IRSC at 60
LEADERSHIP
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became the college’s third president, beating out experienced
community college presidents from Wheeling, W.Va., and
Mesa, Ariz.
During his tenure, the institution, formerly known as Indian
River Junior College and later Indian River Community College,
began awarding four-year bachelor’s degrees and built
71 percent of the nearly 1.6 million square feet of classroom,
lab, and operational building space on five campuses in four
counties. It also created programs at high schools in all three
Treasure Coast counties and Okeechobee County to ensure
that students are ready for post-secondary work, whether for
an academic degree or a certificate toward a new career.
Massey, 73, retires at the end of August after a 47-year
career at Indian River, including 32 years as one of the most
successful community college presidents in the country.
Last year, IRSC won the vaunted Aspen Prize for excellence
among community colleges, signifying it as the best among
the 1,100 community colleges in the country.
“If there were a top five community college presidents in
the country, I would put him right up there at the top,” said
Rebecca Corbin, president and CEO of the National Association
for Community College Entrepreneurship. A 2019
book she edited, Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation,
is dedicated in part to Massey and his methods used to
prepare IRSC students for an economy that has ever-shifting
job demands.
GROWING UP
Massey and a sister were raised by a father who only made
it to the eighth grade and a mother who was a registered
nurse. His father worked across much of the country on >>
Indian river state college
AND DR. EDWIN MASSEY
FOR YOUR
Legacy of leadership
WITH SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURS
OVER THE LAST SEVERAL DECADES.
& Pelican Porch Visitor’s Center
www.SebastianChamber.com | 772-589-5969
WE LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING
OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH
INDIAN RIVER STATE COLLEGE
Dr. Massey works with biology students in 1978.
/www.sebastianchamber.com
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