This leap year, Amarillo College is celebrating its purposeful values: Family, Fun, Innovation, Wow and Yes through a special series we're calling by Leaps and Bounds.

As a decades-long nursing educator, Delores Thompson is well-versed in the sophisticated procedures and conventional wisdom that aspiring nurses are required to master, and she has been imparting that knowledge at AC, off and on, since 1976.

But the assistant professor of nursing has never failed to reinforce her lesson plans with one particular personal conviction.

“I’m old school,” she says. “I tell all my students that a little TLC will take you further than all the knowledge in the world. Sometimes it’s the little things, like turning the pillow to the cool side.”

For her deep-rooted passion for teaching, her dedication to AC, and her efforts to inspire her many charges to adopt a culture of caring, the College has conferred upon Thompson the prestigious distinction of Professor Emeritus.

The AC Family will therefore celebrate Thompson at a Faculty Senate-sponsored reception in her honor from 2-3 p.m. Wednesday, April 27 on the second floor of the College Union Building on the Washington Street Campus.

“It is so unreal. I was humbled and surprised to be chosen for this,” said Thompson, who retired from AC in 2010 but continues to work at the College one day each week as a care group leader, teaching basic nursing skills in the Nursing Resource Center on the West Campus.

Thompson taught at AC from 1976 to 1980, then spent the next nine years as a nurse at Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospital. She returned to AC in 1989 and served as coordinator of the Vocational Nursing Program until 2005. She retired from full-time work at the College in 2010, by then having served on committees for accreditation review, commencement, rank and tenure, and financial aid appeals.

“She is committed to student success and loves nursing,” Dr. Richard Pullen, dean of nursing and ADN Program director, said. “I had the honor of having her as my clinical teacher in 1979 while I was a nursing student at AC. She is a wonderful role model and mentor, and she is a beautiful person.”

Thompson also remains a busy person. Besides her once-a-week work at AC, she regularly volunteers time at BSA Hospice, sits on the board of directors for Friends of the Library, and is actively involved in the activities of her church and her sorority.

“AC has been a blessing for me,” Thompson said. “It has been such a privilege to be at AC to teach young people to be nurses. It’s a delight to see the lights come on for the students. Being a nurse is hard work, but there’s great comradery in nursing – it’s contagious – and I’ve had fun with it.”

April 14, 2016