“I felt like I just knew inside that it was time for me go,” says Mary Spilde, who retired in June 2017 after a long career at Lane Community College in Oregon, including 16 years as president.
“I felt like this is the time. I’m ready. I’m excited about starting the next chapter of my life,” says Spilde, who served as board chair of the American Association of Community Colleges in 2010.
When it’s time to retire, “you just know,” echoed Don Cameron, the former president of Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina, who retired seven years ago. He was walking across the campus heading home one day, when he suddenly realized it was time to move on.
Like the other CEOs interviewed for this article, Cameron advises presidents contemplating retirement to “go out at a time when things are going well, when the college is financially stable.”
“Things are going great in our system,” says Nancy McCallin, who will retire July 31 after serving as president of the Colorado Community College System for 14 years. “Given that longevity and that the system is in strong financial shape with significant reserves, I thought it was a great time to leave,” she says.
The election of a new governor in New Jersey spurred Lawrence Nespoli to retire in February, after serving as president of the New Jersey Council of Community Colleges for 27 years.
Handing the council off to a new president turned out to be the right decision, he says, as Gov. Phil Murphy has so far been a positive force for higher education.
For Tony Zeiss, who spent 47 years in community colleges, it was his wife, Beth, who said, “it’s time to go smell some roses.”
Instead of kicking back as originally planned, however, Zeiss, the former president of Central Piedmont Community College in North Carolina, accepted an offer to be the first director of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. “I was not interested in a full-time position but did want to do something meaningful,” he says.
It was supposed to be a two-year position, but after a year and a half at the museum, during which he developed a strategic plan and policies and hired a management team, “I felt things were going well enough so I could walk away in good conscience,” he says.
Give the board ample time
The first thing to do after deciding to retire is to inform the college’s board of trustees, Cameron says. “Give the board enough time to do a search for the next CEO,” he advises. “Six to eight months should be enough time. If you give two year’s notice, you’ll become a lame duck.”
Spilde gave her board 17 months’ notice so they would have plenty of time to find a new CEO without the need for an interim president.
When he left Central Piedmont, Zeiss gave the board six months’ notice but stayed for another six months because the search for a new president took longer than expected. He believes six to eight months’ notice is ideal.
McCallin told the board about her plan to retire two years in advance but it wasn’t publicly announced until a year ago.
“I felt it was important for the board to appropriately plan,” she says. McCallin and the new CEO will overlap for a month, and she promises to make herself available as needed, but feels “it’s really up to the successor to decide whether they want you to help or not.”
A clean break
While Spilde notes that some retired presidents maintain professional ties with their college – and she appreciates the board giving her the honorary title of president emerita – “I thought it was important to step back and let the new president create own her own path.”
When a president retires, “you need to make a clean break,” Zeiss agrees. After leading Central Piedmont for 23 years, he acknowledges it was hard to let go. But he was so busy at the Bible museum, “I didn’t have time to think about the college.”
Whether an outgoing president should serve as a mentor for the next one depends on the situation and the personalities involved, Cameron says. In his case, he made a clean break, telling the new leadership, “I will not stay on campus. I will not show up unless invited and will not discuss any issues in public.”
At other colleges, “if the board asks the new president to be a mentor and the new president is comfortable with that, there is no reason that shouldn’t work,” he says.
A slower pace
While McCallin has “no plans whatsoever” for what she will do after retiring, the other former presidents interviewed here are planning a lower-key mix of personal and professional pursuits.
“I really wanted to stay involved with community colleges but in a different arena,” Cameron says. After leaving Guilford, he earned two executive coaching certifications and opened his own firm focusing on community college leaders.
Coaching takes about 20 to 25 hours a week, which give Cameron more time for a daily four-mile walk and teaching a Sunday school class.
After retiring, Spilde was able to spend time in Scotland with her mother, who died at age 101. “I was so glad I was able to be there and be present and not have to worry about the college,” she says.
Spilde has continued working on community college leadership development, teaching a doctoral-level course at Oregon State University and developing a statewide community college leadership program. She is also helping new CEOs of local nonprofits establish effective relationships with their boards.
Spilde will accept projects “only if I’m passionate about the work and the organization and I feel I have something to give to make a difference.” If not, “I’m not going to do it.”
On the personal side, Spilde plans to spend more time with her grown children and two-year-old granddaughter, traveling, and focusing on fitness and yoga. After a recent meditation hike in Mexico, she says, “I feel renewed and refreshed.”
One thing that helped Spilde think about the future was a workshop she attended in October for people contemplating retirement called Life Reinspired. “That really helped me think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life in a deliberate, intentional way and helped me focus on what to engage in,” she says.
Nespoli also continues to be involved in community college leadership development by teaching in the doctorate programs at Rowan University in New Jersey and the University of Maryland.
He is also considering teaching a student success class next fall in the first-year experience program at Mercer County Community College near his home and also may get involved in the college’s foundation or other initiatives.
Giving back
“At a certain point in your career, you want to give back,” Nespoli says. “After 27 years, I wasn’t going to go out the door and turn off the switch. I’m passionate about community colleges.”
Nespoli had initially planned to spend more time with his wife, Debbie, but she died suddenly two weeks after he announced his plans to retire. “It’s been tough. Debbie was the love of my life for 40+ years,” he says. “As we make plans in life – including retirement – sometimes life intervenes in ways that we don’t anticipate or welcome.”
After Zeiss retired from the Bible museum in early May, he immediately left for a vacation in Europe that included a family reunion in Germany.
Tony Zeiss, former president of Central Piedmont Community College, in front of a campus building that bears his name. (Photo: CPCC)
Zeiss has relocated back to Charlotte, where he agreed to do some consulting for the John N. Belk Endowment and serves on the boards of a regional hospital and several historical organizations. He also intends to spend more time fly fishing and is writing a book aimed at helping college students integrate spiritual concerns as they navigate into careers and their future lives.
He’s received plenty of offers to take on full-time leadership roles but doesn’t want to do anything demanding.
“The neat thing now, I’ve matured to realize you don’t need to do anything that is not meaningful and fun,” Zeiss says.
Once you’ve retired, “there a huge freedom to choose to do what you’re passionate about,” Spilde agrees. “That’s not something you can do as president.”
