6/21/07

Oh Kay!
Raffield awarded Order of the Palmetto on retirement
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

S.C. House of Representative member G. Murrell Smith (left) reads a message from Gov. Mark Sanford as Senator Phil Leventis presents Dr. Kay Raffield the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor. Dr. Raffield retires as president of Central Carolina Technical College at the end of the month.

It was a bittersweet gathering tinged with many laughs and perhaps a few tears, as friends, family, faculty and staff gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Sumter campus of Central Carolina Technical College (CCTC) to honor the woman who has steered the course for the last eight years.

Dr. Kay Raffield, Manning native and Manning High alumna, will step down as president of the four-county college effective June 30. To mark the occasion and her many accomplishments during her tenure as an educator and college administrator, she was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by Gov. Mark Sanford. The Order of the Palmetto is the state’s highest civilian honor.

The presentation was made by members of the Sumter Legislative delegation, Rep. G. Murrell Smith and Sen. Phil Leventis.

Nevertheless, the Clarendon contingent of those present to honor Raffield was not in short supply.

Dr. Scott Brown, who has served for several years as chairman of the CCTC Foundation board, said that he believed that Raffield’s legacy would be the expansion of the college that she oversaw.

“We are the only technical college in the state system to have a presence in every county we serve, I believe,” he said. CCTC serves Sumter, Clarendon, Lee and Kershaw counties. “We have served as a model that other colleges follow.”

Replacing Raffield will be Dr. Tim Hardee who has served as director of the F.E. DuBose campus since 1994. The Clarendon campus became part of the CCTC system in 1998. Hardee had previously served as adult education director at F.E. DuBose since 1986.

“It would have been very easy for Dr. Raffield to just grow the Sumter campus and expect students to come here,” Hardee said. “But she saw that that plan was not the best one for the people and set out to bring education to them, rather than the other way around.”

Again and again, speakers rose to make presentations to their outgoing president. With gifts from a lamp made from a Chevy connector and a Ford piston, to a scrapbook recounting many of the events of the last eight years, Raffield was honored not only for her service to the college but to the way she had treated the entire faculty and staff … from the professor to the maintenance man.

“It has truly been a pleasure to work with Dr. Raffield over the past years,” Hardee said. “She realizes that every single employee is an important part of what we do here. People are our most important commodity.”

Under Raffield’s leadership, the CCTC academic program was expanded to offer college level classes to high school students in Clarendon county.

“We have had such a wonderful relationship with CCTC and Dr. Raffield,” said Clarendon School District 2 Superintendent John Tindal. “Because of that relationship, our students have been able to get a jump start on their higher education goals. It has been so easy to work with a college president who we can talk to and touch … to have such access with a college president … that is unusual,” Tindal concluded.

A.C. English, former president of the Bank of Clarendon, represents Clarendon County on the Area Commission, the CCTC board of directors.

“Dr. Raffield is leaving us in great hands with Dr. Hardee and leaving us in great shape,” English said. “This is a quality institution, from the people, to the facilities, to the finances.”

English concurred that a foundation for growth would be Raffield’s most lasting gift to the college.

“We have so many wonderful things happening here,” English said. “We have recently purchased 40 acres in Kershaw County on which to build a new campus and we are expanding our nursing program with the acquisition of the Western Auto building in downtown Sumter. I see nothing but bright horizons for the college.”

Raffield addressed the large crowd gathered in her honor by reading a memo she sent on her very first day as CCTC president, July 15, 1999.

“It is a time of great transition for all of us,” she read. “I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders.”

She spoke jokingly of her retirement plans that include “better monitoring her husband’s (Bennie’s) activities, better interference in her adult children’s lives and improvement of her golf game.

Concluding her remarks, she paraphrased her original memo.

“It is a time of great transition for all of us,” she said. “I feel the weight of responsibility moving to Tim’s shoulders. Just because I am gone from my office doesn’t mean I am gone from your lives. I will cherish each friendship I made. I will miss you all.”