Ball retires after years of building Green River College

In the last 15 years, Sam Ball has overseen the construction of a dozen capital projects at Green River College.

On June 30, the director of capital projects retires after nearly 27 years at the college in several roles.

Ball, 73, joined Green River in December 1989 to teach management and economics to Boeing employees at the Education Training Center, which was housed in a rented facility on Central Avenue North in Kent. He soon became director of the program and later a dean of instruction at Green River and moved to the main campus in Auburn.

Ball grew up in northern Vermont. An avid skier, he moved to Colorado after college where he joined the ski patrol and eventually became a ski area manager. He moved to Washington state to get into the construction business and taught supervision courses for the Association of General Contractors before taking the job at Green River.

When the college received funding for the Performing Arts Building on the main campus in Auburn in 2001, Ball was tasked with overseeing the project.

“Somebody found out that my background before I came to the college, some of it, was in construction and real estate development, so they asked if I would get involved in helping the team design and build the Performing Arts Building,” he said. “I took on the role of facilitating, getting input from the faculty in terms of what they wanted in the building.”

That project turned out to be the first of many for Ball. He went on to oversee construction of the Technology Building, the Marv Nelson Science Learning Center, Campus Corner Apartments (student housing), the international programs office building, Salish Hall (classrooms and offices), both phases of the campus at Kent Station, the Trades Technologies Building and the Mel Lindbloom Student Union, as well as renovation of the gym and Cedar Hall.

“We just started to get funding for more and more projects, he said. “They took me out of being an instructional dean and I became head of capital.”

The majority of the projects were state funded, so the contracts were bid and managed at the state level, Ball said.

“I am the person who has to get the building designed, and then, as we go through the construction process, I need to keep track of the budgets to ensure that we can sign these change orders if they are appropriate from a college standpoint,” Ball said.

Green River was fortunate to receive as much capital funding as it did, Ball said.

“It’s very, very competitive because all of the community colleges in the state are competing for the same bucket of money,” he said.

His favorite project was the construction of the Mel Lindbloom Student Union, which opened earlier this year.

“This was done with students,” Ball said. “I love interacting with students. We had student representatives on the design team.”

Ball has enjoyed watching students use the new facility, which was partially funded by a self-imposed fee on students.

“I had such great joy the first day this (Student Union) opened,” he said. “I waited purposely until about 10 in the morning, and I walked over because I wanted to see what it was going to feel like. The place was abuzz everywhere. They found all the nooks and crannies already. They were camping out here, studying, chatting, doing all the social stuff.”

Shirley Bean, Green River’s vice president of business administration, said Ball is well respected around campus and in the community.

“I am always impressed with what a really good job he has done at building relationships,” said Bean, who has been Ball’s boss since last August. “He works so well with such a diverse group of constituents.”

Ball is a “true gentleman,” Bean said, and someone she tries to model herself after.

“I look at Sam as one of my key advisers because of the way he carries himself,” she said. “I ask myself, ‘What would Sam do in this situation?’ He always handles himself with such grace. He is such a good ambassador for Green River. He is devoted to the college.”

There are no plans to fill Ball’s position at this time, Bean said.

“We are really ramping down our capital projects,” she said. “We don’t anticipate that we will continue to have these large capital projects for a number of years.”

If the need for a capital projects director arises, Bean said, the position could be filled on a project-by-project basis.

The slowdown in construction at the college was part of Ball’s decision to retire.

“I kept getting asked to stay a little longer,” he said. “I kept saying yes. It is just time now.”

But construction work won’t end with Ball’s retirement. He is building a house in Kirkland.

He said he looks forward to spending time with his wife, Nancy, their children and three grandchildren.