Dr. Thurman Brock was a part of Craven Community College's story from the very beginning. His first day on the job was Aug. 15, 1961 as the inaugural Director of Vocational Education for Craven County Schools. He went on to become the College's first president, serving April 23, 1968–December 31, 1989.
To help preserve his institutional knowledge from those early years, Dr. Brock wrote an 18-part history of the College in 1984-85 for the school newspaper, "The Panther."
With the year 1965-66 behind us, we made plans to find another location for the Craven unit of Lenoir County Community College.
We were located at this time on the top floor of the old St. Luke’s Hospital building. With Mr. Lynn Kelso’s assistance we located the property at 223 Tryon Palace Drive as our new temporary home. This property was owned by Mrs. Ray Henderson Sr. and included a building with apartments on three floors. Behind this building (now know as The Harvey Mansion Restaurant) was a wooden two story duplex. This home was used as the Administrative Building. The Henderson apartment house was used for classes. Nursing was located on third floor, business classes were taught on the second floor and the first floor was used for general classrooms and the learning laboratory. The student lounge was located in the basement area.
At Croatan on Highway 70 East, we renovated the former Leona Tolson School where we taught machine shop, welding and mechanical drafting. This first year the machine shop was our only full-time program at that location.
Our budget of this fiscal year included $100,603 in the state funds and $24,455 in the county funds. There were nine full-time employees who were: Thurman Brock, Unit Director; Lewis (Steve) Redd, Director of evening Program; Mrs. Kathleen Tyndall, Secretary-Bookkeeper; Mrs. Maxine Cliatt, Nursing Instructor; Mrs. Hazel Heath, Secretary; Mrs. Ruth Hinton, Business Instructor; Dan Riggs, Machinist Instructor; William (Bill) Newberry, Learning Lab Coordinator; and Logan (Gene) Staton, Director of Extension. Mrs. Kathenia Jolly also worked half time as our second instructor in the practical nursing program.
Dr. I. E. Ready was our state Director (President) of the Community College System. Dr. Charles Holloman was Business Manager and Mr. Hugh Battle was Assistant Business Manager. There were 30 institutions and 13 extension units at this time. Of the 30 institutions, there were 17 technical institutes, 12 community colleges and one Industrial Education Center at this time. Craven was among the 13 extension units in the system.
In 1966-67, our telephone budget was $1500 and for water, lights and power the budget was $3600. Also, $4800 was budgeted of the Henderson House with $5400 budgeted for janitorial salaries. The school at Croatan was provided at no cost since it was owned by the Craven County School System which was our local sponsor.
On October 26,1966, Lenoir County Community College Board of Trustees held its meeting in New Bern on the first floor of our classroom building. The meeting was called to order at 5:45 p.m. Prior to the meeting, the trustees and administration had visited the Pamlico unit in Bayboro and the Craven facilities in New Bern and at the Croatan. Following the meeting which adjourned at 6:06 p.m., the group had dinner at the New Bern Holiday Inn. Mr. Lynn Kelso as a chairman of the advisory committee for the Craven unit presided at the dinner meeting. The invocation was given by Jim Vinci, Superintendent of the Pamlico County Schools. Following dinner, the enrollment reports were given: for Lenoir County Community College, day enrollment was 411 students and 355 night time enrollment for a total of 766; the Craven unit’s enrollment was 37 full time and 127 part time.
The preceding is a brief summary of some of the highlights of 1966-67. We continued to offer extension classes throughout the county, but at this time we did not have access to the city schools. New Bern residents were required to drive to either Brinson Memorial School, James City School or to Pleasant Hill. However, this was to change as our programs and enrollment continued to expand. Next time we will look at our plan for a permanent home for the Craven Community College.