Thank goodness, Buck stops here

It's not everyday you meet a molecular biologist with business savvy and strong social skills.

Maybe that's why University of Idaho President Duane Nellis was so eager to enlist the services of Charles Buck as the institution's leader in our neck of the woods.

To clarify, this Charles Buck is not the Charles Buck you already know. The latter - Chuck Buck - brought his world-famous knife manufacturing business from California to Kootenai County several years ago. But the Buck boys might have more in common than you'd guess.

Tucked neatly into his curriculum vitae is a descent - our word, not his - from the ivory tower of higher education into the real world of business. Buck left Emory University in Atlanta to be the chief scientific officer for Oridis Biomed in Austria. He described the career change as a move from discovery to producing commercial products.

"It was a bit of an eye-opener for me," he told The Press editorial board last week. It was an eye-opener, Buck said, in part because he realized there were some very intelligent people in business, too - not just in academia.

We confess to being enthusiastic about Buck's arrival in North Idaho and the harbinger of good things academic and economic his presence brings. Someone who can plot the progress of human genome research in the morning and then brainstorm business recruitment and retention strategies with economic development guru Steve Griffitts in the afternoon can't help but appeal to the academic- and business-minded alike.

Buck clearly has his eye on the prize. He'd like to help mold North Idaho's unusual higher education structure - a strong community college and university presence with programs ranging from vocational/technical training to an Executive MBA - into a national model. And it isn't a piece of parchment hanging on a wall that gets him going: It's someone making a good living producing valuable products for society.

"At any point in that continuum," he said of the community college to advanced degree model, "the student can jump out and create economic opportunity."

A native of Caldwell, Idaho, Buck's academic credentials are outstanding. But as he and his family acclimate to life here, you can be certain he won't sequester himself in any ivory towers.

"Businesses are what drive communities," he said.

And that's why we like him in the driver's seat.