ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – At the end of the year, a member of the Bay College Board of Trustees will retire after 50 years of service.
Tom Butch joined the Bay College Board of Trustees as its youngest member in 1974.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years,” Butch laughed. “It was a wonderful board. If we’ve had difficult problems through the years, we’ve generally been able to take different viewpoints and meld them together. That’s made it enjoyable.”
His influence can be felt all over campus. It can also be seen in the Thomas L. Butch Library, which was renamed in his honor in 2019.
“One meeting, someone got up and read a resolution that they wanted to name the library after me, particularly because I used it a lot,” said Butch. “They knew I loved it, so they had surprised me. It was quite funny because the tie I was wearing that night was all books like a library shelf, and I had no idea!”
Butch has been instrumental in Bay College’s development. Over the past five decades, courses have been added, facilities have been improved, and the student population has grown. However, what he’s most proud of is the Board of Trustees’ commitment to students.
“We really focused in through the years on student success,” he said. “That was our main goal, and I think that’s come to fruition in the last ten years or so. We can pretty much offer any type of program. If, say, a business needs a certain type of employee, we’ll create a program for that company and any prospective employees.”
Board of Trustees Chair Eric Lundin has served with Butch for 18 years.
“When I think Tom Butch, I think Bay College,” he said. “Tom has just been a pivotal part of Bay’s continued growth. To be with an organization for 50 years on a volunteer basis is just astounding. To me, he’s been a mentor and a friend and someone I’ve learned a ton from during my career.”
He calls Butch an ambassador for Bay and its students.
“Tom has been involved locally, at a state level, and even nationally advocating for community colleges,” said Lundin. “That’s trips down to Lansing, looking at numbers, and understanding the value that community colleges bring to communities.”
Lundin thanks Butch for his unwavering dedication to student success.
“That’s something that Tom has been really ingraining in us during our time,” he said. “We recognize what Tom has brought during his tenure and just want to continue that in his legacy.”
When the Board of Trustees moves forward without him in 2025, Butch’s desire is that student success will remain the top priority.
“I hope that we continue to focus on like laser beams on that concept,” said Butch. “We should make it as effortless and as easy as possible for students to be recruited, to register, to attend classes, to have study groups, tutors, all of those things.”
He also wants to see the college introduce new programs when necessary.
“There’s a lot of change going on in the country with AI,” Butch said. “There will be significant other changes, and we need to continue to be at the foreground of those things.”
As he prepares to retire, Butch is content knowing that Bay College is in good hands.
“I have been most fortunate,” he said. “I want to thank everyone for their cooperative efforts. We have had very few people that did not have the same ideas and concepts of students first. I’m most grateful for that and thank everyone for making 50 years very easy and go by quite smoothly.”
He encourages the community he’s been so involved in for half a century to keep up its support for Bay College.
“I think we are a very necessary part of our community,” said Butch. “I would ask people to continue to get behind it.”
Butch’s last day on the Board of Trustees will be December 31.
