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."
The year 1968-69 was an eventful time. Governor Dan Moore was in his final months as the state’s chief executive and Robert Scott was to become our new governor in January 1969. Mr. Kelso was our Board of Chairman Mr. Wilbert Williamson was county auditor 9(manger) and Dr. D. L. Stallings was chairman of the Craven County Board of Commissioners.
That same year, student Brenda Douglass turned three years and student Harvey Wade was born. Mrs. Betty Quinn was taking a break from her teaching career and staying home to take care of her young son, Paul. Mr. Jack Hurley, our campus Chief of Police, was serving in the Marine Corps at Quang Tre in Vietnam during 1968. Mr. Vance Harper Jones was working as an assistant reference librarian at Valdosta State College in Valdosta, Ga., during the first half of 1968, and as assistant reference librarian at Augustine’s College in Raleigh during the second half of that year. Mr. Gerald McGowan was industrial arts instruction at Brinson Memorial School and taught some evening classes for the colleges.
The year 1968-69 began with 88 curriculum students enrolled at Craven County Technical Institute. There were a total of 16 students enrolled in the three shop programs located at Croatan at the former Leona Tolson School. Eight students were enrolled in the machinist program two in welding and six in mechanical drafting. In New Bern at the Tryon Palace Drive location (Harvey House Restaurant), there were 72 students enrolled. Forty-five in the business programs and 27 were enrolled in the practical nursing program. Eleven of the 27 LPN students were returning students room the class that begin with the spring quarter. At this time, CCTI was operating two practical nursing programs. At the November 10, 1968, meeting of the Board of Trustees, it was reported that 100 percent of the 16 summer 1968 LPN graduates had passed the State Nursing Board exam.
On Dec. 10, 1968, the Board of Trustees adopted a budget of $940,000 for the purchase of land and the building of two structures on the permanent campus for the institution. Included in the budget $117,500 for 100 acres of land on Racetrack Road. The remaining $822,500 was for construction of 41,511 square feet of buildings at an estimated cost of $19.09 per square foot. The source of funds was $500,000 in bond money (the bond was passed by Craven County voters in December 1967), $180,000 in Higher Education Grant from Federal sources, $230,000 from the State Board of Education I vocational education funds, and $30,000 in state equipment funds.
Planning for the construction of new facilities on the new campus on Racetrack Road required the writing of a set of specifications to be used by the architect in designing and developing our first building project. For the architect to appropriately design our new buildings, written specifications were necessary In July 1968 Dr. Brock reported to the Board that the educational specifications committee was at work. Members of the committee included all employees or a representative (nursing as an example) where several people were employed in a single area. Their job was to write specifications for review and approval by the Board of Trustees. In doing its assigned task, a group of employees with Architect John Peterson visited a number of community colleges to obtain ideas for our new campus. This was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic committees I have ever worked with. They were looking forward to a new place to work that was designed for teaching instead of the makeshift and temporary arrangement on Tryon Palace Drive and at the Leona Tolson School at Croatan. The committee members were Dr. L.S. Redd, Mr. L.E. Staton, Mrs. Ruthe P. Hinton, Dr. Robert G. Brock, Mrs. Jean G. Bowers, Mr. Daniel Riggs and Dr. Shirley Jones. Mr. J.R. Hill was the trustee representative of this committee. Dr. Redd was the only committee member still employed at the college. The project included what is now called Building “B” (Administrative Classroom Building). The portion of building “C” in this original project included the student lounge snack bar area, the welding shop, machine shop, and one classroom and the shipping and receiving area. In building “B” were the library (where student services and Continuing Education are now located), the Learning Lab (where the bookstore is now located), and the Audio-visual department (Classroom 102B). Also, the parking lot (No. 2) in front of building B and the large parking lot (N. 1) near the radio station tower were cleared and prepared for paving, but neither was paved the first year of operation on the new campus. Education Circle and the roadway to the shipping and receiving area behind Building “C” were paved with the original project.
In 1968-69, the operating budget for Craven County Technical Institute included a county budget of $44,062 and a state budget of $295,037 for a combined total of $339,099.
This compares to a total operating budget of $7,817,173 for the current fiscal year 1988-89. A total of 88 curriculum students were enrolled in fall quarter 1968, compared to 2,154 for all fall quarter 1988.