  |
|
The Voice of Business,
Industry & the Professions Since 1942
North Carolina's largest
business group proudly serves as the state chamber of commerce
|
|
|
|
|
Executive
Profile
Catching the
Spirit
Don Cameron hoped to make it in
the major leagues; instead, he's made GTCC a major force in education
By Jerry Blackwelder |
 |
Dr.
Don Cameron begins his presentation by asking Greensboro Kiwanians to
imagine Guilford County without Guilford Technical Community College.
That sets club members to pondering where the area’s nurses, auto
mechanics, police officers, restaurant chefs and a host of others would
come from if GTCC weren’t there to train them.
It’s understandable that the Kiwanians might also wonder where GTCC
would be without Don Cameron at the helm.
That vision might have become reality if Cameron “had been able to hit
a left-handed curveball,” allowing him to pursue his childhood dream
of becoming a professional baseball player.
Born in Greensboro, he grew up in Robbins as the son of a truck-driving
dad and stay-at-home mom. It was there in the small textile town,
Cameron says, that he learned “a lot about values and a strong work
ethic.”
He also learned the skills necessary to chase his dream of becoming a
major league catcher. Teeman Haithcock, Cameron’s baseball coach at
Elise High School, took an interest in the aspiring ball player and
introduced him to area college baseball coaches. Wingate Junior College
awarded the young Cameron a baseball scholarship and he earned the first
of four degrees there.
Abandoning his field of dreams, he returned to Moore County for his
first career job, coaching sports and teaching at Union Pines High
School. He also married Jayne Evelyn Boyd of Charlotte and they began a
family that grew to include daughter Suzanne and son Douglas Matthew
Cameron.
Jeff Hockaday set Cameron on his community college career path when he
hired the young high school teacher to work for Central Carolina
Community College in Sanford.
Hockaday, now living in Cary and conducting searches for community
college presidents nationwide, says Cameron “has always been a person
aimed at some kind of target. He’s willing to work hard to do well and
sets extremely high expectations for himself.
“Don has a passion for what he does,” Hockaday adds. “He’s in
the right job and GTCC is lucky to have him.”
Recognition of Cameron’s enthusiasm, integrity, work ethic and loyalty
to his school appear universal.
For his part, Cameron is a tireless promoter of not only GTCC but also
the entire community college system. He calls North Carolina’s
two-year colleges “the backbone of this state” and notes that the
schools were established “to provide a quality workforce for business
and industry. That’s our mission, and we are doing a great job of
doing just that.”
As proof, Cameron points out that “almost half the students in higher
education in North Carolina today are in community colleges.” And in
addition to meeting the needs of business and students in pursuit of an
associate degree, community colleges fill the gap for many people by
allowing them to work and attend class before transferring to a
four-year college or university.
“Community colleges,” Cameron insists, “have played a major role
in economic development in this state. And the partnership we have
developed with business and industry provides the opportunity for North
Carolina to be a model for the nation.”
That’s no small boast, but Cameron can back it up. A 1996 front page
story in the The Wall Street Journal credited Cameron with developing a
model program for workforce preparedness.
Indeed, Cameron makes a strong case that between its workforce training,
high school equivalency program, curriculum efforts and even teaching
people to read, GTCC “has a more productive impact on Guilford County
than any other educational institution.”
When Dr. Cameron arrived
on the job as executive vice president of Guilford Tech in 1981, he
found 8,000 full-time students working toward associate degrees earned
in classes taught in rented buildings in Jamestown and Greensboro. The
school’s foundation bank account to award scholarships totaled
$600,000.
Now, 13 years later, the campus has grown to include permanent
facilities not only in Jamestown and Greensboro but also in downtown
High Point. More than 30,000 students are enrolled in curriculum and
continuing education programs. Courses of study have been broadened to
include automobile mechanics, culinary arts, public safety and
entertainment technology.
And the foundation now has $4.3 million in the bank
Nevertheless, Cameron is quick to put his own contributions in
perspective with those of others.
“There’s no such thing as a self-made man,” he believes. He gives
credit to his wife, Jayne, “who stuck with me and supported me in
doing what I needed to do to advance.” He also cites the influences of
Jeff Hockaday, Teeman Haithcock and the employees of GTCC for the
success he has enjoyed.
The truth is there’s sufficient credit to go around in evaluating the
growth of GTCC and its impact on Guilford County and beyond.
Under Cameron’s leadership GTCC has gone on the road to provide
customized courses to companies in their work environment. Major local
employers such as Thomas Built Buses and RF Micro take advantage of this
business-friendly approach to learning in the workplace.
GTCC has enjoyed a boon in new facilities and programs during
Cameron’s tenure. The Jamestown campus grew dramatically and rivals a
four-year college layout. GTCC now operates from several Greensboro
locations, including a new adult education and continuing education
facility set to welcome students in January.
The debut of the Larry Gatlin School of Entertainment Technology in High
Point, the only facility of its kind in the region, adds another 2004
jewel to the GTCC crown.
Nido Quebein, the nationally known motivational speaker, member of the
GTCC Foundation Board, and the new president of High Point University,
introduced the famed country star to Cameron and GTCC. Gatlin’s
namesake school teaches students the intricate technical aspects of
entertainment such as sound, lighting, recording and business
management.
Gatlin recalled the impact community colleges have had in his own family
when he performed a free concert in the 600-seat amphitheater to
officially open the entertainment school during the summer.
Cameron counts the workforce preparedness model and the Gatlin School
among his noteworthy professional accomplishments at GTCC. He also has
received many honors for his educational work but his most treasured is
the 1998 national award for being the Outstanding College President. The
reason that particular title is so special in Cameron’s eyes is that
the students themselves nominate the recipient.
Greensboro civic and community leader Shirley Frye, who works with
Cameron as a member of the GTCC Board of Trustees and other community
projects, says his story “is best told by his students. They are eager
to tell you how much he cares about them.”
That caring often goes beyond the job description and traditional call
of duty as a community college president. An international student from
Pakistan unfamiliar with parking regulations in the United States
knocked on Cameron’s door because her car had been towed and she had
no money to recover it.
“I gave her $45 to get her car out,” Cameron recalls with
justifiable pride in his investment in the young student. “She
finished the program here, graduated from a four-year university and has
done very well. I knew she was very determined.”
Another student who had been an underachiever in high school came to see
Cameron shortly before graduation to present the college president with
a copy of his acceptance letter to the University of North Carolina.
“He found focus, got involved in student government here, and wanted
me to have a copy of his acceptance letter,” Cameron said. .
The simple truth, he maintains, is “students are the reason we are
here.”
That recognition has
served him well in his 13 years as head of GTCC and earned him kudos
from community leaders, not only for his work on the job but also his
character and community spirit.
High Point civic leader Jim Morgan now chairs GTCC’s Foundation Board
and was part of a search committee to find a replacement for longtime
president Ray Needham in 1991.
Hiring Don Cameron, executive vice president at the time, “was one of
the best decisions I’ve ever been involved with,” Morgan now says.
“He does what he says,” Morgan explains. “He’s not flashy. He
does his job and does it well.”
As a result, Morgan feels, Cameron has earned “great respect from the
business community.” NCCBI President Phil Kirk concurs. “He’s
among the very best.”
Quebein, who will soon become a colleague of Cameron’s as president of
High Point University, calls him “a creative leader who is absolutely
committed to good things for GTCC and the community at large. He puts
his mind to work on worthwhile objectives and nothing can stop him.”
He also praises Cameron for his “quiet yet influential manner.
“Don promotes an idea, gathers support, and executes it with
excellence,” Quebein says.
He is especially impressed with Cameron’s ability to “balance his
loyalty to two major cities in Guilford County in a remarkable way, yet
maintain the Jamestown campus very successfully. He’s been responsive
in a way that highlights stewardship and shows love of his country and
his community.”
Greensboro business executive and past NCCBI chair Sue Cole describes
Cameron as a “true Renaissance man.”
“He gets involved in the right things at the right time and gets them
done. We’re so lucky he’s in this community,” she says.
Jeff Hockaday, who initially recruited Cameron for community college
work and has followed his career, praises him for “always staying true
to his purpose. “He’s always stayed true to his roots without ever
becoming pretentious. He still wants to work hard and do well and I’m
proud to call him my friend.”
From his standpoint, Cameron accepts the accolades with an unassuming
dignity and an attitude that he’s simply doing the job he’s supposed
to do.
Moreover, he still maintains the enthusiasm and commitment he brought to
the community college business 33 years ago and is more interested in
focusing on future projects than relying on past achievements.
For the past few months he has aggressively promoted a $47 million bond
campaign designed to finance a new allied health building, a biotech
facility, additional classroom facilities for Greensboro and a new
student union for High Point.
Cameron’s intention is to remain in his post until retirement.
“I’ll be right here,” he jokes, “unless they fire me.”
With that being an
unimaginable scenario, he wants to accomplish a substantial set of goals
before leaving GTCC.
One ambitious objective is to leave GTCC with $10 million in the
foundation coffers. The money raised by the foundation provides
scholarships for deserving students, including an innovative technical
preparedness program to recruit high school students and guarantee
coverage of tuition and fees for two years.
Also on Cameron’s “to do” list: raising GTCC’s prominence and
standing to the point that it is the first higher education destination
of choice for Guilford County high school students. This means
leapfrogging over a half dozen acclaimed public and private higher
education campuses in Guilford County and at least that many more in
nearby counties. Nevertheless, Cameron says he is waiting to hear
Guilford County students say “I’d love to go to GTCC first.”
A third major goal is to establish his school as the training center for
all employers in Guilford County.
“I’d like to see us get to the point that every business and
industry in this county does away with their training departments and
contracts with GTCC as partners in training,” he explains.
There’s no question that Cameron has worked hard to meet the needs of
the changing economic times, answering the call for training programs in
new fields like computer programming and biotech to meet the workforce
preparedness needs of Guilford County’s new breed of employers.
“Once I’ve raised $10 million for the foundation, established three
campuses providing quality programs so students can leave here to
continue their education or obtain gainful employment in the Piedmont
Triad, then I will have achieved my goals,” he says.
But above all else, he adds, “providing students an opportunity is the
most important thing.”
During his time away from the school and his many civic
responsibilities, Cameron enjoys spending family time with his wife of
four decades, Jayne, their two grown children and granddaughter. He
loves the view from a beachfront house at Sunset Beach and likes to work
in a round of golf while he’s there.
He also never lost his lifetime fondness for America’s game. By
planning his vacations around baseball schedules he’s attended games
in about half of the major league ballparks, and you can bet he’ll see
them all before he’s finished.
|
|
|
|
|
|