Lyndon Parrish and Southwestern Michigan College are the same age, 50.

Parrish, who just retired from almost 27 years with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office to become SMC’s Student Conduct and Community Standards Coordinator, was named for the president in 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

“They didn’t really care for his politics, but my dad liked his name,” Parrish said. “My mom (Janet) didn’t, but she gave in. Michael is my middle name. She always said I could be known as Michael, but I stuck with Lyndon.”

His departure from the Sheriff’s Office means the absence of a Parrish on its roster for the first time in almost 60 years.

His late father, Paul D. Sr., capped his 35-year enforcement career as sheriff for four years before Joseph Underwood. He retired in 1992 and died May 12, 2011.

Paul was 9 when his family moved to Vandalia from Kalamazoo County.

Parrish commanded the county Major Crimes Task Force since 1998 and been Enforcement Division captain since 2000.

“Road patrol sergeants and detectives reported directly to me,” Parrish said. “Anybody who could arrest anyone was underneath me. There were a lot of facets to my job. I took over community policing, school resource officers and the drug team when that started with millage.”

Parrish, a deacon at Pleasant View Community Church, is the third of four sons, along with Paul Jr. (appliance repair), Jim (real estate sales) and Terry (Community Mills), ands the only one who pursued a law enforcement career.

His father never pushed him into policing, but his senior year Ross Beatty High School in Cassopolis sponsored a program that included “Police Chief for a Day.”

Parrish won. Traveling around the village with Chief Frank Williams, he learned about the reserve program.

“That sounded like something fun to do for the summer before I went to college,” Parrish said. “That was the coolest thing in the world and I really enjoyed it. From that point forward, I wanted to be a police officer. I went to Great Lakes Christian College (in Lansing) for a year (where he met his wife, Debra, a Detroiter). Then I went to Kalamazoo Valley Community College for two years to become a police officer. I was also a reserve for the county” as soon as he turned 21.

“My first job was at Marcellus Police Department,” he said. “Jim Jacobs (father of colleague Tom Jacobs) influenced me to look beyond our area, which wasn’t hiring. He said they’re hiring down south,” so Parrish applied to Virginia Commonwealth University. “It was quite a leap going down there, but they hired me. It was an inner-city campus a lot different than Cassopolis and Marcellus, but it was a great experience. Then they had openings up here, so I came back after almost two years.”

Parrish attended SMC through Bethel College, starting in the same organizational management class as Chief of Staff Tom Atkinson, SMC Foundation Director Eileen Toney and Dave Davis of Dowagiac Police Department.

“I had two credits to finish, so in December I’ll have my organizational management degree from Bethel,” Parrish said.

In his new role, Parrish does conduct hearings for students by bringing issues to the attention of a college concerns team. He also does background checks on applicants for college positions.