Surf City, here she comes. Bismarck State College President Donna Thigpen will head for the beach after retiring later this month.

Just a few things to wrap up in North Dakota before heading for the shores of North Carolina. Things like packing and getting her daughter married.

"It's like a roller coaster," Thigpen said. "I'm happy about what's coming next and sad because I love this job and community."

Paper boxes litter her floor by her office desk. Some are about as empty as her schedule in August.

The boxes, like her schedule, will be filled. Only instead of meetings, it will be walks on the beach, spending time with her grandchildren and maybe consulting.

The immediate future holds a home addition followed by planning a cruise to the Panama Canal. Hardly the image that comes to her mind when thinking of retirement.

"When you say retirement, I picture someone sitting on a rocking chair. … I want to do a lot of traveling, consulting and public speaking," Thigpen said.

She is retiring from BSC after 11 years as president. Thigpen came to BSC in 1995 through the help of a headhunter - a person who helps professionals find jobs.

"Once I got here, it was obvious, it is a great place," Thigpen said. "There were a lot of things ready for a change."

The nice March weather might have helped. If it were the following March, when it snowed 105 inches that winter, she might have thought again. She won't miss walking up to the door of the Horizon Building on January mornings, when it's dark and not yet zero outside. The winters have become warmer in the last few years, making her think there's something to global warming, she said.

She will miss the "wheeling and dealing" of her job. She enjoys working with people in the community and planning.

People in the community will miss working with her, as well. She's worked closely with the business community to make BSC grow along with the business community's needs in addition to the students' needs, said Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce President Kelvin Hullett.

"In the last three years I've had to work with Donna, she has visionary leadership as she looks at the college and community," Hullett said. "She will be hard to replace."

He said she is tenacious, dedicated and has integrity.

"She's one of those people it is difficult to say no to," said Dave McIver, president of the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce.

He worked with her since she arrived in Bismarck, when he was at the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce.

His experience with her was that she was thorough and determined. She pushed for what she wanted, but didn't hurt people's feelings, he said.

She has pushed for BSC to expand its energy program and offer a bachelor's degree, despite opposition.

One vocal opponent of a bachelor's degree offering at BSC has been North Dakota University System Chancellor Robert Potts. But Potts was a proponent of Thigpen.

"What a great colleague she has been and a great assistance she has been to me since I have been chancellor of North Dakota State University System," Potts said. "I think she's had an outstanding record at Bismarck State."

Among those accomplishments are increasing enrollment, adding associate's programs, adding faculty and increasing funding through the congressional delegation, he said.

He also points to the capital campaign she ventured on jointly with the Bismarck State College Foundation. A capital campaign by a community college that raises $10.2 million is unusual, he said.

The capital campaign is going toward the National Energy Center of Excellence, which is the new building being constructed on campus for the energy center of excellence and other programs. The building is among the accomplishments of her tenure she is most proud of.

As programs go, her heart is with the associate RNprogram.

"It goes back to being a nurse. … I've meddled in that more than any other program," she said.

The college graduated its first class of RNs this spring. Getting to that point involved working with the Legislature and getting a law changed.

The quiet campus and ample parking at BSC during the summer are a tribute to her push to grow online classes. Most summer classes are taught online, she said.

Her last day at BSC is June 16, although including vacation time, it's officially June 30. Her daughter is getting married at the end of July, and then she and her husband, Sloan, are headed for North Carolina.

Thigpen expects a homecoming in North Carolina, moving back to the area where she grew up, raised a family and started her career as a community college administrator.

She was raised in Beulaville, N.C. She went to Eastern Carolina University and the University of Maryland and became a registered nurse, one of three common career options for women in the early 1960s. The girls in her high school either chose to be a nurse, secretary or teacher, she said.

Thigpen taught nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University. She didn't want to teach at a community college, and had no thought of being a community college president.

She turned down her first job offer at James Sprunt Community College. Her husband accepted a job teaching drafting at the same college.

Between his job and their families pressuring them to move back to the area to raise their children, she relented. It's a decision that paid off. She spent her first 10 years teaching nursing and EMT classes, then became department chair.

It would take about 15 more years, until the mid-1980s, for her to consider community college administration. It started with a grant, for nursing. The college was awarded the grant. The community college didn't have a grant writer, so then she wrote one for diesel mechanics. They received that grant.

Eventually it led to managing grants, then marketing efforts and public relations.

She went back for a doctorate at North Carolina State University. She and a friend completed the program part-time, and both became community college presidents. Her friend retired as president of James Sprunt Community College last year.

The State Board of Higher Education will name an interim president at its meeting June 13-14.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)