EUGENE, Ore.–The Center Building at the heart of Lane Community College main campus will be christened the Dr. Dale P. Parnell Center for Learning and Student Success in honor of Lane’s founding president in a ceremony at noon on Friday, Oct. 12, on the building’s plaza. The community is invited.
All five of Parnell’s children are expected to attend the dedication ceremony. Speakers will include Board of Education Chair Mike Eyster of Springfield, former board chair and member Pat Albright of Eugene, and President Margaret Hamilton.
Parnell was a lifelong and nationally-renowned leader in the community college movement. He dreamed of forming a local community college while he was the principal at Springfield High School in 1959 and he never stopped living that dream. He helped win the election that established Lane Community College on October 19, 1964, and served as its first president. His advocacy for public education continued with state and national positions that helped shape current community college policy. He served as the state’s community college commissioner and published a book titled “The Neglected Majority” about people who needed a college education and job training but not a four-year degree. As president of the American Association of Community Colleges for 10 years, he was part of a movement to advance community college education across the country, including the development and creation of the associate degree and the work of community colleges as workforce development drivers for their communities.
For more information about Dale Parnell visit the LCC Archives online:
- “The Parnell Years” by Larry Romine
- “Dale Parnell Oral History”
For more information about Lane Community College:
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Lane Community College educates over 25,000 students annually at six locations across Lane County and online. Students and alumni from all 50 states and 79 countries create more than an $850 million dollar impact on the local economy, helping to support more than 13,000 local jobs. Lane provides affordable, quality, professional technical and college transfer programs; business development and employee training; academic, language and life skills development; and lifelong personal development and enrichment courses.