From tobacco Fields to College President

Source from:  bladenjournal.com 06/30/2004

Born the youngest in a family of six children, Dr. Eric McKeithan, president of Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, says he learned early on that his destiny was not in the tobacco fields of the family's large farm in the Abbottsburg community. Growing up on farm "I can remember distinctly those hot summer days cropping sand lugs and thinking that there must be something better," he said, smiling. "I don't mean to infer that my days of growing up on the farm were bad. In fact I have many fond memories of my life growing up on the farm. "I didn't mind much of the work we had to do, but I never learned to like working in tobacco." "We farmed about 35 acres (of tobacco) on our family farm (a lot of tobacco for one family to farm in those days) and we had to crop tobacco about every day," he said. "And of course, back in those days we didn't have the equipment farmers have today. Everything was done by hand." McKeithan said something his father told him somewhat in jest about going into farming had had an influence on his life choices. "Dad told me to take the money I'd spend to go into farming and go to Las Vegas and gamble it away," McKeithan said, with a twinkle in his eye. "'You'll end up in the same place, but at least you'll have had some fun,' he told me. "Though I knew my dad was joking-he loved farming and wouldn't have traded it for the world-he told me that I suppose to discourage me from considering a career in farming," McKeithan said. "But I learned a lot growing up on the farm. I guess you could say it had a major role in making me what I am today. "I learned a lot about hard work, long hours, and working toward a goal," he explained. "It prepares you for whatever you may face later in life." Attends N.C. State When McKeithan graduated from Bladenboro High School in 1964, his says his family had enough money to send him off to North Carolina State University for the first semester. However, from there on, he had to earn his own way through the remainder of college working part-time. He graduated after four years with a degree in civil engineering and had worked for the last two years of school with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT). He says he eventually realized what he would be doing as a civil engineer with DOT and that became a turning point in his life. Life changes direction "I liked working outside and when I realized that a civil engineer with the highway department wasn't the person who was outside surveying and doing those kind of things-that type of work was done by technicians-I was disillusioned. I found out that civil engineers in the highway department spent most of their time working behind a drafting table. "I knew right then that I wanted to do something else; I just didn't know what," he said. "I was at a crossroads. I was going with my wife at the time (the couple married a short time later), and we were seniors. I told her I was interested in becoming a math teacher. "Something she (an aspiring teacher) told me when I told her that had an immediate impact on me," he said. "'You won't make it!' she told me. 'You can't just throw them (the students) out of class if they don't pay attention! It isn't like it was when we were in high school,' she added. "Instantly I realized she was right and decided I needed to look elsewhere," he said, smiling again. "I soon found out that there was a program called technical education at N.C. State. Based on what I was able to determine about it, it sounded like it was right down my alley. "By luck of the draw, my two years with DOT met the experience requirement in the program. It seemed like it was a perfect match for me, and after I checked it out, I knew it was a perfect match for me. And looking back over the years, I realize that I was right. It has proven to be a perfect match for me." Gets into technical education in Virginia After McKeithan completed the program at N.C. State, he interviewed with a couple of community colleges in North Carolina, but learned that the community college system in Virginia paid more. "I had just married, and I needed to make enough to make a living, so I took a job as head of a drafting technology program at John Tyler Community College in Chester, Virginia," he explained. "The move to that college at that time proved to be a pivotal event in my life, I believe. I fell right into it, and it proved to be a lot of fun." McKeithan said he became interested in administration early in his tenure at the college. It happened because of what he terms a unique set of circumstances that came together which exposed him directly to the duties of administration. "In order to give my students a leg up in job hunting, I contacted the many industries that had facilities in the area around the college," he said. "I not only wanted my students to get a job, I wanted them to get the best job they could get. I felt that if I established relations with the companies, I could find out where the best opportunities were for the students." Becomes involved with industry leaders It wasn't long before McKeithan knew the industry leaders all along the heavily industrialized Richmond - Petersburg corridor. About two years after McKeithan got to the institution, the college established a position they called an Industrial Relations Officer. "They (the college officials) wanted someone to go out and determine the industries' training needs and develop training programs to meet those needs," he said. "Though others who had more seniority than I had applied for the job, I was selected primarily because of the relations I had already established with the various industries. "It (the job) was like I was Brer' Rabbit in the briar patch," he said, laughing. "I was in hog heaven. I couldn't have designed something I would have enjoyed more." However, only three or four months after he was selected for the job, the college faced a financial crisis that threatened its very existence. The school had experienced a 30 percent drop in technical training and an 11 percent drop in overall enrollment. The enrollment drop significantly reduced the amount of funding the college would get and the administrative staff was struggling to finds ways to attract more students. Tapped for recruiting effort "The president and vice president of the college called me in and told me that they had no money to give me to mount a recruiting effort, but asked me to do whatever I could to turn the situation around," McKeithan explained. "I immediately began to touch base with the industries in the area and told them: 'You need welding courses, math, etc. We (John Tyler Community College) already have these courses. ' "I found out that one of the problems was that most of the plants were on shift work and that it was difficult for shift workers to attend standard classes. So we set up classes to meet the needs of shift workers." Another thing McKeithan did to get the word out about the school's technical programs was something he admits he would not have done had he known better. It involved designing a leaflet he printed on a discarded A.B. Dick reproduction machine he had repaired. "During this period I was doing some sales drawings on the weekends for Litton Industries," McKeithan explained. "So I was familiar with how to design this type of literature. I didn't have any money so I had to find a way to reproduce something I could distribute at no cost. "I found a large quantity of pink paper than no one would use-I suppose because it was pink," he said. "The old A.B. Dick machine had not been used in years and would not work at first. But I tinkered with it for awhile until I got it to working. I found some ink for it and reproduced 120,000 of the leaflets." The leaflets had the college information and a schedule of the classes that were being offered. "At that time we were already four weeks into the quarter and we'd be registering students for the winter quarter soon," he said. "I had to find a way to get the brochures distributed. I didn't have any money and after talking to the individual in the mailroom, determined that I could not mail them. "The banks around the area agreed to help distribute them but I knew that would not be enough, so I came up with a plan to distribute them all over the area. I would stuff them in mailboxes in the evenings. "I was green and had no idea it was illegal, so I proceeded with my plan," he explained. "I got my wife and our baby in our Chevrolet and began to drive around the neighborhoods putting the brochures in the mailboxes. My wife drove while I stuffed the brochures into the mailboxes. "We did it every night for two weeks, working late into the night," he said. "However, one night I put one in the mailbox of a postmaster in the area. He called the college the next morning, and asked who was putting the leaflets in mailboxes. "The (college) president had an idea immediately who was putting them in the mailboxes, and asked me about it," McKeithan said. "I told him it was me. He didn't think I'd put many in mailboxes, however. When he asked me how many I had put in mailboxes, I told him about 80,000. You can imagine how he reacted. Needless to say I didn't put any more in mailboxes. "But that proved to be the impetus that had been needed to jumpstart enrollment," he said. "That winter quarter we had the largest enrollment the school had ever had. The following quarter, enrollment was even larger." McKeithan said the president gave him credit for the college's turnaround and that had a big impact on him getting jobs later in administration. In 1974, McKeithan became director of Continuing Education and during his tenure ran the largest continuing education program in the state. Begins working toward becoming president McKeithan said he began to consider the possibility of becoming a college president by the time he was 25 years old, and soon began "filling the squares" he knew he would need to prepare for the job. He completed a master's degree program at Virginia State University in Petersburg in 1975. While still in the master's program, he was admitted into a doctoral program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech), where he earned a doctorate in Community College Administration in 1977. In 1979, he accepted a position as head of a drafting certificate program at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. He remained at the Georgia school for only a year before accepting the position of Vice President of Instruction at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, a job he held for the next four years. Throughout his career until 1983 he continued to teach part-time. Becomes president of Caldwell Then in 1984 he was selected as president of Caldwell Community College in Lenoir. "I hadn't really planned to become a president as early as I did, but after I was nominated by two different individuals, I agreed to interview for the job. I met with them a total of three times before I took the job," McKeithan said. "It proved to be a great move for me. I really liked it there. We had a great program, a great staff, and a great board. It was a good situation." He said he was not considering moving to another position when he was first approached about the job at Cape Fear Community College. "I wasn't thinking of moving from there at the time, but a friend of mine, Raymond Stone, who was then the Interim President of Cape Fear Community College, talked me into coming here. "It was a tough decision and at first, I told him I wasn't interested," he said. "I explained that I had a good situation at Caldwell and was aware of the problems Cape Fear was experiencing at the time. "But then he asked me a critical question. At the time I had six years until I could retire and I could have remained at Caldwell until I retired. But he asked me if I elected to stay at Caldwell and retired, would I always be asking myself should I have come to Cape Fear and turned it around. That hooked me, and I agreed to interview for the job. Becomes president of Cape Fear "That was in 1994, and the college was frankly in a mess. It had outgrown its facilities and hadn't built any new ones in 20 years," McKeithan explained. "The task seemed almost insurmountable and frankly, I grieved about having left Caldwell after I came here. But after about three months, I began to say to myself, 'I can fix it," and I got over the grieving." In the 10 years since McKeithan came to the college, it has seen monumental growth. "Since 1994, we've added nearly $100 million in property and new buildings," he said. "The number of programs has doubled, enrollment has doubled to 7,100, and our faculty has tripled. We've also laid out a plan for $170 million in future development." McKeithan said that his experience at Cape Fear Community College has been very gratifying. "This is about as close as one could come to developing a new community college," he said, reflecting. McKeithan is married to his self-described high school sweetheart, Bernetta Lamb McKeithan, daughter of Myrtle Lockamy of Bladenboro. He says he owes much to his mother-in-law and admires her greatly. "I've always tried to do things to make my mother-in-law convinced that she'd made the right decision to let her daughter marry me," he said. Enditem