“When David Greene took over as president of Colby College just over a decade ago, he immediately grasped that the campus, set on Mayflower Hill a few miles away from downtown, felt isolated from the community. Even more obvious was that the city had never recovered economically after its mills permanently closed and took with them hundreds of jobs.
“‘The first time I drove through downtown, I saw this town had great history, great bones. But [it was] one that was really struggling,’ Greene recalled. ‘There were so many empty storefronts. The streets were beat up. And there were not many people down here anymore.’
“Where others might have seen obstacles, Greene saw a challenge—and an opportunity. He went to the board of trustees to say the college needed to be part of a change. . . .”