SMC trustees describe experiences with outgoing leader

For Southwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees Treasurer Thomas Jerdon, the dedication that Fred Mathews poured into the founding of the local community college in 1964 helped Jerdon earn a college degree 20 years later.

It also helped his two older sisters accomplish the same goal.

And that of the woman he would eventually marry.

“In my immediate family alone, SMC has produced an IT engineer, a nurse, a teacher and myself (a realtor),” Jerdon said. “Mathews has impacted tens of thousands of people, by helping to create a college here for people who couldn’t afford to go to school elsewhere.”

On Tuesday, the chair of the college board announced that, following the conclusion of its meeting on Jan. 19, he would be stepping down from the institution he helped create after 50 years of service.

Besides creating a vacancy on the seven-member board, Mathews’ departure means that the college will be without his guidance and leadership for the first time in its half century of existence. Mathews was one of six founding board members for the school, leading the charge in the push to have the public vote for its creation in 1964.

Jerdon credits Mathews’ force of will with keeping the school together, not only during the myriad of problems that occurred with the construction of the Dowagiac campus, but also during the tumultuous period of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when issues with state funding, accreditation agencies and faculty labor unions threatened to end the fledging community college.

“I could talk for an hour and still not overstate his importance to the college,” Jerdon said. “He was the alpha and omega of starting it, and running it through its formative years.”

In more recent years, Mathews and the rest of the board have overseen numerous accomplishments, with the expansion of several new programs, the construction of on-campus resident halls, and renovations to buildings on both campuses. The school has continued to see healthy enrollment numbers, in a period where many other community colleges have suffered.

“We have been able to get a wider slice of a shrinking pie, and that’s the result of a lot of hard decision making,” Jerdon said.

With the school celebrating its 50 year anniversary in September, Mathews felt that the milestone was as good as time as any to finally call it quits.

“He told me he wants to go out like Derek Jeter, on top and under his own legs, and that’s what he’s doing,” Jerdon said. “He’s had a tremendous career. There’s no one in the state, serving another college board, that has done what he has done.”

The former SMC alumnus has served on the board himself for nearly 25 years, since December of 1991. Jerdon has known the chair even longer than that, though, as he was a also regular visitor to his optometry business when he was younger. Over the years, Jerdon said he has often gone to Mathews for advice, both personally and professionally.

“He’s impacted me tremendously,” he said.

The same can be said for those for those who have served shorter stints on the board, such as Trustee Beth Cripe.

“He’s been a true mentor,” Cripe said. “I have the ultimate respect for him, and his willingness to serve the community.”

Cripe has been a member of the board since 2010, when she was appointed to fill in the vacancy left by the departure of Dan Wyant. Her tenure with the board has given her plenty of opportunities to work with the chair, and to absorb some of his knowledge in the process.

“I have real mixed emotions,” Cripe said. “Personally, I’m saddened. But he certainly has a well-deserved retirement coming to him. He’s worked so hard and left a great legacy. The college wouldn’t be or it wouldn’t have been so successful over the years if it wasn’t for his leadership.”

No one on the current board has more experience working alongside Mathews than Vice Chair Keith McKenzie, who joined the board in 1987.

“He’s been a wonderful chair, and a good friend of mine for a long time,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie credits Mathews for not only his service to SMC, but also for his years of dedication to other public realms. The Dowagiac man was a founding member and past president of the Michigan Community College Association and a board member with the national Association of Community College Trustees.

Closer to home, Mathews was instrumental in the revitalization of downtown Dowagiac, serving as the chair of the downtown development authority from 1988 to 1998. He also was a founding member of the Greater Dowagiac Association in the 1950s, the forerunner to today’s Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce.

“Anything he threw himself into, he always accomplished his goals,” McKenzie said.

In spite of Mathews’ departure, the other members of the board all said they intend to carry forward the momentum the school has generated in recent years, and carry forward the legacy of its longest serving advocate.

“We’re going to miss him,” Jerdon said. “For me personally, it’s going to be very different. But there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that SMC is going to continue to go forward.”