One day a few days ago, I gave up something I cherished with all my heart and soul.
It was my seat on the board of Ozarks Technical Community College.
I occupied that seat for exactly 20 years. It was time to hang it up, not only because my 84-year-old bones resist action most of the time, but because my head often performs the same way.
It is – was – not only an honor to serve on the board with five other trustees, but an absolute privilege to help over that period of time, to have a part in something like 100,000 students bettering their lives.
It was an awesome honor, but an even greater thrill to see shining faces of the graduates and their families as they marched forward to receive the diplomas that were to insure them better lives.
May I tell you a few highlights?
I was an accidental part of the program simply because of one of those turns of life that occur. When the Springfield school board integrated black students, the at one time brimming Lincoln school was left empty. After considerable thought, school officials decided to turn the facility into a vocational school, with access given to students from a 13-school region around Springfield.
I was nominated to the committee simply because I was a news reporter and at the end of two year study, the steering committee would put the idea to voters. Fortunately, when the time to vote came, they approved. Next, a board of six trustees were elected. I was one of them. The others were Don Wessel, Don Clinkenbeard, Dee Brooks, Jackie McKinsey and a Bill Banta.
The next step was to find a seasoned president. We borrowed $36,000. We advertised for applicants for the job of president, and out of 130 applicants sorted out Norman K. Myers, a Missouri native, then-president of a college in South Carolina who, with his wife Pat, was anxious to return to Missouri.
Finding adequate facilities for the college took a full year. Headquarters for five years was part of the old Burge Hospital, plus the former Graff Vo-tech and space in a former shopping center.
Success knew no bounds. The first permanent facility was built with $5 million borrowed dollars. And that was only the beginning. By then OTC could hardly keep up with demand, and enrollment steadily climbed through the years so that more facilities had to be created.
Also outlying education centers were created in half a dozen or more counties, and more are being planned yet.
It is tough to step down from such a wonderful organization, but Father Time sets his clock. Don Wessel and I, about the same age, received the first two six-year terms, and decided it was time to cash in our chips as two new trustees were elected.
Wessel and I were given the status of Trustees Emeritus. It was the last thing – and the nicest – ever we could have hoped for.
But OTC roars on, building new quarters for an ever-increasing enrollment. Dr. Myers retired about two years ago, and replacing him was Dr. Hal Higdon.
No sooner, though, were Don and myself mustered out in a ceremony to end all ceremonies, than a new board of directors was created.
Taking over the operation were Larry Snyder, as president, Jackie McKinsey, vice president, Dolores Brooks, secretary, J. Howard Fisk, treasurer, Dr. Maryellen Stratmann and Don Clinkenbeard, who presided 1998-2000. Then to Dr. Hal Higdon, who stepped in as president following retirement of Dr. Myers and has operations well under control.
And I?
I will remain on the sidelines, cheering my longtime friends and associates on to even greater heights and, hopefully, finding time to take Dr. Myers to see my old fishing hole on Big Piney River.
How lucky can an old country boy get? I would not feel richer if I had been paid a million. Some things in this life just cannot be bought.
