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"I am going to be a used university president," Trachtenberg said in an interview with The Hatchet. On Aug. 1, Johns Hopkins University Provost Steven Knapp will become GW's 16th president, replacing Trachtenberg, who has spent 19 years at GW's top post.
But idle years on the lot are not in store for Trachtenberg.
"I am too young to slow down," a 69-year-old Trachtenberg said. "Having done this for 20 years, it is interesting to do something else, once I realized there was something else."
Trachtenberg said he is going to teach, write books, consult and sit on two foundation boards - the Bankiter Foundation and the Chiang Chen Industrial Charity Foundation.
"It is a different type of busy," Trachtenberg said. "Not as ordered as before."
Francine Trachtenberg, his wife, said that her husband's retirement would not be consumed by rest and relaxation.
"It is not retirement of the 1950s," said Francine Trachtenberg. "It is a change in routine and lifestyle."
Trachtenberg said his first order of business after becoming president emeritus in August will be to move from Rice Hall to his new office at the School of Media and Public Affairs building.
"I have 20 years of accumulated stuff. I have to clear out all of those hippos and plaques," said Trachtenberg of his current office. "I also have to make a schedule and reinvent myself."
In the fall, Trachtenberg will start his new position at GW - as a professor of public service in the graduate School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Trachtenberg said he plans to design courses that will draw upon his experience in higher education.
"My primary focus is going to be developing courses that have a synergy," Trachtenberg said. "I will try to write some stuff that will be interesting about higher education."
