, usually on his way to one meeting or another. One student wants to talk about career choices; one has a continuing problem with another student; still another is upset that a group photo is being taken and she is dressed in gym attire. He consoles her by telling her she looks great—he is a people person, and dealing with people comes naturally to him.

In June, the vice president for Student Affairs retired from his post, an office that centers around students and the quality of their time on the Coastal campus.

Outside his office in the Prince Building, a wall full of framed quotes presented his life philosophies. One called “The Student Is…” encapsulates his modus operandi:

The student is…
The most important person on the campus. Without
students, there would be no need for the institution…
Not a cold enrollment statistic but a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions like our own…
Not someone to be tolerated so that we can do our own thing. They are our thing.
Not dependent on us. Rather, we are dependent on them.
Not an interruption of our work, but the purpose of it. We are not doing them a favor by seeing them. They are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.

Coastal staffers who have worked with Squatriglia for a number of years are quick to point to this philosophy as a strength of his. “Throughout 26 years he always preached the same story,” says Pat Singleton-Young, director of multicultural student affairs. “It’s always about the student. He truly felt that [serving the students] was his goal, and that’s what he tried to do.”

Another strength, according to Kim Montague, director of residence life, is his willingness to listen and to be fair. “It’s been an interesting 16 years we’ve worked together. I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ll miss the open communication. Bob and I can agree to disagree, and that’s an important thing.” Another valuable trait is his belief in positive motivation—just telling people how much he appreciates them, especially when they do a good job, the residence hall director says.

He always kept a 12-pack of Dr. Bob soft drinks in his office to hand out to students, staff, anyone who did a good job and deserved a little recognition. (Dr. Bob is Bi-Lo’s store version of Dr. Pepper.)

It hasn’t all been work, though. Some of it has been pure fun and zany experiences. Montague recalled an episode that occurred years ago that is now referred to by those in the know as “The Great Christmas Wreath Caper.” It all started when a group of residence hall students decided to go “borrow” some holiday decorations from the homes of the nearby Quail Creek community. They returned with some nice door wreaths, red bows, strings of lights and an electric Santa Claus.

“They came back and were all excited, saying, ‘Oh, we got this great stuff!’” related Montague. “But unbeknownst to them, they had hit Bob’s house and neighborhood. One kid was even from his hometown and knew him pretty well. One of the other kids said, ‘You dummy! That was Squatriglia’s house!’” Needless to say, the loot was returned pretty quickly by a sheepish bunch of students who ended up doing a fair amount of community service for their thwarted collegiate prank.

Squatriglia has a special place in his heart for fellow hometown people—hometown is Naugatuck, Conn.—and even hosts cookouts for student Naugatuckians. At the most recent one, he gave prizes of Peter Paul Almond Joy bars (made in Naugatuck) to those who correctly answered his hometown quiz—what was the uniform number on the New York Yankee player who grew up there? (Most everyone knows Squatriglia is a big Yankees fan.) What was the significant contribution made by hometown hero Charles Goodyear? The banner greeting the guests read “Welcome 06770,” the zip code of the town.
While it hasn’t been all fun either, it has been time well spent, time turning unsure kids into responsible, contributing citizens of the world. He has received a stack of notes, letters and e-mails from former students and colleagues, thanking him for his guidance over the years.

Squatriglia served as a captain in the Airborne Infantry.

“Twenty-six years goes very quickly,” says the man who “came here to build residence halls.” And build them he has: During his tenure, Squatriglia established virtually all of the university’s student services and programs, including authoring the residence master plan in 1986 that resulted in construction of Coastal’s first residence halls the following year. There are now three complexes on campus with 10 dormitory buildings that house some 1,300 students.

And that’s not all. Programs and services he established read like a university catalogue: student center, bookstore, food service, counseling, orientation program, chaplaincy, health and career services, Greek life, international programs, law enforcement and safety, recreation, intramurals and minority student relations. Even university events such as the honors convocation and homecoming are all attributed to his leadership.

Programs on leadership, service learning, diversity and forums on campus issues were established during his tenure. He was elected the first faculty director of the South Carolina area of Omicron Delta Kappa, which includes 13 campuses, and received the ODK meritorious service award last year. He’s been named to Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. In 1985-’86, he was selected by Gov. Dick Riley as one of the 50 outstanding young leaders in the state.

While Coastal has been a vital part of his life, his interests go beyond the campus. “It’s important to give back,” he says, a lesson he learned from his parents and grandparents. He is a board member of United Way of Horry County and a graduate of Leadership Grand Strand and Leadership South Carolina. He is active in his parish, St. James Catholic Church in Conway, a past vice president of the Conway Chamber of Commerce and an active Rotarian since 1978.

Prior to joining Coastal, he was vice president for student affairs at State University of New York at Brockport and associate dean of students at State University of New York at Albany. He also has held positions at the University of South Carolina and the College of William and Mary, his alma mater and the place where he and wife Betty enjoyed their college romance. He also served in the U.S. Army as a captain and company commander, Airborne Infantry.

Family Man: (left) Squatriglia with wife Betty (right); Dr. Bob with two of his five grandchildren in earlier years.

Family is important to Squatriglia, a deeply rooted trait that friends and colleagues are quick to point out. “Bob is always so positive, a good, decent family man, but very firm in his ideas,” said George Williams, a former Board of Trustee member and golfing pal who attends the same church. Candid and studio photos were displayed on bookshelves, walls, tables and his office desk—of Betty, their four children and the five grandchildren in various stages of their lives. A battered yellow backhoe was his son’s favorite toy as a boy. “That’s always been in my office,” he says, launching into the story of the century-old gold ring he wears that bears the initials of his grandfather who lived in Lithuania, his mother’s birthplace.

The Squatriglias visited Lithuania a year ago to attend an international Rotary conference. It was a turning point in his life, he recalls, sharing photos of his cousin Sofjia who showed him the farmhouse of his paternal grandparents. The ring and family connections are fodder for his motivational talks to students and administrators; for him, it is a symbol that puts it all in perspective—family, service, career—all the important elements of a life of service.

Dr. Bob’s service to Coastal hasn’t stopped since he retired. He is now a special consultant to Coastal’s Office of University Advancement, focusing on developing alumni contacts in connection with the upcoming 50th anniversary.

For Bob Squatriglia, a man who always has a quote ready to fit any occasion, these words from St. Francis of Assisi that he read to the last Student Senate meeting of the semester could sum up his motivating force. “Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly, you’re doing the impossible.” For Squatriglia, they are words to live by.

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