November 18, 2005

A-B Tech President K. Ray Bailey received the 2005 North Carolina Community College President of the Year Award Friday, Nov. 18, at the North Carolina Community College System’s Day of Recognition Awards Luncheon at the RBC Center in Raleigh.

The program is sponsored by the State Board of Community Colleges, the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation, Inc. and Wachovia Corp. to encourage, identify, and reward outstanding leadership and commitment to the community college mission among the presidents of the 58 institutions of the North Carolina Community College System.

“I am honored to have been chosen for this prestigious award from among my peers,” Bailey said. “It is a tribute not to the leadership of a single individual, but to the outstanding faculty and staff, Board of Trustees, Foundation Board, and community supporters of A-B Tech. Their efforts have built our college into one of the finest in the country.”

Bailey is A-B Tech’s longest-serving employee, joining the college in 1966 as director of Adult Basic Education and working his way up to the presidency in 1990. A native of Tullahoma, TN, he received a bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University, a master’s degree from Western Carolina University, and an honorary doctorate from Mars Hill College.

He has been the recipient of many awards for his contributions to the community, including, most recently, the 2005 Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council and the Rotary Centennial Service Award for Professional Excellence. He is married to Glenda Greenwood Bailey and has four children and four grandchildren.

Among the accomplishments he was cited for in being selected President of the Year were:

• Creating A-B Tech’s Enka campus in the year 2000 through a donation from textile maker BASF Corp. The gift of nearly 37 acres and three buildings is the largest donation of property ever given to a community college in the United States.
• Growing enrollment to more than 25,000 students annually, including a 30 percent increase in the number of curriculum students in the past five years.
• Adding more than 30 degree and diploma programs to the college’s curriculum since he became president.
• Creating effective partnerships with business and industry, other community colleges, schools, and four-year institutions that enhance the region’s economic development.
• Participating as a board member or chairman of more than 30 local and regional civic organizations.
• Constructing a Computer Technology Center that houses, among other programs, the state’s first two-year Digital Media Technology program and a Hospitality Education Center that will soon be home to the college’s nationally-acclaimed Culinary Technology program, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Baking and Pastry.

The President of the Year is chosen by a committee that includes the North Carolina Community College System’s executive vice president, a member of the State Board of Community Colleges, a representative from Wachovia, a member of the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation board, a community college trustee, a community college student, and a member of the faculty of the N.C. State University Department of Adult and Community College Education.