Friday, March 29, 2024

Collin College Foundation honors local living legends

(NDG Wire) The Collin College Foundation celebrated the college’s silver anniversary by honoring 25 Living Legends last week.

Previous Living Legends were also recognized, and they included members of the North Dallas Gazette’s board – Fred Moses and his wife Mazzie (2006), and Myrtle Hightower and her husband John (2004).

Honored as the 2009 Living Legends at the November 7 ceremony were Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano, the Citizens of McKinney, David McCall and Dr. Rick Reedy. The ceremony was held at the new library at the Collin College Central Park Campus in McKinney.

During the 25th anniversary of Collin College, the Foundation focused on major gifts from the community to build the scholarship endowment to support the ever-increasing need for student scholarships.

To encourage these gifts, the Collin College Foundation embarked on a Naming Opportunities Program, which provides naming recognition at Collin College campuses – from buildings, rooms, conference centers and more. The goal is to raise $250,000 to name a room that recognizes the Legends on one of the campuses. More than $100,000 has been raised to date.

This year’s Living Legends are:

Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano
Backed by 100 years of experience, the Baylor Health Care System expanded into Collin County in 2004 when it opened Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano.

Personalized care and advanced technology make Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano a leading hospital serving North Texas. The hospital’s many awards and accreditations demonstrate a long-standing history of superior medical care and service to the community.

In 2004, the same year the medical center opened its doors, Baylor Plano demonstrated its commitment to quality higher education through its contribution to the Living Legends recognition event as the presenting sponsor. After four years as presenting sponsor of this event, an endowed scholarship was established in honor of Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. These multi-year gifts have awarded 12 scholarships to date, and the endowed scholarship will be annually awarded in their name in perpetuity. Scholarships have been awarded to students pursuing their degrees in the allied health fields.

Countless people in this community have been touched by their generous support of education. Through their sponsorship of Living Legends, the college is able to award scholarships in honor of those named Living Legends. In addition to the Living Legends Scholarships, the Foundation awards an annual scholarship in Baylor’s name.

Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano was saluted as a Living Legend for their dedication to healing the body and strengthening the mind.

The Citizens of McKinney
As Collin College celebrates its 25th anniversary, the citizens of McKinney, Texas are recognized for their long-time support of higher education in Collin County.

McKinney was the birthplace of Collin College with the first campus—the Central Park Campus—established at the corner of Community Avenue and University Drive (also known as Highway 380) in January 1986.

Today, Collin College remains the only public college in the county, and its six locations serve more than 46,000 students annually.

The Citizens of McKinney have also demonstrated generous support for higher education through philanthropy. Some of the largest individual and corporate gifts to Collin College have originated in McKinney.

The single largest donation in college history was a gift of land from the McKinney Economic Development Corporation for the new Collin Higher Education Center (CHEC). The land donation and a $2 million donation for a parking structure at the site are further evidence of the power of the McKinney citizens working in collaboration to create a more vibrant community and region.

The CHEC, scheduled to offer classes this spring, will allow Collin College graduates to take junior- and senior-level college courses to complete a university baccalaureate degree without leaving Collin County. Partner universities will also offer graduate and doctoral degree programs at the site. The CHEC will be the college’s seventh campus and will open in the heart of Collin County at the northeast corner of Central Expressway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway (formerly SH 121) in January 2010.

David McCall
In the early 1980s, Collin County was the largest county in the United States without a community college. Yet it was quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, and a shift had begun toward high school graduates beginning their higher education locally. A community college had previously failed among Collin County voters.

But in 1984, its time had come, and with David McCall and Carey Cox co-chairing the organization that put the college back on the ballot, it passed overwhelmingly.

Once approved by voters, it was time to elect trustees. Plano was, by far, the dominant city in the county in those years, but the college organizers had the foresight to design a slate that was representative of the entire county. They also hired the college’s first president, Dr. John Anthony, and the rest has become the impressive history of one of the most successful local colleges in America.

In addition to his instrumental role in founding Collin College, McCall helped begin the Leadership Plano program during his tenure as president of the Plano Chamber of Commerce. Among his many civic and professional activities are service on the boards of Baylor University and Baylor University Medical Center, chairing the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority board and serving as president of both the Plano and the Collin County bar associations. He also has been named Plano’s Citizen of the Year.

A Plano native, McCall has a rich family history of civic and academic service. His father, David McCall Jr., served as the first principal of Mendenhall Elementary School and, later, the mayor of Plano, as well as on numerous boards and commissions. His mother, Nellie, was a teacher, and his brother, Brian, is a Texas state representative.

McCall holds a law degree from Baylor and is a partner in the firm of Gay McCall Isaacks Gordon and Roberts, which has sponsored Collin College’s signature annual fundraiser, the Collin Cabaret, as its presenting partner. The event benefits college students in critical need of financial assistance to complete their education. Both of McCall’s children, Cam and Meredith, work with him at his law firm. He and his wife, Sharon, enjoy spending time at their farm in Snow Hill and with his grandson, Hunter.

Dr. Rick ReedyThe Frisco Independent School District (FISD) had seven schools when Dr. Rick Reedy became its superintendent, just 12 years ago. Since then, the district has become one of the fastest growing in the nation, with 46 campuses and 4,700 employees in 2009.

Reedy’s lifelong passion for education got its start in his childhood home in Whitesboro, Texas. He was one of six high-achieving children whose mother was an educator. A scholarship took him to Texas A&M University-Commerce, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1970, a master’s in 1973 and a doctorate in 1990.

He began his teaching career in Whitewright ISD in 1970, moved to Trenton ISD and onto FISD in 1976 as a middle school teacher and coach. He became assistant principal and then principal of Frisco High School before being named the district’s assistant superintendent in 1992. Five years later, after nearly three decades on a steady, progressive career path, Reedy’s responsibilities exploded into a pace experienced by few school district leaders, anywhere. Reedy was a driving force, along with the FISD Board of Trustees, in creating the Frisco Education Foundation to provide scholarships for graduating seniors and grants for innovative educators.

He has been a leader in embracing and promoting the dual-credit program with Collin College, encouraging Frisco high school students to enroll in college classes to simultaneously earn college credits while satisfying high school requirements. Since FISD entered into the arrangement with the college in the late 1980s, thousands of Frisco students have enjoyed the opportunity to get a convenient and economical jump-start on their transition to college.

Reedy has served on many community and professional boards and is currently involved with the UIL Legislative Committee, the Academic Decathlon State Board, the Visioning Institute and the UIL Region 24 Music Committee. He has been named one of Collin County Business Journal’s 21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Frisco Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year and Texas School Business magazine’s Educator of the Month.

Reedy and his wife, Judith, have three sons — all Frisco High School graduates — and three grandsons.

Collin College serves more than 46,000 credit and continuing education students annually and offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs. The only public college in the county, Collin College is a partner to business, government and industry, providing customized training and work force development.

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