PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College President Tom Keegan reviewed accomplishments Monday in the 50 years that Peninsula College has existed in a talk before the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
And he acknowledged weekend news that he’s one of four finalists for the Skagit Valley College presidency in Mount Vernon.
“It’s where I earned my most treasured degree,” said Keegan, who has been at the Peninsula College helm for 10 of the 50 years it’s currently celebrating.
In a talk keynoting Monday’s Chamber of Commerce membership luncheon at the Red Lion Hotel, Keegan said he entered Skagit Valley with plans to play sports but discovered a love for academics along the way.
“I have the opportunity to lead the college that started me on that path,” he said.
Skagit Valley College trustees announced Friday that Keegan is one of four finalists — and the only one from Western Washington — to replace retiring President Gary Tollefson
in November.
Finalist interviews at Skagit Valley, which has three times the Peninsula College enrollment, are scheduled Oct. 5-12.
In his review of Peninsula College’s first 50 years Monday before a chamber audience of about 70, Keegan noted the span between holding classes part-time at Port Angeles High School in 1961 to last Friday’s dedication of high-tech Maier Hall on the Port Angeles campus.
Keegan asked for chamber members to raise their hands if they or a member of their families had attended Peninsula College at some point.
The room showed a forest of raised hands as most members acknowledged close connections to the college.
One attended Peninsula College while it was still at the high school.
In the past eight years on the Port Angeles campus, Peninsula College has replaced 75 percent of its buildings — eight buildings in eight years, Keegan said.
“The buildings are important, but it is the people who make it great,” he said.
Keegan said his dream for the college is to be a place where people can feel welcomed.
Whether it is children who come to campus to play soccer on the college’s new field as they begin to think they may have college in their future, or their parents who start thinking about returning to school, it’s all about getting people to want to be there, Keegan said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.