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Editorial  |
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Guest Column
MHCC instructor missed by peers
William C. Bland was known to his students as Bill, not Professor or Mr. Bland. He died as a result of a serious illness Feb. 2 at his home in Vancouver, Wash. He was 66. As we think about Bill, there are aspects of Bill many of us never encountered.
A couple years ago, Bill approached two of his fellow instructors and expressed frustration that not enough of his students were passing the quizzes and exams in the online BA222 finance class. We asked what could be changed, and he said, “I can do a better job of teaching the material. They are smart and motivated students, but somehow I am just not able to communicate how this works.” This was Bill. He would always make the positive attribution to the students and look for a way to help the situation by improving his own performance. He did exactly that, developing a more effective approach to the material.
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Bill was born in Anchorage, Alaska. After serving in the Marines in the Vietnam War, he entered the world of business. He worked in TV/radio broadcasting and was a disc jockey in Longview, Wash. and in Portland, at KISN. He also owned radio stations in several locations including the Pittsburgh area. At various times Bill was the sales director, vice president of sales, and president and CEO of several different radio and TV stations in Omaha, Pittsburgh, Honolulu, St. Louis, and Atlanta.
Bill served people in many ways over his lifetime. He was elected mayor of a town in Pennsylvania, served in rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, council of governments and industry councils. Bill served as director of a library system, director of part of Pennsylvania’s state mental retardation centers, and as director of part of United Mine Workers of America Federal Credit Union.
Bill was constantly learning and teaching. He taught himself to build, repair and program computers. Many of us benefited from his willingness to help. Bill would take a laptop or desktop computer home with him, and return it in a couple days with memory upgrades, working disk drives and added software, which he would purchase and install. Sometimes he would charge for his services, and sometimes he would just take an old machine in trade. Many people didn’t know Bill was Microsoft-certified in several areas.
In addition, he loved to sail boats on the Columbia River. This was one of the ways he found to be outside in nature and relax. He loved being on the river.
Bill was an excellent and versatile business instructor. He completed his bachelor’s degree in management-human resources at George Fox University in 1997, and his MBA at George Fox in 1999. He taught at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., as well at MHCC. Because of his background, he could teach almost any course.
Students, fellow faculty, administrators and staff loved Bill Bland as a friend and dear co-worker. Toward the end, he appreciated the get-well cards and especially the notes from his students. We will continue to work to sustain his high standards for instruction and strive to be the person he exemplified. He will be missed.
WILLIAM “BILL” COLMAN BLAND
July 7, 1942 ~ Feb. 2, 2009