General Assembly honors Schoolfield
Oct 11, 2024The North Carolina General Assembly has recognized Tom Schoolfield for his 21 years of service on the Rockingham Community College Board of Trustees.
On Sept. 26, Sen. Phil Berger and Rep. Reece Pyrtle presented Schoolfield with the certificate.
“Tom leaves an incredible legacy at RCC. He played an integral role in the revitalization of the college through his work to pass the quarter-cent sales tax and was a steadfast supporter of expanding workforce development programs. I want to thank him for his decades of service to our community and dedication to improving educational and job training opportunities in Rockingham County,” said Berger.
“It truly was an honor to present the resolution for the work he has put it. It didn’t take long to put that resolution together, but it took a lifetime to build that resume embedded in there. Tom exemplifies what service to others means. A majority of his life, he has been such an advocate and cheerleader for all of Rockingham County,” Pyrtle said.
“I’ve played golf with him several times. When you play golf, you try to leave the course better than you found it. Tom makes Rockingham County a little nicer every day. Kudos to him for his accomplishments, we are blessed to have him in our community,” Pyrtle continued.
Schoolfield was humbled, and shared the recognition.
“I was honored, but, I know deep down that I contributed only a small part to our success at RCC over the years. We have 12 members on our board that had worked hard and our presidents and administrative staff made our successes,” Schoolfield said.
“It was a real honor with Sen. Berger and Rep. Pyrtle to make this presentation, but it was really a presentation for the entire Board of Trustees, not just for me. I’ve just been working on it maybe a little bit longer than some of the others,” he said.
Schoolfield has been a long-time proponent of community colleges. He spent 40 years with Burlington Industries, starting in Reidsville, and worked in several management positions over the years.
When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) laws were passed in the mid-1990s, he transitioned for three years to help start up a couple of plants in Mexico. He retired in April 2001.
Schoolfield’s first real exposure to the Community College System and its values to the business community and the community at large came in the early 1980s when he first met Dr. Reid Parrot, president of Nash Community College at a dinner. After that evening and in a couple of follow-up sessions, Dr. Parrot’s team set up to teach Burlington Industries’ management team the value of PCs (IBM personal computers), the newest administrative tools, at the time. The six-week in-plant training session was very successful.
“It turned out to be a great thing for the plant, as we found great benefit in our Quality Control, Payroll, Engineering, and Personnel departments,” he said.
That would not be Schoolfield’s only foray into workforce development. Nash Community College also was willing to set up a GED training program at the plant after work hours.
“We had determined that a large percentage of our employees had not graduated from high school, but were not willing to go out to the community college. Many of our employees earned their GED certificates over the next year. The employees and the company benefited from this effort by the community college,” he said.
When he had retired, Schoolfield told these stories to his friend, Dr. Jerry Owens, then president of RCC, who suggested that he join RCC’s Board of Trustees.
Getting back to the mission
Schoolfield came onto the board in 2003, met and became friends with long-time trustees Jack Webster, Garland Rakestraw and W.B. “Dud” Apple. They expressed concerns that RCC and the Community College System had slipped from its main goal of focusing on workforce training to benefit the community’s needs and was becoming a “junior college” for the university system. They and others were the trailblazers to get the College back to its main goal of the charter of the System.
Sen. Berger, Rep. Pyrtle, and RCC President Dr. Mark Kinlaw shared their concerns, and with their support and the work of the Quarter-Cent Sales Tax Committee, the county commissioners, and many on the RCC Administrative team, accomplished a milestone with the dedication of the new $26 million Center for Workforce Development.
“The recognition was nice and I really appreciate it, but I accepted it as an honor for the whole group because we had been able to accomplish something we had been wanting to do for seven years,” he said, referring to the new building and other campus capital improvements.
Other large projects during his tenure included the renovation of the Industrial Technologies II building to house the Welding program that also opened this summer, and the renovation of the Owens Health Sciences Building to accommodate a simulated hospital in 2016.
“I’m glad I had 21 years with RCC because I feel like we accomplished a lot that moved us in the direction we need to go, which quite honestly was supporting the community with good, well-educated and trained employees,” Schoolfield said.
