HERE TO SERVE

Dr. Chris Gibson, the new president of Siena College, is featured in the latest installment of The Evangelist’s interview series. Gibson talked with Editor Mike Matvey in August about his deep Catholic roots, a life-changing experience in Haiti, the Franciscan spirit and being a ­servant-leader.

Chris Gibson has packed a lot of life into his 56 years, much of which has been framed by the idea of service. The current president of Siena College — the first non-friar to be named to that position — who began his five-year term on July 1, is a graduate of Siena College and a former officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of colonel. He served tours in the First Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq and received four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. Gibson, who lives in Kinderhook with his wife Mary Jo, is also a published author, has a Ph.D. in government from Cornell, taught politics at West Point, and, as a member of the Republican Party, served as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 20th congressional district from 2011-13 and for New York’s 19th congressional district from 2013-17.

TE: Tell me about your upbringing?

CG: My family is a pretty classic Irish-American family in that they were all working class and also Catholic, very Catholic. My dad was a laborer, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. My family — like a lot of Irish Catholics — started in Brooklyn, moved to Queens, then moved to Long Island. I was born in Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, Long Island. And at the age of 31⁄2, we moved upstate. My dad was the oldest of seven children and some of his siblings eventually followed him, but for my period of growing up, I had one foot upstate (Kinderhook), but also we would go back to Long Island where the extended family, including my grandmother and grandfather, lived. But my upbringing was pretty classic, pretty much what an Irish Catholic family experience would look like. We were definitely involved in the Church. I was a lay Eucharistic Minister, so I would participate in that way in the Church.

I played school ball from the time that became organized but, of course, CYO predates that. I was involved in CYO athletics as well, basketball, and went through all the sacraments that Catholics go through. Dad was pretty strict to be candid. That made for some interesting philosophical moments just being a young, curious lad and watching all that unfold. My dad was pretty typical, and I loved him dearly, but also feared him quite frankly. ... We were, and are, part of St. John the Baptist, that’s our parish in the Town of Kinderhook, but it is actually in Valatie.

TE: So your faith has always influenced your life?

CG: Without question. I have a deep belief in God and it actually ties into philosophy. I have written a couple of books, so “Rally Point,” in Chapter 4, I talk about faith. I think a lot of humans struggle with this notion of ‘Why are we here?’ And to me, I think why we are here is to complete God. If you think about it, God is perfect. God is omnipresent. How we complete God is we’re imperfect. God created us with free will to do with it as we saw fit. But God hopes that we choose to connect with him. I think we are naturally outfitted that when we make choices that connect with God, we actually get an intrinsic reward. That warm feeling you get when you help somebody, I think that’s when we connect with God. So in that way, there is a biological component to this philosophical belief I have. And it is intensely personal and theological because I think that’s why we are here as humans.

We really help bring a unity to the universe. When we make these choices, think about what the Bible says, Jesus said, ‘When you love another, you love me.’ So that’s tied to this. When we help others, when we serve others, we get this intrinsic reward, we also connect with God. Because I have felt this really since my awakening, which I really credit to Siena. Because I have long had these views, I have never had these existential moments like, ‘Why is there evil in the world?’ To me, it actually ties to this notion that we have free will, and it is up to us what we do with it.

TE: Talk about how the Franciscan ideals have influenced your life?

CG: The decisions I made in my professional life … I was inspired by St. Francis. St. Francis was a soldier first. He had his epiphany after being a prisoner of war and he felt deep depression and lack of meaning in life and he had this epiphany and he realized he was on earth to serve and serve God and the best way to serve God was to serve others. That has been instrumental. The Franciscan heritage and the Franciscan spirit that is really inculcated here at Siena College played an instrumental role in my life. And it helped me in some of the hardest moments I have had in life.Even deciding to serve in Congress was the same thing: the idea of service. When people would meet me after a period of time, they are like, ‘You are not a typical politician.’

Well, first of all, that’s hard on the ears. It is not unfair to call me that, but it’s still hard for me to take because I don’t view myself as a politician. I believe in a self-governing people and that means for all of us for a period of time, we may need to volunteer. You step forward and you serve in office for a period of time and you come back to the community. It was very much influenced by my faith and my deep belief in this way of life, this exceptional way of life. And it is also why I am at Siena today, because I believe it’s the best way for me to serve. When I say the world needs more saints, the world needs more Siena saints. This is where it is coming from. But candidly, it is also tied in part to my experiences that I have in Congress. There were many good days, but there were more bad days. So that was very frustrating (and) that left me, not with an existential moment, but it really left me with an important moment of trying to figure out where should I go from here. 

TE: Why did you choose to attend Siena College?

CG: There wasn’t one reason, there were multiple reasons which is not surprising for a 17- or 18-year-old young man or woman. So for me, most immediately, was the baseball program at Siena College. I had delusions of grandeur. I thought I was going to play professional baseball. I had done very well to that point. I played and excelled at Ichabod Crane (High School). I had a very high batting average. I had some offers to go to places, but I chose Siena because Siena had put players in the pros; that they had been drafted. But there is more than reason, because for a young man or woman, pleasing their parents is also a good thing, right? Nobody in my family had ever gone to college, I was the first one ever. But the idea that I would go to Siena College, a Catholic college, put my parents over the moon.

(Due to his commitments to the military and his inability to play summer baseball, Gibson was ultimately cut from the team and that led him on a different path.)

Thank God for that because it allowed for a massive change in my life. First of all, I was underperforming as a student in high school. So faced with the fact that I wasn’t going to play baseball, I really had to come to terms with that. I went from a low-B student in high school and finished 15th in my class at Siena. I graduated Magna Cum Laude at Siena College. I really knuckled down and became a better person in the process; that existential moment where I realized that I had no plan for the future. I really had to be open and that’s what opened me up to the Franciscan experience.

TE: What drew you to military life at an early age?

CG: There were multiple reasons. No. 1 is I did grow up in a family that valued faith, that valued family, that valued community, that valued country. I grew up in a very patriotic family and so serving was something that always attracted me. What I didn’t realize is how long I would serve (Gibson served a total of 29 years, which included five years in the National Guard when he was in high school and college). That was not the plan. I was going to serve the country for maybe three to four years and then go on to other things. But I was definitely moved to serve. But there was also a practical dimension here, too. My parents, as I mentioned, were working class, they couldn’t afford to pay for college. I had to do all that myself. My parents loved me dearly but they just didn’t have the money. They had four kids so they weren’t able to pay for any of my college, so I needed to make money. I joined the day after my 17th birthday. Before I was 17, I had to mow lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow, and I had two paper routes. I had to hustle as a young kid because if I was to have any money at all, I had to earn it. … So yes, I had a strong attraction to serve, but I also needed the money.

TE: What is your most memorable experience in the military?

CG: The story I wanted to tell you really came unexpectedly. I was a Brigade Commander in the 82nd Airborne Division (but in 2010) our family had a calling to come back to run for Congress to try to help the country. So that was all in the works. And then unexpectedly there was this earthquake in Haiti. President Obama, rightfully, ordered the 82nd Airborne Division’s Ready Brigade to go to Haiti to help the Haitian people. That experience, which was about a month, even after four combat tours in Iraq, the most death that I saw was in the aftermath of that earthquake. Port-Au-Prince lost a quarter-million people; it was a devastating earthquake.

And my paratroopers when we first got there, we literally started moving within 12 hours of that earthquake. When we got down there, the immediate mission was search-and-rescue. So we were heavily involved in search-and-rescue and ultimately that transitioned to recovery. We did everything we could to dig people out of situations and deliver water, clean water and food to people. This entire process — that was a United Nations mission — our paratroopers were working alongside many different countries including China, which was an interesting experience. The Chinese would look at us; think about what they were taught about Americans? And now they see Americans with their blouses off, sweating through their 
T-shirts, doing nothing but helping other people. And I could just tell what was on their mind: This was not what they taught us back in China. 

Everything we were doing was about service. We were there to help others and what I learned in this whole experience is that we may have done more to fight terrorism in that mission in Haiti than anything else we did because of the goodwill that was being fostered in every direction. And it really countered a lot of the narrative that’s out there about us. About Americans not being part of the global team and being selfish and here were these American paratroopers, 20 hours a day, doing everything that they could to help the Haitian people. ... I wanted to tell you this story because that is a story that sticks out. In part, was I emotional about it because it was my last mission? Yeah, I am sure that is part of it too, but I was also emotional about it because it was just so incredible to see my paratroopers, my men and women, every day giving everything they had for the purpose of helping others.

TE: Why did you pivot to politics?

CG: Even though I grew up working class — my family didn’t have two nickels to rub together — in many respects I have lived a privileged life because I have lived the American dream. I really believe in this exceptional way of life. I tell you this because I know firsthand that my story just doesn’t work any place else. Every now and then you’ll hear people in the discourse talk about Europe and sometimes even in longing ways. Let me tell you, I lived in Europe for part of my life in the military; my story would never work in Europe. Europe is more stratified than people will ever admit. My first assignment was in Berlin, Germany, when the wall was up, so our allies were France and Great Britain. I was a young officer then out of Siena College and we would do both professional and social events with our allies and when we would do social events with the Brits and the French, the enlisted men would serve us. I tried to keep a poker face but it was very hard for me coming from my background and having enlisted men bring me food as a 21-year-old. And I am thinking this isn’t quite right. This is how strongly I feel about America. I felt a calling to be a part of this and try to do everything I could.

If you research some of my service in Congress, I was on the leading edge of a lot of service-oriented legislation: 21st Century Cures (Act), bringing forth cures and solutions to people who were suffering from Lyme Disease, bringing relief from Hurricanes Irene and Lee. You could quickly see the issues that I focused on and I have a strong record of bringing people together. The Lugar Center, unbeknownst to me, actually ranked me No. 1 in the nation on bipartisan statesmanship in their inaugural report in 2014. But the point of it is, I really felt a calling. I term-limited myself from the moment I got home from the Army, so I wasn’t looking to be a career politician, I just really wanted to make a difference for the country. My motivation was to really get in there and try to turn the arc of the country. I had some really good days but I had more frustrating days than good.

TE: How can the current toxic nature of politics be changed?

CG: That is exactly why I am at Siena. I am trying to help forge the next generation of leadership. This is why I do have rather high aspirations for Siena College. We have   what some might describe as ambitious plans in terms of our national recognition but the whole purpose of which is because I believe the world needs more saints. The world needs more Siena saints. But that I think is the answer. You need leaders that are molded in the image of St. Francis. This is about service and leadership, service-oriented leadership. These Franciscan values are for all people for all times and for all faiths. That is the thing about the Franciscan tradition and St. Francis himself had this special moment with Damietta. In his personal life, he brought faiths together. These are values that transcend any one particular religious faith even though I adhere and feel summoned to the Catholic faith. That’s my response to you. I believe that this incredible way of life, this very special experiment that was flawed from the very beginning but as Dr. (Martin Luther) King said, ‘The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice.’ Why is it that the arc of history bends toward justice?

It is in part because the United States of America formed a government with the people in charge and with a sense of accountability. So when folks like Dr. King went to Washington and said, ‘I am here to cash a check. ... I refuse to believe that the wealthiest country … would be bankrupt at the bank of justice.’ He said, ‘I am here that we would live up to what we put on paper.’ That’s really what has moved me. That’s why Dr. King has been a hero of mine since eighth grade. Actually it was also personal, because my dad was out of work then, and when I learned that Dr. King went to Memphis for sanitation workers, it really uplifted me. Because when your dad is out of work it really hurts the self-esteem of a young man or woman, so I really affiliated with Dr. King in terms of the moral leadership that he was bringing our country. So that is what summoned me to government and I still believe in that. In as much as I am certainly disappointed, to say the least, about the state of the country, I believe that our best days are still in front of us but to get there, we are going to need leadership and that is why I am at Siena College.

TE: Do you feel the weight of being the first non-Friar to lead the college?

CG: My first reaction is I feel deeply Franciscan. I am not a friar but I feel deeply Franciscan. I feel an affinity with all of our friars here and they play a leadership role on campus. I have a vice president for Mission, Father Mark (Reamer) is a top advisor. He plays a key and essential role in every decision that I make. We walk together in unity to keep this heritage and tradition strong. The Franciscan spirit is why we exist, it really is why we have Siena College. There isn’t a waking moment that’s not top of mind for me. I don’t feel the weight of the world because I have so many awesome people that are doing this with me. I am not alone. We all walk together. We are never alone. I certainly understand the high responsibility I have but we share it. This whole community shares in that responsibility.

TE: Do you see a limitless future at Siena buoyed by Franciscan values?

 CG: I think those values are going to always be front and center and permeating this institution. It is why we exist. It is our positional advantage in higher education and, quite frankly, it is what the country needs. And I think the country is going to see this. When I get asked, ‘What’s it going to take?’ We have to realize that the American dream was always two things: It would be a place where anyone could rise to their God-given potential, but the other piece of the American Dream was that we want to set our children up to be in a stronger position than what we inherited so that they could flourish in life. You see at the outset, this Lockean notion, that’s the individualism but there was always this communitarian dimension of America. This idea that we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. We can debate whether or not that is so in Washington, D.C., or even in the New York State capital in Albany, but we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper whether or not it is in our governmental or non-governmental lives. So there is a shared ethic, there is a greater good out there. I think ultimately the fabric of this nation will be strengthened and renewed when we have a leader that uses this communitarian voice. This idea of community and how important it really is that we support one another. And that comes in large measure through faith. It certainly comes with the Franciscan tradition but it really comes with a faith background and I think that’s why faith-based leadership is the kind of leadership that brings the country back together again.

TE: Can that also cure the many social-justice issues affecting our nation?

CG: Absolutely. That is a key priority here. I can tell you it is a top priority for my administration. We have done a recent hire here (George Christian, presidential actions officer). I have somebody right in my own office that’s helping me out with this. … We’ve got two experts in diversity and justice (Matthew Grimes and Jessica Coles) that are actually teaching an equity summit to my first-year seminar professors as we speak. We have so many initiatives that are afoot even in the last five weeks I have been in charge here. Along with overcoming the coronavirus threat and having a successful academic year, pursuing racial justice, those are co-equals right now as far as near-term priorities.

TE: How have you been able to accomplish so much?

CG: I don’t need much sleep, that is a God-given attribute. I have an amazing wife. My wife, Mary Jo, is a licensed, clinical social worker. She is a very strong Catholic. She is a graduate of Catholic University. We have three wonderful children. We are just true believers. We believe this is a calling. That is why humans are on the earth. I think we are here to really connect with God and by doing so we bring a unity to existence. I will also tell you that, over time, what began here at Siena — this life-long learning — is the fusing of faith and philosophy. I am a deep believer in the Aristotelian balance in life and that is the search for virtue which is getting it right, the judgment; all of the virtues of which St. Thomas Aquinas added theological virtues to the moral and intellectual virtues. When people first meet me, some think I’m stoic. Yeah, I have that dimension, that is certainly a legacy of Aristotle, but that’s a little bit of a misnomer but I think more accurately it is this fusing of the faith; this inspirational faith with some of the classic philosophy of Aristotle and that really drives me. It gives me a sense of perspective and balance and really helps me endure the toughest times and I have seen those.

You keep a sense of balance about you even as things occur. And I say to myself, and I wish all national leaders would do this, ‘I am not a victim.’ Even though I have had some low moments in my life, I am not a victim. I am an active participant with strong faith and I believe in my agency and I can make a difference. It is a curious situation because we have some leaders who profess to be strong men, or to be a strong man, when they play the victim all the time. What about your agency? Everyone has a cross that they carry. There is nobody who gets out of this life without bad things happening even to good people. But the question is: What do you do about it? Do you lean into it? Do you find a way to overcome your challenges?

Stay positive, engage, inspire people, rally people, get them to the next objective. Keep moving on.  … I have failed in my life. I got cut from baseball. I didn’t get into Siena College. I didn’t even get into the Commander General Staff College at first. But they will say, ‘You were the No. 1 graduate!’ But I didn’t get in at first. ‘Well you graduated 15th at Siena!’ Yeah, I was wait-listed! I have taken lot of hits in my life. I didn’t take a knee and say, ‘Well, I guess I’m all done.’ As long as I have blood running through my veins, I have a mission. And that mission is to keep moving forward and do my part to really uplift as much as I can in the time that I am here. And someday we’re all going to get to rest. And hopefully we’ll all get the chance to be in heaven. Until that time comes, we really have a duty to live to our God-given potential.