[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]University of Wisconsin Provost Peter Spear will leave the office today for the last time as he retires with his wife and mother in Tucson, Ariz.

Closing the book on more than 29 years of experience at the university — briefly interrupted by five years serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder — Spear said he looks forward to spending time with his wife and mother and, possibly, authoring a book of his own.

"My wife and I don't see this as retirement so much as moving on to another phase in our lives," he said. "We decided we wanted to retire to do new things … we don't see this as becoming couch potatoes somewhere."

Spear added he will remain active pursuing many activities he has been unable to enjoy throughout his busy and relatively uninterrupted career.

"For me, it was partly that I had all my life in mind that I'd like to retire at a young enough age where I could really enjoy retirement activities," he said. "This is — in some ways — is my time to do those things that many people do when they take time out."

Spear was originally to retire at the end of the semester, but moving schedules between Madison and Tucson forced him to adjust his official departure to the end of October, slightly closer to when he would have liked.

"When I first started talking to [Chancellor John Wiley] about it a year ago, I told him I wanted to retire at the end of August," Spear said. "He asked me to stay longer and so I agreed to stay to the end of fall semester."

To fill Spear's position while a search-and-screen committee narrows its quest for a group of potential successors, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Virginia Sapiro will serve as interim provost for the remainder of the semester, effective Nov. 1.

As she prepares for her new position, Sapiro said she is "feeling great" and has been busy meeting with various officials and faculty around campus to continue her role right where Spear left off.

"I'm really grateful for the work Peter Spear has done," she said. "He's left things in great shape."

Sapiro added with the help of others, she is confident the move will be devoid of any major hitches.

"We all work together up here," she said. "And that makes for a good, smooth transition."

Mary Behan, chair of the search-and-screen committee — consisting of 13 faculty and staff members, an assistant dean and two students — said, in a previous interview, the committee is on schedule.

The committee plans to present a group of three to five unranked candidates, from which Chancellor Wiley will formally choose Spear's successor, by the end of the semester.

"There's definitely progress," Behan said.

Behan added she is "very pleased" with the success the committee has had since it was formed in June.

"We're on track," she said. "And I'm feeling pretty good about that."

In light of his retirement, Spear said leaving the campus where he spent the majority of his career is "bittersweet," adding over the years he has seen it climb the ranks from an impressive state college into the "world-class" institution it is today.

"I think one of the most marked changes is the quality of the students," he said. "I don't know any other way to put it — they're brighter, they're smarter."

Spear said the staff at UW has also improved to match the heightened student esteem.

"Also, I think the quality of the faculty and staff has improved," he said. "I think the university as a whole has improved."