��ݮ��Ƶ

As a student, alumnus Bart Gullong vowed to make a difference; he succeeded.

Bart Gullong, a 1970 ��ݮ��Ƶ alumnus, Co-Founder and former Chairman of the Board of Z-Medica, will return to campus as the keynote speaker at ��ݮ��Ƶ’s 188th Commencement. Gullong will address this year’s graduates and their families on Saturday, May 10. The ceremony begins at 1 p.m. in the Dyson Baudo Recreation Center on the ��ݮ��Ƶ campus.

“��ݮ��Ƶ is pleased to have Bart Gullong join us to provide the commencement keynote and welcome the 227 newest members of the Long Blue Line,” Interim President Kathleen Poorman Doughtery said. “Bart’s achievements exemplify how the foundation of a liberal arts education and a commitment to make a difference can change the world. His success truly demonstrates the Pioneer spirit.”

Gullong, an English major at Marietta, remembers late night talks with his fellow students, making a commitment that they would not “accept things the way they were.” Quoting President John F. Kennedy, Gullong vowed to “look at things as they weren’t and ask, ‘Why not?’”

Looking back now, Gullong acknowledges the sense of self and personal mission he developed as a ��ݮ��Ƶ student has played a role in every endeavor he has pursued since. Centering his professional life on those principles developed during college has allowed him to stand firm against people and policies challenging what he believes is the right thing to do.

From Gullong’s days as a Marietta student, through a storied career, and to the commencement dais 55 years later he demonstrates the Pioneer spirit of courage, of determination, and of embracing a challenge in the face of uncertainty or difficulty.

Contribution to Title IX

Gullong’s career includes a history of upholding the commitment he made as a student. The first evidence was as a young graduate student when Gullong—who was a rower, himself—decided to start a rowing team at a high school where he was an intern. Because there were no boys to serve as coxswains, he put girls in those seats. When he was told it was against the rules for the girls to participate he refused to accept that decision and the story became national news. Gullong stood up for his decision and it eventually led him to give testimony before the committee that wrote Title IX. 

“I could have taken the easy route and just found a couple of boys to fill the boat,” he said. "I could have backed off, but this was an opportunity to make a difference. Like my classmates at Marietta, I had a burning desire to make a difference.”

A Life-saving difference

Another of Gullong’s accomplishments, with his Z-Medica partner Frank Hursey, is the introduction of QuikClot, a product that revolutionized how people suffering from life-threatening blood loss due to injury are treated. Although the Air Force and Navy were quick to implement its use when it was introduced, the U.S. Army resisted and even outlawed the product for its soldiers. Gullong stood up for the life-saving treatment all the way to the floor of Congress.

“We knew we had something that was…life changing,” Gullong said. His commitment to "not accept things as they were" altered the battlefield forever.

Before QuikClot was accepted, the number of soldiers’ injuries that led to death on the battlefield — soldiers killed in action — had been 21 percent since the mid-19th century. After the introduction and acceptance of QuikClot the amount dropped to 11 percent. Following Sept. 11, 2001, QuikClot became the first-line protocol for life-threatening blood-loss injuries on the battlefield, saving the lives of hundreds of soldiers and even more civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A storied career

The story of Gullong and Hursey’s triumph with QuikClot was told in the 2023 book, In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took on the U.S. Army, by Charles Barber.

But Gullong's story has many chapters. He was also a rowing coach at Connecticut College, where his team won nationals and competed in the World Championship. He served as the Dean of Students at Southhampton College. And he helped design the Space Shuttle’s fly-by-wire system, which is the way that nearly every commercial airplane is flown today. 

Gullong vowed to make a difference more than 55 years ago; living a life that is a credit to the pioneer spirit, he succeeded.

Gi Smith contributed to this story.