Jo and I remember so clearly our interview with the Board at the Red Lion Inn, our first contact with New River Community College and we rememberequally well our farewell party with the NRCC family. Both events were exciting, emotional and a little frightening, and they serve as great “bookends” for the best six years of our lives.

     The first years were exciting times. The college was established despite many objections and expressions of skepticism from throughout the community.

     So many leaders and citizens in the New River Valley thought that Radford College (later University) and Virginia Tech served all the need for people who wanted a “college” education and that the New River Vocational Technical School served all of the need for vocational training.  But other visionaries saw the need and the record of successes at NRCC have proven them to be correct!

     I never would have been a part of NRCC had it not been for the opportunity provided by NRCC Board leaders, Stanley Godbey and D. L. Kinnear, and Chancellor Dana Hamel. Those wonderful people took a chance on a young and inexperienced administrator who had served only 18 months as Dean at Wytheville Community College and allowed me to join the most outstanding team of professionals with whom I have ever worked. More important than the chance taken by the Board and the Chancellor was the patience of the faculty and staff as they tolerated my mistakes and helped me grow as a leader. Together we began the journey toward making NRCC one of the most successful comprehensive community colleges in the nation.

     NRCC began early to build on the early success of the extremely well-designed technical programs that were transferred from the Vocational Technical School to create what soon became recognized the best of Virginia’s technical programs. Not only did those programs serve local needs, enhancing the region’s attractiveness to new industries, NRCC technical graduates were sought by industries throughout the state and for some programs, throughout the nation. During our time together the NRCC team was noted for its work with local and state economic development officials as a number of new industries were attracted to he New River Valley and provided hundreds of new jobs for the citizens.

     Enrollment grew every year and exceeded projections by the state as increasing numbers of students, including recent high school graduates, adults returning to school and others found that NRCC did indeed offer programs and services that were not duplicated by Radford College and Virginia Tech and had not been offered by the New River Vocational Technical School.  The college flourished because of the vision and support from so many leaders at the local and state levels but even more because of the faculty and staff that made up the New River Community College family.

     Faculty and staff absolutely were dedicated to “students first,” perhaps best exemplified by their volunteering to teach extra class loads for no additional compensation just to make certain that students were able to maintain their progress in their programs and graduate on time.

     I believe that the most significant accomplishment of the NRCC team during the first six years was the development of a firm commitment to “students first” and a sense of community among the faculty and staff that remains today. That sense of community probably is the most significant cause for the extraordinary stability in the faculty and staff that has seen so many remain at NRCC to this day, not the least of which is the current president, Jack Lewis.