Late MCCC President David Nixon remembered for his contributions to Monroe community

David Nixon was ready for his retirement.

The fourth president of Monroe County Community College, Nixon was planning a well-deserved move back to his home state of Iowa with his wife, Judy, after 10 years of dedicated service to education and the community of Monroe.

He served in that post from August 2003 through July 2013.

So what was one more month?

"He stayed on longer to acclimate and mentor me," said Kojo Quartey, who was hired to succeed Nixon as president. "That was Dr. Nixon. Always going above and beyond."

Nixon died Tuesday night from natural causes at his home in Emmertsburg, Iowa. He was 83 years old.

Friends and colleagues remembered Nixon for his outgoing personality, his commitment to the community and his passion as an educator.

Quartey also remembered Nixon as a valuable friend and mentor.

"He stayed after his retirement to acclimate me to the Monroe community and region as he drove me from place to place to meet the movers and shakers in our community. During that time we bonded and became friends," Quartey recalled. "He is one of those giants on whose shoulders I stand as we continue to enrich and transform lives at MCCC."

Quartey came to Monroe with a wealth of experience. He grew up in poverty in Baltimore, earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Mississippi State University, and served as provost of the City Colleges of Chicago. He also previous served as a professor and dean at the College of Business at Davenport University in Grand Rapids.

But his relationship with the departing Nixon was more than just a transactional one during a period of transition.

"When I came in (to Monroe), I was very eager," Quartey said. "But sometimes you need to go slow to go fast. You need to take your time, find the culture, and as you learn the culture, you can determine exactly how fast you can move. Sometimes when you move too fast, you make mistakes, more mistakes than you should. I learned that from him.

"Without his assistance and mentoring during the transition, we would not be as successful as we have been over the past 10 years at Monroe County Community College."

Quartey said he remained in contact with Nixon since the latter's retirement. The friendship Quartey forged with Nixon and his wife endured through the past 10 years. Nixon was always available for kind words or advice.

"He was a vital part of the MCCC family and we will miss him very much," Quartey said. "While the tears I shed are tears of sadness, I know that, as a Christian, he is in a better place. May his soul rest in everlasting peace."

Nixon's ties to Michigan never dissipated.

Bill Bacarella, former chairman of the MCCC Board of Trustees, said he last spoke with Nixon just days before his death. Nixon was planning on joining Bacarella and his wife on a church trip overseas to the Holy Land. The pair also vacationed together in Texas last winter.

"I admired and respected him a lot," Bacarella said. "I enjoyed our conversations. He was an intelligent man. He and I weren't always on the same page when we conversed, but we were respectful of each other, and I'll give him credit for that.

"He was a real big-picture kind of guy. He didn't worry about the details. He let others worry about the details. He took a big-picture approach to everything."

Bacarella was on the Board of Trustees when Nixon first interviewed for the position in 2003. He said he admired the work that Nixon accomplished during his tenure.

Nixon was MCCC's fourth president following Ronald Campbell, the late Gerald Welch and Audrey M. Warrick.

He came to MCCC after serving as a professor and dean at Iowa Lakes Community College. Before his role as an educator, Nixon worked in broadcasting. He was a news anchor in Sioux City, Iowa, at both KCAU-TV and KTIV-TV before going on to anchor WHO-TV in Des Moines.

George Lindblade, a former documentary filmmaker and photographer at KCAU, fondly remembered his time with Nixon in a recent interview with the Sioux City Journal.

"Everybody liked him. I can't think of anybody who disliked Dave," Lindblade said. "He was a real guy, and he was a real newsman."

Nixon retired from MCCC in 2013 with a long list of achievements to his name.

Under his leadership, MCCC saw significant expansion. Those projects included:

• The La-Z-Boy Center and Meyer Theater, an instructional facility for business training and the performing arts that hosts thousands of visitors each year, which opened in 2004.

• The Learning Bank Network of Monroe County, which increased opportunities for county residents to achieve basic skills needed for success in postsecondary education, opened in 2009.

• The Welding Center of Expertise, an expanded program on the campus of MCCC that offers accelerated welding courses and certification for beginners and experts, opened in 2009.

• The Career Technology Center, a 60,000-square-foot facility that provides the infrastructure required to deliver instruction and skills necessary to secure high-demand, high-paying jobs, opened in 2013.

• Partnered with DTE Energy in 2010 to develop a 500-kilowatt solar array on 3 acres on the eastern side of campus.

Nixon also helped establish the Upward Bound Program in 2007 to support at-risk students at Monroe High School via an initial five-year, $1 million federal grant. The program later expanded to include Airport and Jefferson high schools.

He also established the Monroe County Middle College on campus, expanded the registered nursing program, added numerous new credit programs, and opened the MCCC Grants Office which has secured tens of millions of dollars in awards.

"Dave Nixon has been the living, breathing, walking, talking omnipresent logo of MCCC for a decade," said Board of Trustees Vice Chairman William Braunlich at the time of Nixon's retirement in 2013. "Dave has simply been everywhere. The community has been his classroom and his subject matter of expertise is Monroe County Community College."

The word "community" was always the most important part of the school's name for Nixon.

In recalling their month together during the transition following Nixon's retirement, Quartey said that the pair co-presented a paper at a national conference for the Association of Community College Trustees. The topic was on keeping the word "community" in community college, Quartey said, during a period when some had discussed changing the name to simply Monroe County College.

"He always fought to keep that word community," Quartey said. "As he would say, 'Community is our middle name.'"

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: David Nixon remembered for contributions to Monroe community