Storied Scarlet Regalia to Walk Anew

A cap and gown that belonged to Bill Bauer—a beloved Rutgers professor and generous supporter of the university—will be worn at commencement ceremonies this year by Jon Oliver, a former student of Bauer and longtime Rutgers faculty and staff member who is completing his Ph.D. exactly 40 years after earning his bachelor’s degree.

Retiring Rutgers University School of Engineering Professor Richard Haber clearly remembers a day early in his career when Bill Bauer, himself then a retiring Rutgers engineering professor, stopped by his office with a Scarlet and black cap and gown on a hanger.

“He said, ‘I’ve got something for you,’” says Haber, who is retiring as professor and director of the Ceramic, Composite, and Optical Materials Center in the school’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. 

Bauer, a faculty member from 1947 through his retirement in 1993, had worn the regalia made for the Rutgers 1966 bicentennial commencement in multiple ceremonies over the years.

“I told him, ‘You can't give that to me,’” says Haber, who began as a freshman at Rutgers in 1978 and earned three degrees at the university. “He looked at me and said, ‘What am I going to do? Run around my yard naked, putting on regalia and saying I’m a professor? No. I want you to have it. You’re a Rutgers person.’”

Haber says that Bauer, who also held three Rutgers degrees, gave the regalia to him with one condition. “He said, ‘When you retire, you find somebody in the Rutgers family who can wear it.’”

Now that Haber is retiring, he chose to pass the regalia on to Jon Oliver, who will soon earn his third Rutgers degree. Oliver, who earned a bachelor’s in 1985 and a master’s in 1993 in ceramic engineering, will receive his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering on May 14.

Oliver began working on his doctorate years ago, but a busy career of teaching and administration positions at Rutgers slowed down his progress—most recently he has served as chief of staff for the Office of the Chancellor at Rutgers–New Brunswick, assistant dean for information technology for the School of Communication and Information, and chair of the Rutgers University Senate. In 1999, Oliver was honored with the universitywide President’s Award for Excellence in Administration. 

In recent years, he became determined to finish the doctorate. “This has been my lifelong goal,” he says.

Oliver knew Bauer well and credits him with good guidance when he was a young staff member in his early 20s who was often mistaken for an undergraduate. When he asked Bauer for advice about his plight, Bauer, who had served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and was promoted to the rank of major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, told him, “You need to put on a shirt and tie, and then people will start looking at you as a professional and not just a student.”

Bauer, a generous donor to Rutgers Athletics, died in 2015 at the age of 95. The Bauer Track and Field Complex in Piscataway is named for him and his late wife, Barbara.

Oliver says Bauer was exceedingly kind with his mentoring, as was Haber. He plans to proudly wear the regalia worn by both in upcoming commencement ceremonies, including his doctoral hooding at the School of Graduate Studies Ph.D. convocation.

“It’s an honor to me because of the continuity and the love I have for the university for all these years,” Oliver says.