You can’t spend more than a few minutes with Northwest Mississippi Community College President, Dr. Gary Lee Spears, before you are aware of his profound love of the college. Now beginning his third year as Northwest’s eighth president, Spears has been chosen as the college’s Alumnus of the Year. He will be recognized during Homecoming Activities at the college Oct. 20.

“It was a unanimous decision of the selection committee to choose Dr. Spears,” said Dolores Wooten, manager of Alumni Affairs. “It’s quite a common sight to see Dr. Spears walking around campus and bending down to pick up a piece of trash. He cares about our students and the beauty of our campus,” she said.

Spears, and his wife Marilyn, can be found at many campus activities ranging from ballgames to Fine Arts activities.

“My first impression of Northwest came when I was a teenager,” said Spears, who grew up in Eudora and attended Hernando High School. “A friend of our family took me to see his son play football at Hernando, and later at Northwest. I thought those ballgames were the greatest.”

Spears later entered Northwest as a drafting and design technology major. After working in a few temporary jobs, he decided to enroll at the college again, this time seeking an Associate Degree in education.

“While I was at Northwest I was encouraged by Mr. Howard Carpenter (former education and social science instructor) to go on to complete my education at Delta State University,” said Spears.

He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in social science and a master’s degree in counseling from Delta State. He began his career in education teaching junior high school history at Leland Consolidated School District while he worked on his master’s degree.

Spears joined the Northwest family in 1975 as a counselor. He served the college as registrar and director of Admissions and Records for 25 years before being named President in 2005. He also held positions at Northwest as an instructor, assistant to the DeSoto Center director and vice president for Student Affairs.

In 1991, Spears earned a doctorate in educational leadership at The University of Mississippi, where he also taught courses in higher education as an adjunct instructor. For his thesis he chose to write a history of Northwest.

“I wrote about the previous presidents of this college. This report showed the style of leadership of each of these presidents—not only how that leadership framed each administration, but also how it evolved.

I looked at the emphasis of each administration and studied the changes that took place in it. Those changes included new programs and facilities and revealed the significant contributions that each president left to the college.”

For that history project he interviewed Mrs. R.D. McLendon, wife of former President R.D. McLendon, and former dean, James P. McCormick, for whom the Administration Building on the Senatobia campus is named. Interviews also included students, alumni and faculty.

Dr. Spears says he hopes one day when historians look at the significance of his administration, one of the highlights will be the new “Building on Tradition” program that was recently approved by the Board of Trustees.

This multi-million dollar, three-year capital improvement plan is comprised of three sections—future projects, current renovation projects and demolition projects to make room for future growth.

“We’ve been working on this plan for months,” said Spears. “I know this is an ambitious plan, but those of us who have worked on it—staff, faculty and administration—agree that these are projects we need in order to move forward. I have presented this plan to our Board of Trustees, to our Foundation Board, and to various area civic organizations, and have received positive reaction from all.”

While Northwest has been important to Spears, it has also played a vital role in the lives of his wife and children. “My wife, Marilyn attended Northwest and later taught for 25 years in the Child Development Technology program. Our sons, Daniel and Jared, both were students here and did well. I’m so proud that they chose to come to Northwest.

As a student, Jared was inducted into the college Hall of Fame and was involved in numerous theatre productions. He went on to The University of Mississippi where he earned a bachelor’s degree and an M.F.A. and is a member of the university’s faculty.

While at Northwest, Daniel worked in the Recruiting Office, was a Student Recruiter and was a member of the Ranger golf team. He also went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at The University of Mississippi and is employed by the North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford.

Dr. Spears was recognized as the 2007 Alumnus of the Year at the Homecoming Celebration held in the Haraway Center, Oct. 20.