March 31, 2014

Dr. Paul Matney, whose unprecedented odyssey swept him through the corridors of Amarillo College as a student, instructor, professor, dean and, ultimately, to the presidency, has formally announced his plans to retire.

Matney, who will have spent 35 years on the AC payroll—the past six as either president or acting president—has informed the Board of Regents and AC’s employee group of his intention to retire sometime this summer.

The 13th president of AC, Matney will turn 65 in August and said he and his wife Sandy have given the matter a great deal of thought and concur that the timing is right.

“I love Amarillo College, and I mean that in the deepest sense of the word,” Matney said. “Sandy and I are ready to open a new chapter in our lives, and the time is right not only for us but for the College.

“AC is well-positioned in the community, and we have a talented and dedicated senior leadership team that is more than capable of orchestrating a seamless transition.”

Don Nicholson, chairman of ACs’ Board of Regents, said if anyone has earned retirement, it is Matney.

“It will be sad to see him go, but thanks to Dr. Matney the school is in excellent shape, our relationships with our stakeholders have never been better,” Nicholson said. “There is no doubt in my mind that Dr. Matney’s love of AC is unmatched. He has done a superb job as president and we owe him our heartfelt gratitude, but we knew he would step away one day and he certainly deserves to do so on his own terms.

“Thankfully he will leave us with a superlative leadership team to assist the Board as we put together a plan to search for a new president. We have only just begun the planning process for that search, but it is certain we will look at all avenues as we proceed.”

The AC Regents officially named Matney president on July 15, 2009, but he had already been serving as acting president since May 28, 2008, a responsibility compelled by the illness and subsequent passing of then-President Steven W. Jones.

Matney’s 43-year career in higher education began in 1973 at West Texas State University, where he was an instructor and director of radio and television until moving to AC in 1979. It was not his first experience at AC; the lifelong Amarilloan and Amarillo High School graduate spent his freshman year at AC before attending the University of Texas at Austin.

Just one year after joining the AC faculty, Matney was named chair of the Language, Communication and Fine Arts Division. In 1989 he completed his doctoral studies at Texas Tech University and was named a full professor at AC.

By 2005, Matney had risen to vice president and dean of instruction at AC, putting him in line to serve as acting president when necessity called, also making him a viable candidate for president. That title was officially bestowed upon the veteran educator not long after the Board of Regents named him the sole finalist for the post; no one else was interviewed.

If Matney’s résumé as a member of the AC faculty is impressive, and it is—among his many honors is a prestigious Piper Professorship and a Senior Fellowship awarded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board—his accomplishments as president are almost overwhelming.

Under Matney’s direction:

•  AC has become a rising star in Achieving the Dream, a highly exclusive, nationwide network of community colleges focused on improving student success;
• The College developed and implemented its ambitious No Excuses plan, a student-success initiative in which faculty and staff strive to help students achieve their academic goals;
• AC has successfully expended the bulk of a $68 million bond issue that Amarillo voters approved in 2007 and which has transformed the College from worn to fresh, with students the cardinal beneficiaries;
• A new AC campus has been conceived, built and opened in Hereford—the same for a Technical Training Center in Moore County; and
• Relationships throughout the community and the region have been immensely strengthened, an example of which is formation of the Panhandle Community College Connection (PC3), a unique-to-Texas partnership between AC, Clarendon College and Frank Phillips College to ease transferability between institutions, align programs and offerings, and provide greater options for students; and
• AC in 2013 achieved reaffirmation of its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, a vital endorsement all colleges and universities must pursue every 10 years.

“I’ve been blessed by Amarillo College and certainly by having served as its president these past few years,” Matney said.

“My favorite activity as president has been to go out into the community and tell the AC story. We have a great story here. We literally change lives and create futures.

“It doesn’t get any better than that.”