McDaniel selects new chair of Board of Trustees

Retired Lt. Gen. Otto J. Guenther has been selected to lead McDaniel College as the new chair of the College’s Board of Trustees.

A 1963 alumnus, Guenther majored in Economics and was a member of the Green Terror Battalion Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program. He was also in the College Choir and chaplain of the Gamma Beta Chi fraternity, as well as played intramural sports. 

Guenther served in the U.S. Army for 34 years and has received numerous military awards and decorations. In 1995, he became the U.S. Army’s first chief information officer and was the director of Information Systems at the Pentagon until his retirement in 1997.

After retiring from his military career, he became vice president and general manager for the federal division of Computer Associates. He then became general manager and corporate executive vice president of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems’ Tactical Systems Division.

Since 2006, he has served on the Board of Trustees at McDaniel. He has served as vice chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee and chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee, as well as on the Executive Committee, Enrollment Management Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. Additionally, he is a member of the Western Maryland College Heritage Society and mentors students in the college’s ROTC program. He received the College’s Trustee Service Award in 1996, the Alumni Community Service Award in 2013 and the Alumni College Service Award in 2016. 

Currently a resident of both Fairfax Station, Va., and Bradenton, Fla., he is chairman of the board of directors for Widepoint Corporation. He also supports the Lorton Community Action Center and Rising Hope Mission Church.  

Guenther replaces Martin K.P. Hill, who has served on the College’s Board of Trustees since 1993 and as chair since 2007. Hill began his relationship with McDaniel in 1990 when his daughter, Jennifer Hill Bubczyk, a 1993 alumna, transferred to the College.