This content was published: June 18, 1998. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC Rock Creek's Bill Christopher: A career of opportunities taken
Photos and Story by Mark Evertz
By Bonnie Darves
Twenty-five years ago, Bill Christopher would not have imagined he’d be where he is today: embracing whatever challenges life brings in his new position as executive dean of PCC’s Rock Creek Campus.
"I wanted to be a wrestling coach, and I wanted to teach science. I never had any idea I’d end up in administration at PCC," says the Long Island, N.Y., native, who holds a doctorate in biology.
That things haven’t turned out as expected is OK by Christopher. By virtue of his experiences of the past few decades, he has learned that the life less charted is perhaps the better life. That imposing a structure or particular set of expectations on one’s career may mean missing opportunities along the way. And most important, that living fully in the present yields rewards then and later.
"At one time, I thought I had definite career plans – to climb the ladder and maybe become president of an institution," Christopher says. "But that’s less important to me now. I’m more interested in doing a good job in the position I’m in now, because if you do that doors will open. Opportunities will come up."
He recalls, fondly, the first fork in his career road, in 1974. He’d been teaching in the public schools in New York when two opportunities presented themselves simultaneously: to teach in Australia or to accept a fellowship at Idaho State University.
After weeks of hand-wringing the fellowship won out, and Christopher, his wife Judy, and their two small children packed up their VW van and headed west – with little more than the clothes on their backs.
"Whatever wouldn’t fit in the van, didn’t go," he says. "I’d never been west of Indiana. Judy had never been west of New Jersey, and after three days on the road when we pulled off the highway above Pocatello, she burst into tears,"
Christopher says, on viewing what seemed to her a barren, unforgiving landscape. Within minutes of their arrival, a violent sandstorm erupted, pelting the weary family and its meager belongings.
What might have seemed ominous was not. The Idaho years were happy ones, and began the Christophers’ long chapter in the West which would eventually take them to Las Vegas, Washington and, last September, to Portland.
Along the way, Christopher came to understand that where you have been influences what you will become. "We’ve had so many experiences as a family that we wouldn’t have had if we’d stayed on the East coast. I think we’re richer for the life we’ve led," he says.
It was in Las Vegas that Christopher developed what would become a lifelong love of and respect for community colleges. He taught in and eventually chaired the college’s science department, and saw though the experiences with his students that community colleges have several advantages over four-year institutions.
"I thoroughly enjoyed teaching in the classroom, and that’s where community colleges excel because of the smaller classes. It’s a much closer relationship than you have in the university setting."
The other advantages, in Christopher’s perspective, are that community colleges are more flexible, and can "respond more quickly and easily to the changing needs of the students and communities they serve. There’s a greater freedom, that has to do with the premise that you exist because of the community around you."
When Christopher eventually moved into administration at Olympic Community College and later at Whatcom Community College, both in Washington he was pleased to find that moving out of the classroom didn’t deprive him of the opportunity to influence students’ lives. "When I was teaching and the department chair first asked me to go into administration, I thought `no way.’ And I meant it at the time," he says. What he now sees is that there’s not such a distance between the classroom and the administrative office, that "in working with the faculty to mold the direction of the institution," he still has the chance to change people’s lives. "Every time I attend a community college graduation ceremony, and hear the students’ stories what they have overcome to achieve their accomplishments I see what can happen. It’s so gratifying."
Christopher is approaching his new responsibilities at Rock Creek with the same belief. His goal is to increase educational options for the fast-growing Washington County community. "There’s an opportunity to grow dramatically. Our challenge is to figure out how to expand capacity, with the limitations we have," he says.