Meet the New Boss

Introducing President George Timmons

The PeoplesBank Conference Room was so crowded the coffee ran out before the day’s activities had begun. Attendees carried in extra chairs from nearby classrooms. Still, many stood around the perimeter while another 150 or so Zoomed in, their tiny, boxed faces stacked and displayed on a large monitor. 

They all wanted to hear what the bow-tied man in the middle of the room had to say. 

The occasion was Professional Day, the traditional opening event of the academic year. President George Timmons, on the job for just six weeks, opened a loose-leaf binder flat on the lectern to offer his first official remarks as the new leader of Holyoke Community College.

“We have a full house,” he said. “It is wonderful to be here with you at this moment as we launch the latest chapter of our institutional history.” 

The president began by offering his gratitude to faculty and staff for their hard work and commitment. He thanked everyone listening for the opportunity to serve as the fifth president of HCC. 

“I’m humbled and honored,” he said.

He continued with a matter-of-fact report on the state of the college, giving updates on accreditation, assessment, shared governance, enrollment, finances, grants, and the college’s Strategic Plan, which had been initiated by his predecessor, Christina Royal, early in her tenure. 

After about five minutes, he paused. 

It was [HCC’s] mission, vision and values that really spoke to me.

 Who wouldn’t want to be part of an institution known for academic excellence and removing barriers to student success?

“Now, let me transition into what I think you’re really interested in — the elephant in the room,” he said, gesturing toward himself. “Who is this guy? What am I all about?” 

That morning he gave only a brief rundown of his personal and professional life: married, father of three, owner of a 130-pound Rottweiler “that thinks he’s a lap dog.” He mentioned his love of bow ties and colorful socks — his trademarks — that he was raised by his grandmother, and has worked in higher education in various capacities for 25 years. 

He did not, he assured the audience, intend to undo all the hard work that had been done under the previous administration. Instead, his initial focus would be listening and learning. He would be asking a lot of questions with no particular agenda, he said, other than to better understand HCC. 

“I will make decisions by gathering information and understanding the context,” he said. “I will not articulate the vision of HCC without your input, because we do this work together. Most importantly, I will always be guided by what is in the best interest of students at HCC.”

Allotted 45 minutes for his remarks, the new president spoke for less than 12. 

Later that day, at a welcome reception in his honor, a colleague commended President Timmons on his efficiency. 

“That’s me,” he responded. “I’m short-winded. Authentic.”

While economical in his public remarks, in one-on-one conversations, written communications to the college community, and interviews with reporters and this magazine, President Timmons has been happy to expound on the details of his life — his upbringing, the path that led him to a career in higher education, and why he wanted to be the president of HCC. 

“I’m unapologetic about who I am and my story and how I got here,” he said in mid-July not long after his first day. “I think it’s important that people know who I am.” 

Life with Grandma

To begin at the beginning, Timmons describes himself as an “Army baby.” He was born in Louisiana, at Fort Polk (since renamed Fort Henry Johnson, he notes, after a decorated Black soldier from World War I), where his father was stationed. The family moved to Connecticut when he was a toddler. He grew up in Hartford, the elder of two brothers. 

He speaks often about the financial difficulties his family faced, that neither his mother nor father were college educated, and that they could not afford to take care of both children. And so, George, the elder, was sent to live with his grandmother, or, rather, he was asked if he wanted to go live with his grandmother. 

“My grandmother was living by herself, and I saw that she enjoyed the company,” he remembers. “I was a good kid, for the most part. I said, sure, why not? I loved hanging out with grandma.” 

He credits his grandmother, Vivian, for instilling in him a strong work ethic and impressing upon him the value of education, which at the time did not necessarily mean college. Her family put a high value on learning a trade, he said, like her brothers, one a master plumber, another a mechanic. 

“But I just wasn’t blessed with a vocational skill set,” he said. “We have a running joke: If I had to use my hands to eat, I might not eat. But I did understand that education was important, and, once I earned it, no one could take that away. My grandmother always said, ‘No one owes you anything. You have to go out and make your way and earn your keep.’ That was embedded in me.”

Norfolk State University

For the most part, Timmons was raised in the city but attended high school in the middle-class Hartford suburbs. 

“Where I grew up, in my community, graduating from high school was a big deal,” he said. But, in the middle-class communities of West Hartford and East Hartford, he discovered, “there were clear expectations of something beyond high school.”

Timmons would often see classmates wearing college sweatshirts and wondered, what’s that about? “It was like a foregone conclusion. How they thought about college and education — that was new for me.” He started to wonder: “Am I supposed to go to college?”

He was a senior when one of his father’s friends, who happened to live in Virginia, suggested he consider attending an HBCU (Historically Black College or University). He did some research and convinced his mother to rent a car and drive him and a high school friend down south for a weeklong college tour. 

“Norfolk State resonated the most for me, and I was fortunate enough to get in,” he said.

At the time, he did not realize how important that decision would be. 

“I’m the first in my family to go to college,” he said. “Going to a historically black college was a game changer for me. I saw people who look like me doing positive things.”

He embraced college life. As a first-year student, he joined the student activities club and became president. He joined the student government association and became president of that. He joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and became vice polemarch of the undergraduate chapter. The fraternity’s themes of achievement and service resonated. 

“That was great for me because it helped surround me with people who were all driven by similar values,” he said, “and while we had fun, we were all there for a reason, and we motivated and supported each other.”

At times, though, he admits, he might have had a bit too much fun at the expense of his grades, describing himself as an average student who refused to quit despite some academic setbacks.

“Some people might be embarrassed, but I let folks know that it took me six years to get an undergraduate degree,” he said. “There is a reason I say that. The moral of the story is that there are multiple pathways to success.” 

A Natural Fit

Timmons graduated from Norfolk State University in 1992 with his bachelor’s degree in financial management, intending on a career in finance. Straight out of college, he went to work for Connecticut National Bank and CIGNA Insurance. 

“I was pretty decent with numbers,” he said, “and if you were GenX coming up and interested in business, you had to be thinking MBA, Wall Street, so I did that for a while, and I quickly realized that wasn’t my calling.” 

A visit to a career counselor helped reorient his life. After an interview and a battery of tests, the counselor made a suggestion.

“I can’t help but notice that you had a phenomenal time during your college years,” the counselor said. “What about a career in higher ed?”

At first, he shrugged — not interested in being a full-time teacher. 

“What about administration? Student affairs? Who’s to say you couldn’t be a college president?”

A college president?

“That was an epiphany,” he said. “I thought about all of the experiences I had in student government and my interactions with the college president. I said, you know what? I want to go for it.”

He was 26. 

“Chasing a profit or bottom line didn’t seem appealing to me,” he said. “I felt like there was more to life than that. But having an impact on shaping people’s lives and providing a pathway for people to further themselves and get an education, given what education did for me, that just seemed like a natural fit.” 

Within a year he had applied to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, earning a master’s degree in higher education while working for TELETECHNET, a distance learning program at Old Dominion, eventually becoming its site director. In 2002, he earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Bowling Green State University, where his research focused on distance education. 

From there, his career steadily progressed, to North Carolina Wesleyan College as assistant dean of adult degree programs; Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y., as the founding dean of online education and learning services (later associate provost and dean of liberal arts); and, most recently, Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y., where he served as provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs.

“I’m almost 30 years in this higher ed space between being a student and working, and I enjoy it as much today as I did back then,” he said. “Are there bad days? Of course. But in terms of fulfillment and what it brings me, I get up every morning with passion and zeal for what I do.”

‘Their story is my story’ 

While Timmons knew he wanted to be a college president, he did not want to be just any college’s president. He’s made it clear he wasn’t chasing the title. 

He focused on HCC after reading the college profile put out during a national search for a president to succeed Christina Royal. 

“It was the mission, vision, and values that really spoke to me,” he said. “Educate. Inspire. Connect. It’s simple but it’s powerful. You want to inspire people, you want to educate people, and you want to connect them to pathways to success, whatever their goals are. Who wouldn’t want to be part of an institution known for academic excellence and removing barriers to student success?”

The student profile — significant minority and low-income population, large percentage of first-generation students — reminded him of his own humble roots. 

“Their story is my story,” he told a reporter for New England Public Media. 

In April, after a lengthy search process and multiple interviews, Timmons, now 55, was selected by the HCC Board of Trustees from a field of four finalists. In making their choice, trustees cited his experience with online education and adult learners, calling him “creative,” “innovative,” and a “strong leader” who would be an “excellent ambassador for the college.”

“I inherited a really good institution,” Timmons said. 

It should be noted that all four finalists were persons of color, and Timmons’ selection was historic; he is the first African-American man to serve as president of HCC. 

“That is important to me,” he said. “I think it’s important for people of color to see someone who looks like them in leadership roles.  I don’t take it for granted, because I know there were a lot of people who paved the way for me to get to this point in my life. I feel an obligation and a duty to do it with excellence and with professionalism. That’s something that I will always commit to.”

A New Chapter

President Timmons likes to walk. He tracks his daily step count on a cell phone health app. On his first day at HCC, after spending the morning filling out paperwork and holed up in his office for back-to-back meetings, he finally ventured out to stretch his legs and tour the campus. 

Guided by his senior executive assistant, Karen Desjeans, he ambled from the President’s Office across the lobby to Academic Affairs, around the corner to the Business Office, down a flight to Financial Aid and Student Records, then over to the HCC Library, the Kittredge Center, and Campus Center, where he browsed through the bookstore to check out the HCC-branded merchandise. 

“I’m a swag guy,” he said. 

He had a 2 p.m. appointment in Student Engagement, where, like every new student or employee, he sat for his HCC ID card photograph. Operating the camera was clerk Lindsey Pare, who, the president learned at that very moment, is an alum with two associate degrees from HCC, a bachelor’s in psychology from Southern New Hampshire University, and aspirations to continue on for a master’s degree.

The president smiled. His eyes opened a little wider, genuinely enthused. 

“I’m such a believer in education,” he said later. “It’s a great equalizer. When I see young people pursuing education who are passionate about something they want to do for a possible career, I get motivated by that. It’s exciting for me to see that. I wasn’t necessarily on that path at such a young age. And I want to applaud that and encourage that.”

Next in line to have her photo taken was Kristen Thiel, a new student from Springfield, enrolled in medical billing and coding, she told the president. 

 “Welcome to HCC,” he said. 

“Welcome to you, too,” she replied.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’m so glad to be here. It feels good.”

Thiel complimented him on his green bow tie and matching argyle socks. 

“Socks and bow ties,” he said. “That’s my thing.” 

Wherever he stopped, whomever he met, the pattern was the same. The new president introduced himself, held out his hand with a firm grip, asked a few questions, then leaned in to listen.