CCCC Day of Recognition honors Budd, Golden, Hockaday
Nov 5, 2007

SANFORD – Central Carolina Community College honored three men Sunday who were instrumental in laying the foundation for the success the college enjoys today.

Stacy Budd, first chairman of the board of trustees, Meigs C. Golden, trustee and chairman, and Dr. J.F. “Jeff” Hockaday, second president of the college, now have permanent facilities named in their honor on the college’s Lee County Campus.

“We honor three individuals who made great, significant contributions to the college,” CCCC President Matt Garrett said at the Day of Recognition program held at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center. The building re-naming and unveiling of bronze plaques honoring each of the men took place during the program. Family, educators and community leaders gathered at the Civic Center to honor them.

The Lee Campus Continuing Education Building is now Stacy Budd Hall. The Administration Building now carries the name J.F. Hockaday Hall. A new brick courtyard behind the Science Building bears the name Golden Court. The courtyard features a kinetic sculpture, “The Golden Points of Learning,” by Sanford artist Ken Coldren.

Budd, one of the founding trustees of the college, served 1963-1980. He was a moving force in Lee County for the establishment of the Industrial Education Center, the forerunner of the college. He was also instrumental in the construction of many of the buildings at the Lee Campus. The Continuing Education Building was completed in the same year that he retired from serving on the board, so it was selected to bear his name. Budd believed that post-secondary education should be available to all people and that the community college would always be the vehicle for that. He passed away in 1981.

Golden, also a founding trustee, served 1963-1989, six of those years as chairman. In 1988, he was one of five people who signed the CCCC Foundation Articles of Incorporation. In 1989, he became a trustee of the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges, serving until his passing in 2001. He was posthumously honored in 2002 by the NCSBCC with the I.E. Ready Award, the highest honor bestowed by the system for contributions to the community college movement.

Hockaday led the college from 1969-1983. During those years, the college, then Central Carolina Technical Institute, experienced tremendous growth and expansion. After serving at CCCC, he went on to become chancellor of the Virginia Community College System and then chancellor of Pima Community College in Arizona. Hockaday now resides in Sanford and is semi-retired, serving as a consultant and as a member of several state boards.

At the program, Dr. Reginald W. Ponder, former pastor of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Sanford and president of Louisburg College 2002-2007, spoke about Budd. Budd’s son, Joel, responded on behalf of the family.

“Stacy’s priorities were his family, his business, and Central Carolina (Community College),” Ponder said. “His Christian discipleship was expressed through these three important avenues in his life. He gave his best; he was a noble community servant.”

The Honorable Dennis A. Wicker, N.C. lieutenant governor 1992-2000, spoke of Golden’s contributions to giving residents a better life for generations to come. Peggy Golden, Meigs’ widow, responded.

“Meigs would be so pleased, not so much for the honor, but because the courtyard is another beautification for his CCCC,” Peggy said. “Let each brick remind you of all the seeds and deeds planted on this campus to build hearts, minds and sturdy citizens.”

Tommy C. Mann Sr., first mayor of Sanford and retired CCCC Industrial Relations Officer, spoke of Hockaday’s contributions. Hockaday gave his own response.

“Meigs and Stacy would agree with me that we’re not the issue – the issue is the community college,” Hockaday told the gathering. He said the cause is so great it propels people to be involved.

“We were there at the right time to be part of it,” he said. “Central Carolina Community College is not a group of buildings; it is an attitude of how you treat people, an attitude of giving people the chance to do what they can and showing that you want them to do well.”

Bobby Powell, chairman of the board of trustees, said that those affiliated with or attending the college now are enjoying the fruits of the labors of the honorees. Those who come in the future will continue to do so.

Very few individuals in the history of the college have been honored to have facilities named for them, according to Garrett. Previous recipients have been Samuel R. Miriello and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, who have buildings on the Harnett Campus named after them; and, former Lt. Gov. Dennis A. Wicker; Dr. Marvin R. Joyner, CCCC’s third president; and Gilbert W. Lett, Douglas H. Wilkinson Sr., and Edwin Bell, all of whom have buildings named for them on the Lee Campus.