After 21 years leading Virginia’s Community Colleges, Glenn DuBois is the longest-serving VCCS Chancellor, and his stewardship was honored at the 2022 New Horizons Conference April 6-8. VCCS State Board Chair NL Bishop called DuBois “a living legend” who leaves large shoes to be filled. Charles Errico, the Northern Virginia Community College history professor who chairs the Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee referred to DuBois as “the kind of leader who always has your back.”
DuBois received multiple standing ovations, and by all appearances enjoyed the festive balloon drop in his honor at the conference awards banquet Wednesday night.
Recognizing the Chancellor’s love of the outdoors, System Office staff presented him with a canoe paddle, hand-carved by Dr. Mark Estepp, president emeritus of Southwest Virginia Community College, etched with the VCCS logo and the number 665,043, which is the number of degrees and credentials awarded during DuBois’s long tenure to help Virginians improve their lives and careers. “That is an extraordinary accomplishment,” said Bishop.
VCCS State Board Chair NL Bishop and Chancellor Glenn DuBois
“In my first year on the job, they convinced me to show up at the New Horizons banquet dressed as Darth Vader,” recalled DuBois. He says he put his foot down the following year when staff wanted him to appear as Elvis.
“I’ve always thought of myself as a faculty member. I started out as a faculty member. And later as an administrator, I was always committed to the same thing: to help people move from here to there. That’s the mission. And one of my greatest joys has been to work with the excellent people that I was able to bring into this organization. I have much love for this organization, and thanks for having us!”
“Working as I did with juvenile delinquents when I was young prepared me to work with college presidents,” joked DuBois. Afterwards, they posed together for a picture.
“He is, indeed, one of us,” said Thomas Geary, Tidewater Community College English professor and editor of Inquiry, the journal of Virginia’s Community Colleges. Geary announced that a special edition of Inquiry has been published, titled “A Lasting Legacy,” sharing a selection of speeches and writings by DuBois over his tenure. “This will help current and future scholars understand Chancellor DuBois’s impact on the community college landscape,” said Geary. The special edition is available in print and online at the Inquiry website (see below).
Glenn DuBois is the eighth person to lead Virginia’s Community Colleges since the system was founded in 1966 and served during the terms of seven Virginia governors. 
DuBois and his wife, Carol (left), plan to retire to their Chesapeake Bay home in Deltaville, and to travel in their new Airstream trailer.
You can view a tribute video shown at the New Horizons Conference.
