A class job
Aegis editorial
Posted 8/04/10
With the retirement of Dr. James LaCalle, Harford Community College and the community it serves is losing one of the best assets in the school’s 50-year history.
LaCalle’s legacy, as he closes out his 40-year career at the Shucks Road campus of the 53-year-old school, will be hard to replicate. When he became one of HCC’s leaders, LaCalle remembered the word community in the school’s name and made HCC accessible to all in the community. He set the example when he was the dean of the school’s continuing education divisions, making HCC available to just about every kind of noncredit class imaginable.
Once he became HCC president a little more than five years ago, he spread that mindset around the rest of the school. His was a calming influence that proves yet again that hiring “the faraway expert” isn’t always best.
LaCalle eschewed the anointed royalty attitude that far too many education leaders have, instead bringing an everyman, common sense approach to running HCC. That approach, coupled with his low-key style and ties to the community, made him as close to perfect to be HCC president as humanly possible.
We’re sure there may be some out there who disagree with our positive view of his tenure; there are always naysayers. But he leaves HCC in better shape than when he took over and that’s all anyone can ask of those who run Harford County’s public institutions.
LaCalle accomplished much and did so with a graceful, pleasant style that should be the model for all those HCC presidents yet to come.
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