Phillip L. Sirotkin

A Leader in Regional Higher Education Cooperation

Phillip L. Sirotkin, the longtime executive director of the Boulder-based Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), died Wednesday, April 4, after suffering a severe stroke five days earlier.

Sirotkin, who was 83, guided WICHE for 13 years – 1976 to 1989 – during which time the 15-state higher education organization created and extended cost-effective educational programs and opportunities that benefit students and public and private colleges and universities throughout the West.

During Sirotkin's tenure, cooperative, cost-sharing programs were expanded and new ones established to serve undergraduate and postgraduate students, faculty, ethnic minority students, administrators and researchers, and health professionals both on and off campuses and in state capitals.

When he arrived at WICHE, the organization, which was created through an interstate compact in the 1950s, was being challenged politically as being too independent and inadequately responsive to the needs of the member states. "Through tact, persistence, and intelligent strategizing, Phil changed that climate and then built WICHE into a stronger and more respected organization dedicated to state and institutional cooperation," said David A. Longanecker, WICHE's current executive director. Upon retirement, Sirotkin left WICHE in a sound position programmatically, politically, and fiscally.

The official published history of WICHE termed Sirotkin's tenure as years of both consolidation and achievement. Under Sirotkin, "WICHE had become a well-known and welcome contributor in higher education in the West," wrote historian Frank C. Abbott.

Following retirement, Sirotkin's skill at developing collaborative arrangements among state governments and higher education institutions was tapped to help create and establish a higher education compact among 12 states in the Midwest, the only section of the country that did not have a regional agreement. After working with state officials to found the Midwest Higher Education Commission in the 1990s, Sirotkin served several years as a senior adviser to the commission.

Sirotkin came to WICHE as its executive director from the State University of New York at Albany where he was executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs between 1971 and 1976.

He moved into higher education administration after several positions in the mental health field. He was with the National Institute of Mental Health from 1964 to 1971, serving as NIMH associate director during his last four years there. In 1967 he was a member of the first U.S. mission to the Soviet Union on mental health systems and the only member of the delegation who could speak Russian. This mission during the Cold War years exchanged information concerning mental health services in the two superpowers.

Earlier, he was executive assistant to the director of the California Department of Mental Hygiene from 1960-1963, and he helped to establish the mental health training and research program at WICHE between 1957 and 1960.

Sirotkin received his bachelor's degree from Wayne State University in 1945, and his master's degree and doctorate in political science and constitutional law from the University of Chicago between 1947 and 1951. He was an instructor and assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College between 1950 and 1957 when he joined WICHE for the first time to help develop its mental health education program.

During World War II, he served in Army intelligence between 1943 and 1946 when he became fluent in the Russian language.

Sirotkin, who was born in Moline, Illinois on August 2, 1923, had a consuming passion for teaching and education, politics, baseball, and literature.

Phillip Sirotkin's survivors include his wife, Cecille, his daughter, Laurie Sirotkin of Niwot , CO, his son, Steve Sirotkin of Boulder, and three brothers and two sisters.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.