LINN, Mo. - Don Claycomb is "the only person ever to have worked 23 years to get an associate (two-year) degree," State Technical College of Missouri Regents President John Klebba joked Friday, as the board formally approved two honors the school already has given the school's soon-to-be-retired president.
Those honors were:
Awarding Claycomb with the first honorary degree in the college's 55-year history, during last month's graduation ceremonies.
Renaming a main campus building as the "Donald M. Claycomb Information Technology Center."
State Tech began in 1961 as part of the Osage County R-2 School District - and Claycomb has been its head for just more than half that existence, since the Linn public school district hired Claycomb in 1993 as the the adult technical college's new president.
On Friday, Shawn Strong will be State Tech's president - and Claycomb, 74, officially will be retired.
"The greatest accomplishment (of my tenure) is that we have gone through in that 23 years a tremendous amount of change," he told the News Tribune Friday afternoon, "(but) we still maintained the original purpose, or mission, of the college - to prepare individuals for employment."
That mission remains today, along with preparing students for "a life of learning," he said, "because in any industry, job or business today, things are changing so rapidly that people are going to be in a life of learning."
And technical education itself is much more complicated than it used to be.
One of his favorite examples of that change is asking people to "just think about the very first car that you remember your parents having - and compare that to an automobile of today."
Even "general education" skills - especially reading and math - are considered to be substantially more important today than in the past.
State Tech, itself, is a survivor of many changes.
Thanks to the existence of state and federal career-education money, then-Superintendent Thurman Willett launched Linn Technical Junior College in 1961 in the basement of the Linn R-2 High School building.
Claycomb said he never met Willett, who died before Claycomb joined the school.
"I give Thurman Willett - and the (school) board that went along with and supported his vision - a lot of credit for that vision, or we wouldn't be here today," Claycomb said.
Willett's widow, Hazel, and their sons have remained in contact with the school and attend some of its functions.
"One of his sons said (recently) that (Willett) would be very proud and very pleased" with the current school, Claycomb said. "I don't know that he would ever have dreamed or visualized that it would be what it is today."
By the same token, Claycomb said, what now is State Tech also has "exceeded my wildest dreams" when he was hired to head what then was called Linn Technical College.
"That's due to having good board support (and) a good working relationship with people who have served as governor and in the General Assembly," Claycomb said.
Klebba agreed.
"You don't get anywhere as a leader unless you build a good staff behind you," he said. "He's brought good people in and allowed them to do the kinds of things that they do."
But, Klebba said, Claycomb's own contributions to State Tech's success are "almost immeasurable. You look where we were 23 years ago, and where we are today - in terms of size, facilities, reputation, prestige - he's brought us to a level that I don't think a lot of people thought we could come to."
One of Claycomb's initial charges from the Linn School Board "was to come up with a plan that would separate the college from the K-12 system," he said during an interview two years ago, when the Linn-based school was changing its name from Linn State Technical College to the current State Technical College of Missouri, reflecting its statewide mission and state ownership.
That ownership actually changed in 1995 after the 1994 Legislature approved adding the school into the state's higher education system.
Claycomb and Klebba both said that change was crucial.
"In terms of the resources that the state was able to bring in here and the prestige of becoming a state institution instead of a local institution," Klebba said, "has really helped us recruit faculty, staff and students.
"It's clearly the biggest positive that's happened, perhaps in the history of the school - other than its original founding."
But, Claycomb recalled, "Not everybody thought it was a good idea, that's for sure.
"If we had not gotten state status, which gave us some stability, and some other support that showed we were probably going to be around for awhile, I don't know that we would be in existence today."
Claycomb never expected to be retiring from the education field.
"I will have finished 51 years in public education come June 30," he said. "I had never ever planned to stay - my original intent was to teach high school about three years and then go into ag industry.
"I had those opportunities, but it just (always) seemed like the thing to do was stick around one more year (in education)."
He first was attracted to teaching high school agriculture and being an FFA advisor during his sophomore year in high school, "because of my experiences in those courses and the teachers that I had who were important to me."
After college, he taught high school agriculture, then moved to the community college level, followed by teaching teacher education at Kansas State University and the University of Missouri. He then became a school administrator.
He was 52 when he took the job in Linn.
Throughout all his jobs, Claycomb said, he hopes he'll be remembered "for the first question (I) always asked was, 'What's best for students?'"
Looking back, he has "no regrets whatsoever" with his career path.
"I can't imagine anything having been any more rewarding for me," Claycomb said.
He plans to do some camping and traveling this summer with his children and grandchildren.
And he has property both in Osage County and northern Missouri that needs to be worked on, including "some mowing and brush-clearing," he said. "I also plan to do some major gardening.
"Beyond that, I'm keeping my options open. I do not see myself not doing something."