Fifty years of existence is an accomplishment for anything, especially for a nationally recognized community college in a county the size of Cass.

Southwestern Michigan College’s path to reach this milestone, though, was filled with as many tragedies and adversities as celebrations and triumphs, though.

For the first time, people will be able to experience SMC’s unfiltered history from the eyes of the man who has witnessed the life of the institution, from the historic vote that created it to its current era of prosperity, with two ever expanding campuses in Dowagiac and Niles.

On Saturday, SMC Board of Trustees Chair Fred Mathews set up shop inside the library that bears his name, selling and signing copies of his telling of the college history, “Triumph Over Adversity.” The release of his self-published book marks the end of a project the longtime leader began nearly two decades ago.

“This is one of the hardest projects I’ve ever done in my life,” Mathews said. “The book is a very candid history, more candid than the kinds colleges normally release. Every story is drawn from firsthand knowledge.”

Mathews began writing the book 18 years ago, drawing entirely from memory, after hearing several inaccurate rumors about the early years of the Dowagiac higher-learning institution.

“I knew then that, unless I write a book, the history of the college could be pure fiction.”

After writing more than 90 chapters worth of content, Mathews decided to shelve the project before picking it back up again in hopes of publishing the finished book in time for the 50th anniversary. The retired optometrist spent hundreds of hours pouring over old records to verify the facts he initially plucked from memory, and paired down the original manuscript into 81 chapters.

Mathews begins his book on the tense election night that gave birth the college on Nov. 3, 1964. It was the culmination of a hard-fought public campaign to bring a community college to the rural Cass County, which Mathews led the way for. Mathews and others in the committee feared that, if local voters shot down the proposal, they would never get a second crack in before the state began limiting the number of community colleges.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Mathews said. “If we had failed, we never would have had a second chance. We did everything and anything we could to succeed.”

In the two years that followed, Mathews and the five other founding board members ran into several issues while overseeing the process of getting the staff, students and facilities in place before their announced launch date of September, 1966. In fact, the furniture for the buildings were installed merely a day before they opened the doors to students, after Mathews personally phoned the president of the company they hired to handle the project.

It would not be the last time that the Dowagiac resident would handle the college’s business personally. During the years that followed, he would take on both the state of Michigan and accreditors with North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, fighting for reforms that would resonate with communities outside his own.

“Many of the battles we fought affected not only us, but other community colleges as well,” Mathews said.

Despite the early loss of two of its founding board members, SMC’s leadership continued to fill its ranks with people from all walks of life across the county. Like all college board members in the state, its members work without compensation, fueled only by their desire to make SMC the best institution it can, no matter what stood in their way.

“Most of us were brought up poor, and we had to fight for what we had, in one way or another,” Mathews said. “It wasn’t in our nature to let someone step all over us. Fighting just came naturally to us.”

Working alongside the current president and his son, David, Mathews and the board have spent the last decade tackling another challenge, that of transitioning from a lecture-centric “teaching” approach to more hands-on “learning” based education programs. Combined with their already strong nursing program and their recent focus on student living, SMC has emerged has one of Michigan’s strongest and fastest growing community colleges.

“Students used to come to us just because we were inexpensive,” Mathews said. “Now, they’re coming to us because of our reputation in academics.”

As for why he’s chosen to devote most of his lifetime to the college, Mathews simply points to the Chinese proverb he placed in the forward of his book.

“’He who rides a tiger can never dismount,’” Mathews read. “And it’s been a great ride.”

“Triumph Over Adversity” can be purchased at SMC’s bookstore, with $30 for hard cover and $20 for paperback. All funds will go toward student scholarships.