Professor Roth's Skidmore career spanned more than three decades and included service as the College's Dean of Faculty, Acting President, and Interim President. (Left: leading the faculty procession at Commencement 2010.)- Phyllis A. Roth, longtime professor of English and former dean of the faculty who served as both acting and interim president of Skidmore College, died March 25, 2012, in Saratoga Hospital, of complications from pancreatic cancer.