First Green River president marvels at college’s growth, success in 50 years

A lot has changed on the Green River College campus since the first time Mel Lindbloom visited the place on Auburn’s Lea Hill more than 50 years ago.

“It is amazing because at my first introduction to this site, 124th Street ended in a big pile of sawdust,” said Lindbloom, who was the college’s first president for 16 years. “There was nothing, nothing here other than forest.”

Lindbloom, now 90 and living in Lynnwood, returned to the college last week to attend the First 50 Breakfast, a kickoff event to the college’s 50th anniversary celebration. He reunited with friends and colleagues, toured a changing campus and took in the new student life center that will bear his name.

The Mel Lindbloom Student Union, which is scheduled to open later this year, will replace the Lindbloom Student Center that was built in 1971 in his name. Students voted last spring to name the new center in his honor.

His work on behalf of the college began in 1962 when he was an assistant superintendent under Superindendent Hayes Holman.

“One of my jobs was to do the work to get the college going,” Lindbloom said. “Hayes had already developed a citizens’ committee of people interested in the college. There was a matter of that committee and others to convince the Legislature to allow more community colleges to be built.”

Under state law, community colleges, then called junior colleges, could not be built in a county where there was already a four-year university. In 1961, that law was changed, effectively paving the way for colleges like Green River. In 1962, the state authorized Green River Community College to open in the fall of 1965.

Tough go at first

Lindbloom, who was named president of the college in 1964, said getting the college started was no easy task.

“Ray Needham (the college’s first dean of instruction) and I, along with one of the architects, tramped through brush and found the corners of the buildings on the original master plan,” Lindbloom said. “I just didn’t think it is was going to happen. There was so much to do.”

Lindbloom recalled his opening comment to faculty: “Now what do we do?”

Since the college opened its doors 50 years ago, it has served thousands of students and conferred about 64,000 degrees.

“I say to Green River College, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby,'” Lindbloom said during the breakfast. “The expansion of the college has just been amazing. I attribute that to the leadership of the college.”

Lindbloom is most proud of the college’s commitment to serving students. One motto he took seriously during his presidency was “think student, then decide.”

“The element that I am really proud of is the commitment to the worth and dignity of students, and that has been proven over and over,” he said. “It is a great place, and I am very proud of it.”

Lindbloom, who served on a Navy destroyer in the Pacific theatre during World War II, advocated for students during the Vietnam War. Students could defer military service if they were attending college full-time.

Lindbloom recalled that one mother from Kent whose son had been killed in the Vietnam War, so she donated his $10,000 life insurance payout to the college’s scholarship fund.

Teamwork

Needham served as Lindbloom’s “right-hand man” during the creation of the college and for its first few years.

Needham and Lindbloom met when they were students at Washington State University, Lindbloom working on his doctorate, Needham on his master’s degree.

“We were just a few doors apart in the dorms together. I used to see Mel every morning when we were shaving,” Needham said.

A few years later they reunited in Auburn.

Needham left Green River in 1970 and went on to serve as president at colleges in Oregon and North Carolina before retiring from Tacoma Community College. He attributes his success as a college president to what he learned from Lindbloom.

“I think I did a lot of things like he did,” Needham said. “He believed in people. He believed in students. He believed in being honest in the way he worked with the board. I watched him all the time that I was here.”

Lindbloom adhered to a hands-on leadership style, Needham said.

“One technique he taught me was administration by walking around, so I spent a lot of time during my presidencies just visiting faculty, going to the student center, listening to what students had to say …,” Needham said. “He (Lindbloom) usually taught a class in education, and I did that.”

Lindbloom retired as Green River’s president in 1980. James Chadbourne was the college’s second president before Rich Rutkowski took over the post in 1984. Rutkowski retired in 2010 and was replaced by current president Eileen Ely.

The college’s golden anniversary celebration continues with events throughout the school year. For more information on upcoming events, visit Greenriver50th.org.