William Urban: Presidents I have known - Bill Amy Daily Review Atlas Technically, Bill Amy was never president of Monmouth College. He was acting president for 1979-80 after DeBow Freed left to save the second and third colleges in his career (Monmouth College being the first). DeBow had hired him because he sensed that Bill could be trusted to carry orders out. DeBow was very military in this sense — a reflection of his West Point education, his career as an officer, and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He filled his staff with inexperienced but promising young people, then oversaw their every action. Bill Amy was older, but he was loyal to whomever he worked for.