Tuesday, October 2, 2001

College President Is Called to Active Duty in Coast Guard By DANA MULHAUSER The president of St. Catharine College was among the 35,000 United States military reservists called to active duty in the week after the terrorist attacks. William D. Huston, a U.S. Coast Guard captain, left the college on September 17. Mr. Huston has telephoned St. Catharine every four or five days from his station in Paducah, Ky., on the Mississippi River. Because he is a specialist in river safety and security, he will probably remain in the United States, according to David Arnold, the college's vice president for academic affairs. There is a chance, however, that he could end up in the Persian Gulf, Mr. Arnold said. Even Mr. Huston himself does not know where he is headed. "I know I will be in charge of 70 men from many different states, but we haven't been told where we are going," he said in a statement before he left the campus. Mr. Huston, 54, has served in the armed forces for 28 years, beginning with four tours of duty with the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. After five years in the Navy, he joined the Coast Guard Reserve, and was promoted to captain just two days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. In 1997, Mr. Huston became the first male president of St. Catharine, a two-year college in central Kentucky founded by Dominican nuns. The college did not have in place a formal plan for responding if he was called to fulfill his military duties. In Mr. Huston's absence, Mr. Arnold and Donna Major, vice president for finance and operations, are running the college. Prior to the 11th, the idea of a Coast Guard reservist being called up to duty was "way beyond the realm of possibility," Mr. Arnold said. Mr. Huston had been called up at least once in the past decade, before he became the college's president, to help control flooding in the Midwest. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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