By Erin Lynn Violette
Staff writer
    On May 15, after spending 12 years as president of Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Cape Elizabeth resident Dr. David House will step down from his post. He said leaving the institution will be bittersweet, but is confident he will be leaving the college in a good position.
    “We’ve just completed the renewal of the college’s master plan,” House said. “The student and faculty base are strong. The college is in a great position and it’s a great time for a new leader to take over.”
    House said the average length of a private college presidency lasts approximately five to six years. He said he had originally taken the job at Saint Joseph’s with the idea of settling in Maine, where he and his wife Susan planned to raise their daughter Stephanie, who is now 17-years-old.
    “We had moved from Maryland to Kentucky,” he said. “My wife and I knew our next move would be important because our daughter would be starting school and we wanted to stay in a place where she could go through school.”
    House said he and his wife are originally from California and when they get ready to move again they may be looking to move to a warmer climate. But before House makes the move to warmer weather, he plans to take a year-long sabbatical to relax.
    “As president I have had a lot of evenings and weekends tied up,” he said. “It will be nice to relax and enjoy a Maine summer. I’ll also be looking forward to going on college visits for my daughter. I need some time for myself and after a year I will take a look and see what is out there.”
    House said whatever future career he chooses – he is sure he will be there until he retires. House said he has considered looking at other college presidencies, but has yet to make any definite plans.
    House said he would miss the faculty, staff and students, for which he said he is very proud of.
    “The faculty and staff are dedicated, they work hard and are highly qualified,” he said. “The students work hard in their fields of study and do great things that go beyond their course of study.”
    He said many of the students at Saint Joseph’s College traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild the devastated city. He said students have also traveled to northern Maine to work with children of the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Princetown.
    “I also have a great deal of respect for the Sisters of Mercy,” he said. “It’s their mission of mercy that has kept this college alive and striving.”
    House said the Sisters of Mercy were a group of Catholic nuns who created the college, which used to be located on Walton Street in Portland. He said the college was moved to its Standish location 56 years ago, because the campus in Portland was outgrowing its location. He said the Sisters of Mercy also created Mercy Hospital in Portland and used to run a number of orphanages in the Greater Portland area.
    “They really are and were a force to reckoned with,” he said. “They did a lot of great things for community.”
    He said although Saint Joseph’s is a Catholic college, students are not required to be Catholic.
    “We have people here of all or no faith. About 60 percent of the students here are Catholic,” he said. “But we don’t determine our Catholic identity by the percentage of Catholic students we have, we identify ourselves as a Catholic institution because our Catholic values are expressed.”
    House said students are required to take a theology and a philosophy course before graduating and the college maintains a strong mission to build character formation of spirit, character and intellectual well-being in each student, which helps the college maintain its Catholic identity.
    While House said he is Catholic, he said he is unsure if the college’s board of trustees will look to hire another Catholic to fill his position.
    “Generally the top two positions at the college – the president and the academic vice president – are Catholic,” he said. “But my predecessor was not Catholic, but he was respectful of the Catholic mission.”
    Although House said he will not be involved in hiring the next president, he said he will be available to the board of trustees should they have any questions or need any advice.
    House said the next president should be a person who has vision, creativity and good leadership skills.
    “I know leadership skills are difficult to define,” he said. “It may sound like a cliché, but as president you need to be able to lead, but you also have to be able to follow. You have to trust the consensus of the community and follow that.”
    Another quality he said the next president should have is the understanding of how good ideas are applied and carried out.
    “It’s easy to think up good ideas,” he said. “but you also have to be able to act on those ideas and have a plan for how to make good ideas happen.”
    “It has been a terrific 12 years,” he said. “It has gone by so fast.”