Rockland County Legislature Honors Retiring RCC President

From the Rockland County Legislature: Dr. Cliff Wood, the long-time president of Rockland Community College - the county’s only public college - was honored Tuesday by the Rockland County Legislature during a ceremony led by Legislator Harriet Cornell.

“Dr. Cliff Wood arrived at Rockland Community College in 2004, in the shadow of great turmoil, and he immediately devoted himself to the tasks at hand, including boosting morale among students, staff and faculty, as well as the general Rockland community,” Cornell said.

Thirteen years later, Dr. Wood prepares to retire, and he does so with an impressive list of achievements. Since his arrival, the student body has grown from 6,466 to 7,228, and 47 percent of students either complete a degree or transfer to a four-year college - just 39 percent at other SUNY two-year schools do the same.

“Dr. Wood’s has measurable accomplishments that have benefitted the community across the board – from children to high school students, from veterans to senior citizens,” Legislature Chairman Toney L. Earl said. “He helped RCC grow into a 21stcentury center for higher learning and we are grateful for his efforts.”

Under Dr. Wood, RCC's well-respected nursing program achieved a 100 percent passing rate this year on the state nursing license exam, and the college has made a point of having a presence throughout Rockland – an automotive technology program in Orangeburg, a 3D printing lab at the school’s Haverstraw Extension Center, an Innovation Center in Pearl River.

During Wood’s tenure, RCC became host to the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education, it created a special outreach program geared to veterans returning home from military service, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it created a Career Center to assist new and unemployed job seekers.

RCC has been named among the nation's top 150 public community colleges, from more than 1,000, according to the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, an extremely prestigious achievement.

Dr. Wood, who originally hails from Dallas, Texas, has enjoyed a 50-year career in higher education, holding positions as vice president of academic affairs at Morris County College in New Jersey, as acting provost at Montgomery College in Maryland, as chairman of the visual arts-engineering department at Northern Virginia Community College and as dean of student services at Houston Community College in Texas.

Dr. Wood and his wife, Wylene Branton Wood, also a community change-maker for good, will leave for retirement in Vermont, hoping to spend more time with their children and grandchildren. Wylene also has an impressive list of accomplishments and was honored by the Legislature during this year’s Women’s History Month Celebration in March.

“Cliff Wood has been an educational leader, a fundraiser, an advocate for the achievement all our youth are capable of, a cheerleader for change who brought hope and positive energy back to our beloved Jewel of the County,” Cornell said. “In short, Dr. Cliff Wood put the community back into Rockland Community College and for that we greatly thank him.”

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