Interim Editor-in-Chief/Design Editor Barbara Gandica Martinez
One evening on the spring semester in 1997, Jennifer Owen, current live events manager of Dallas College, found herself in quite of a pickle. She was reorganizing her newly acquired office when she decided to move around some things left by the previous employee.
“And of the things that were in my office was a large drafting file cabinet,” said Owen. “So I decided that for me to be successful, the file cabinet had to go.” Richland Campus, then Richland College, was pretty deserted at that time since professors were taking their break before summer sessions started.
“I managed to get the file cabinet up on its side and onto a dolly to move it, but I realized I was on the wrong side”. She was trapped inside her office. At that moment, a man came by to welcome her to Richland and to get her first impressions of the job.
“So, I said things are going great. Richland is great. Everything is fantastic, but I kind of gotten myself stuck literally today. I could use some help. Would you mind getting this file cabinet out in the hallway.” The gentlemen grinned and agreed to help her. After they got the cabinet out of her office, she asked, “Steve, what do you do here at Richland? and he said, ‘Well,’, I am the college president.”
Students who passed the walkway in front of Sabine Hall might have noticed a plaque honoring Dr. Stephen K. Mittelstet for his excellence in academic leadership. A bouquet of flowers stood underneath the plaque in honor of his recent passing on Oct 6. Mittelstet was president of Richland College from 1997 until 2010.
“He left a huge sense of culture at Richland,” said Owen. “He was a delightful person; he was a visionary for education. He empowered employees and students over and over again.” During his 30 years as president, Mittelstet oversaw the construction of Thunderduck and Sabine Hall as well as the Garland Campus. He received several honors for his leader- ship, including the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the 2005 Texas Award for Performance Excellence.
Janet James, current dean/executive assistant to the president Dr. Kathryn K. Eggleston, worked alongside Mittelstet while he was president of the college. “He went into such incredible detail in everything. I had a standing joke with him. I would say ‘Pencils down’ because he would keep writing,” said James. “His mind just worked all the time, trying to think of ways to build community here at Richland and to engage students from all different cultures and make them feel valued.”
Mittelstet was known for his great sense of humor. “When he really was enjoyed something, he would just throw his head back and start laughing,” said Owen. During Convocation, Mittelstet had the habit of making a funny entrance. “We always had a funny video entrance of him so once he flew in on a rug,” said James. “There was just this sense of laughter and joy.”
Under his leadership, the administration of the college assigned a set of 10 Thunder values. “Since we are the Thunderducks,” one of Mittelstet’s main mantras was “We take our work seriously but ourselves lightly,” which he highlighted in the Thunder value of “Joy.”
Owen said the sense of community that Mittelstet left behind is one of his greatest achievements. “At times he was the Pied Piper because he would participate in employee success awards and lead the parade beating a drum to celebrate employee achievement,” said Owen. “That kind of leadership inspires a great sense of belonging, and it has carried forward with Dr. Eggleston, and it has really been significant of Richland’s role in the bigger community.”
James has a similar outlook of his legacy. “He believed in community colleges,” said James. “We did a lot of community-building activities outside of their work responsibilities. And it became quite a family.”
James points out that Mittelstet believed in the importance of the natural beauty of our campus since “he wanted students to feel valued when they came here that somebody cared enough about them to have a very lovely place to come.” The plaque in front of Sabine Hall commemorates his work in keeping Richland a beautifully green and sustainable space as well as his leadership.
“He was very interested in students being global citizens. He was very interested in getting opportunities to students to study abroad to get cultural experience outside of the United States,” said James. Mittelstet strived to make Richland a welcoming space for people from all cultures, which can be seen in the current campus student body, which is uniquely diverse. Students walking along the lake might see a few poles that say “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in different languages. The international peace pole trail is a landmark created by Mittelstet to commemorate Richland’s diverse population.
Owen remembers Mittelstet’s teachings. “That sense of joy and celebrating one another and helping to lift people up and striving to be excellent in what we do and the most important,” said Owen and “that is something we will always carry with us.”
Mittelstet is survived by two daughters and their husbands, three grandchildren, two brothers and several nieces and nephews.
