Killeen: F&S a ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of U. of I.

The story of the beech tree at the President’s House was driven mostly by the love the Killeen family had for it – from a toddler grandson to President Tim Killeen and his wife Roberta Johnson Killeen.

Johnson Killeen has been an avid gardener in her time at the President’s House, and she valued the beauty and size of the tree; in the growing season, she’d garden every day and consider the beech tree.

“We were frequently just awestruck by how beautiful that tree was. And those sloping branches, massive, reaching out horizontally and vertically,” she said.

Tree Care on Campus: https://fs.illinois.edu/trees

Once arborists determined that sickness and a center-cut crack meant the tree had to come down, Johnson Killeen was steadfast in her determination to honor the memories held near the tree, including the wedding of her son in 2019 when wedding party members surrounded the tree for group photos.

“Turning it into mulch was just not an option,” Johnson Killeen said. “That’s that’s really offensive. So we thought, well, what could we do? And so we decided that, you know, we would love to have some things made of it.”

And much was produced by F&S: cutting boards, side chairs and tables. Those items, but also the day-to-day work F&S completes, is what Killeen values as not just a steward of the President’s House, but as a decision-maker and thought-leader for how F&S should work.

Killeen on F&S

The President sees crafts and trades, and F&S generally, as essential to the core of the university: “I think it fits in my mind, it fits, naturally in our mission, which is education, societal uplift, and opportunity creation.”

“I’ve been in other universities that don’t have an F&S equivalent,” Killeen said. “So, this is a real jewel in the crown of this university. The fact that you got this kind of level of expertise, craftmanship, artisanal ability, you name it, I think it’s a real asset for everything that’s going on on this campus. I mean, it’s, it’s a huge operation.”

Killeen holds a tremendous “affinity” for woodworking, specifically, and is something he said he would have pursued further if not for his academic career.

“F&S is an important statement of pride for the university, and F&S feels that in these craftspeople. It’s remarkable, the quality of the work,” he said. “And, so, we go out of our way every year to thank everybody from F&S for their work. And just not just the upkeep of the house, which is, you know, an important statement to the community and to the world that this is a big university, important university. Professionalism is clearly there: I mean, there’s pride in them.”

Part of that impact is understanding the larger picture of the university and its budget, and as Killeen mentioned, the ‘activity’ generated by the three campuses.

“The training, teaching; and the economic impact of F&S is huge. The fact that we can manage a big complex university like this. The system has a $9,000,000,000 activity impact on the state. We have 160,000 jobs directly associated with the university. So the fact that we have the ability to actually run and manage, including utilities; this is remarkable.”