Police investigators plan to question George C. Roche III, the suspended president of Hillsdale College, about the apparent suicide of his daughter-in-law, amid rumors that he had been carrying on a long-term affair with her.
"We have no reason to believe it was anything other than a suicide," Hillsdale (Mich.) Police Detective Brad Martin said of the October 17 death of Lissa Roche, who apparently shot herself to death and whose body was found on the campus of the conservative college. "We want to interview people who might have knowledge of the death who have so far been unavailable."
Mr. Roche has reportedly been on his honeymoon in Hawaii. He was married in September. Ms. Roche, who had worked at the college for 15 years, quit her job about the same time as the marriage, according to several former and current faculty members. But she was persuaded to return, and had resumed working at Hillsdale shortly before her death.
One professor, who insisted on anonymity, said that rumors of an affair between the president and his daughter-in-law dated to 1990. Mr. Roche divorced his wife of 44 years earlier this year. His daughter-in-law was managing editor of Imprimis, a newspaper filled with conservative and Libertarian articles about social and political topics that was a leading fund-raising tool for the college. While not affiliated with any religious denomination, Hillsdale advertises itself as a Christian college that aims to build character in its students. The college refuses all federal money, allowing it to be exempt from federal affirmative-action laws and many government rules.
The Hillsdale Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet today to talk about Mr. Roche's future at the college. The trustees placed him on a leave of absence last week without explanation. Since then, the campus has been alive with rumors about what led to the suspension.
The Hillsdale Liberation Organization, a student group that is critical of the administration, posted a statement last weekend on the World-Wide Web saying that Mr. Roche was under investigation for many things, including the alleged affair with Lissa Roche. "We've heard this from too many sources, and too many reliable source [sic] to discount," the statement reads.
Several former and current faculty members told The Chronicle that the alleged affair was being openly discussed on the campus. Mr. Roche could not be reached for comment.
Ronald L. Trowbridge, Hillsdale's vice-president for external programs and communications, said he could not comment on the rumored affair, or whether it was the cause of Mr. Roche's suspension. "I can't respond to that. That's just not something I can talk about," he said.
Detective Martin said the investigation into Ms. Roche's death remained open. The police department is still awaiting the results of an autopsy and an analysis of fingerprints on the gun used in the shooting.
Hillsdale, Mich.
The president of conservative Hillsdale College, George C. Roche III, resigned under fire Wednesday, emphasizing "integrity, values and courage," even as rumors continued to swirl that an affair with his daughter-in-law had led to his undoing.
Mr. Roche's retirement was announced after the Board of Trustees met to consider his future at the college, which he has led for 28 years. He spoke to the trustees, then quickly left the campus without answering questions. His retirement letter was dated Tuesday, and was effective immediately.
The trustees, in a statement, said, "The combined pressures of his personal health and private family life make this step necessary." Mr. Roche, 64, suffers from diabetes, and was hospitalized as recently as last month. His private life has been tumultuous. In April, he divorced his wife of 44 years, June. She has cancer. In September, he remarried. His daughter-in-law, Lissa Roche, died October 17 on the college's campus here of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hillsdale police officers have interviewed Mr. Roche in connection with the shooting. The Detroit News reported Wednesday that Mr. Roche said Lissa Roche had confessed to him two days before her death that she planned to kill herself. Since her death, rumors of an affair between her and Mr. Roche have swept across this small, wooded campus in rural southern Michigan.
The reputation of the college makes the allegations against Mr. Roche all the more shocking. He has made the institution a darling of conservatives by refusing all federal aid, a status that allows Hillsdale to ignore such policies as affirmative action and gender equity in athletics. As contributions have poured in, primarily from conservatives and libertarians who are attracted by the college's emphasis on free-market economics, the institution has gone from near bankruptcy to having an endowment of $172 million.
Two prominent conservatives, William J. Bennett and William F. Buckley, Jr., both of whom have been associated with the college and Mr. Roche in the past, agreed to serve with three trustees on the search committee for a new president.
Mr. Roche, in his letter to the trustees, wrote: "Together, we have built a wonderful dream. We have proven that integrity, values and courage can still triumph in a corrupt world. Hillsdale College is a monument to those beliefs."