La PLUME TWP.
When Edward G. Boehm Jr., Ed.D., arrived at Keystone Junior College 18 years ago, he found a school on the verge of collapse.
With plummeting enrollment, shaky finances and campus facilities falling into disrepair, the board of trustees had a plan for shutting the school down.
Dr. Boehm took a look around and started pulling weeds.
His hands-on philosophy, from meeting potential donors to trimming trees, marks the tenure of his presidency. He and his wife, Regina, expected to stay for five years. Five became 10. Today, after 18 years, he will preside over his last commencement ceremony. He retires May 31 as the college's longest serving president.
During his tenure, the college started to offer baccalaureate degrees. Enrollment grew from 376 to about 1,800. The number of employees doubled.
His colleagues credit him with saving Keystone.
"Eighteen years can come and leave you in an instant," Dr. Boehm, 71, said. "It's like we just stopped for a rest and stayed for a lifetime. And we'll always be grateful we did."
In the 1990s, with enrollment in community colleges growing, private, more expensive two-year colleges like Keystone struggled to fill classrooms.
When the trustees named Dr. Boehm president in 1995, he knew changes were needed for the college to survive.
Dr. Boehm, who had held positions at Marshall University in West Virginia and Texas Christian University prior to his appointment, got to work immediately on the overgrown landscaping.
Not wanting to spend what little money Keystone had left on landscapers, Dr. Boehm and his wife started to beautify the campus themselves. As a Father's Day gift, Mrs. Boehm bought her husband a tree trimmer.
Then he removed a blue dumpster from the front of Ward Hall - an eyesore that had been there so long staff members began to look past it. The cornerstone of the building was revealed, and the brick was faded around where the dumpster had stood.
"It illustrated how we became so used to the old way," said Charlotte Ravaioli, executive director of institutional advancement and a 30-year Keystone employee.
He still picks up fallen branches or a stray piece of trash. Before classes start every morning, he leaves his on-campus home and rides around the grounds on his blue and orange bike - Keystone's colors, making sure the campus looks presentable.
Adding degrees
Though new facilities were added and every building on campus has been improved in the last 18 years, Dr. Boehm's tenure is about far more than aesthetics. At commencement in 1998, he announced Keystone had been given approval from the state to award bachelor's degrees. The 'Junior' was dropped from Keystone's name, and in 2000, the first student graduated with a four-year degree in criminal justice.
"Everyone at this college had something to do with our success," Dr. Boehm said.
Last year, the number of Keystone graduates was nearly as many as the entire student body when Dr. Boehm became president. In 2012, 355 students received degrees, the majority of them bachelor's degrees.
Community involvement and recruitment became priorities under Dr. Boehm's watch, and he also worked to remember the name of each Keystone student.
It was an easier task when there were only 400 students on campus, so he must work even harder to remember now.
"A simple 'hello' to a student means a lot," he said.
Thomas "Tim" Speicher, chairman of the board of trustees, credits Dr. Boehm with taking Keystone from a small two-year college to what it is today.
"He came to Keystone at a time when they really needed a visionary leader, and he was absolutely the right guy for the job," Mr. Speicher said. "He always put the college first and always had a great vision."
Mrs. Ravaioli said Dr. Boehm came to Keystone 18 years ago with enthusiasm and energy - and still has those traits.
"He saved the college. That is just the beginning and the end of it," she said.
Final thoughts
Now the man who wears only orange ties (he has 47 of them) is packing the contents of his corner office. His orange tennis shoes and photos of his grandchildren are being moved to make room for David Coppola, Ph.D., the vice president for strategic planning and administration at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., who will succeed Dr. Boehm.
Dr. Boehm will serve as president emeritus for the 2013-14 school year and will still be around campus. After that, he and Mrs. Boehm may move to Richmond, Va., where their grandchildren live.
This afternoon, as he delivers his final commencement remarks as president, he expects to feel pride, joy, gratification and a bit of sadness.
He plans to end his remarks with the same message he has conveyed for years: "May the paths that lead you away from Keystone College always lead you back."
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitter