30th Anniversary History Book

By 1992, the board was focusing on leadership, program development and growth. At a board meeting that year in Washington, D.C. (where the Lathams, Neills, and Timmenys lived), Neill suggested bringing in Deborah Brodbeck as a consultant. Neill had known Brodbeck for years, going back to a period when they both were living in Westchester County, NY. At the time, Brodbeck was immersed deeply in the field of learning disabilities and had diagnosed Blake Neill’s issues when he was a five- year-old. “… (N)ot many people full understood how expressive and written language affected how a kid learns at that time and she fully did,” Neill said. “I was impressed with her from the ver y beginning.” As was the board. After Brodbeck delivered her repor t, the trustees offered her the college presidency. “She (Brodbeck) did so well, we kept her,” Neill said. “We liked her philosophy and decided to hire her.” Pat and Peter Latham and Kay Timmeny also were impressed with Brodbeck’s knowledge of learning disabilities, as well as her enthusiasm and energy. The transition in 1992 involved a great deal of work, over a period of months, on the par t of Brodbeck, the staff, and board members. The Lathams ser ved on the Board of Trustees from 1989 until 1993 and, after the leadership change, left to pursue other projects, including co-authoring and contributing to more than 10 books on learning and attention disabilities. Pat Latham now is an arbitrator handling commercial, employment and securities cases.

Neill, Timmeny, and D’Addario also served on the board during the transition and for many years thereafter. Jarvis was offered a teaching position, but declined, opting instead to complete her Ph.D. in higher education at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Jarvis retired this summer as an academic support counselor at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Savannah, Ga., following a long career at Auburn University. Brodbeck, who earned a Master of Science degree in the field of education studies from Fordham University in New York, was pursuing a doctorate in psychology at the time she was approached by Neill. She readily interrupted her studies to sign on with Beacon. So began a 19-year run piloting Beacon, a tenure that lasted a decade longer on average than most college presidents. Like Glines, Brodbeck did not hide away in her office, but was out on the small campus, meeting students, motivating staff, doing whatever needed to be done to make the day a success. She immersed herself in all things Beacon. “We didn’t have any money so ever ybody did ever ything we could to make it work,” she said during a speech at Beacon College’s Founder’s Day Celebration in 2014. Characterizing the college as “an amazing stor y,” she said Beacon’s steady growth during her time in office was “not because of a single person. It was because of the collective us … We could not have done it if we had not done it with passion, a passion to contribute to the field and to provide oppor tunities that just weren’t there.”

Kathryn Jarvis

Deborah Brodbeck

PAGE 12