Dean Rocki-Lee DeWitt said it best, when she made the following tribute to Prof. Averyt at the Celebration:   

Bill Averyt, you have served the University of Vermont with distinction as a specialist in international trade and public policy.  While one might not expect a Phi Beta Kappa, Fulbright Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fellow or Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Grantee to become business school faculty, we have certainly benefited from your career choice. 

You have embraced lifelong learning and have been an ongoing source of curriculum improvement.  Your immersion in the Spanish language, your leadership of the FIPSE grant, and your initiation of our cross-institution collaboration with Concordia University are recent examples of your passion for helping us understand the global marketplace.  The same can be said of your research.  Whether your scholarship is examined through your work on U.S.-Canadian relations in the energy sector or is seen through your study of global standards for domain names, you always seek to apply what you have learned to the next context. 

We are stronger and more resilient for the voices you have brought to our attention.  In your writing and in your involvement in the school’s policy-making, you challenge us to consider policy implications from the perspective of all parties.  You hold us accountable for questioning our privilege and the conclusions we reach with expedient categorization into “good” and “bad.” 

Above all, you leave a legacy for serving the needs of our graduate students.  Be it through instructional responsibilities for the capstone class, faculty leadership of the International Case Competition team, or administrative leadership of the MBA program, you have never let us forget that graduate student contributions enhance our overall quality.  For the cadre of future business leaders and world citizens you have helped develop, we will be forever grateful.

All of us at the School wish Bill the very best in the years to come.