Kibbie honored as 'father' of Iowa's community college system

An online search of retiring Senate President Jack Kibbie's name reveals a reference to Kibbie as the “father” of Iowa's community college system, Rep. Mary Mascher said in a crowded Statehouse rotunda Thursday.

“Pretty impressive, Jack,” Mascher, D-Iowa City, told the Emmetsburg Democrat. Kibbie has been a fixture at the state Capitol since 1961, with a brief stint away during the years beginning in 1970, when he served on the Iowa Lakes Community College Board and farmed before he returned to the Iowa Senate in 1988.

Kibbie, a tank commander in the Korean War who has announced that he will not run for re-election in the upcoming 2012 election, is regarded as a leading expert on Iowa's public employees' retirement system, veterans, agriculture and renewable energy issues.

But he is renowned for sponsoring legislation in 1965 to create Iowa's community colleges and bringing it to fruition a year later. The Capitol rotunda Thursday was packed with students, administrators and staff from the 15 institutions of higher education that owe their existence in part to Kibbie's tenacity.

Kibbie said his effort came against a backdrop of funding challenges for the state's existing junior colleges, a desire by southwest Iowans to locate a fourth regents' institution in their quadrant and interest by then-Gov. Harold Hughes in vocational-technical colleges. He praised both Republicans and Democrats for their work in crafting a community-college network that is the model of the nation.

“They talk about smoke-filled rooms. In them days, they were all smoke-filled rooms,” he told the crowd assembled to pay tribute to him and his legislative work. “Every table had big ashtrays about a foot and a half across and I think there were even spittoons then, so we really cleaned up the place.”

Gov. Terry Branstad praised Kibbie as a visionary and tenacious advocate for community college funding even today, noting that more Iowans start their higher education pathways there than any other place anywhere. Branstad pointed to Kibbie's on-again, off-again legislative career in noting that “I'm not the first one to come back” -- a reference to his decision to pursue a fifth term as governor after serving from 1983 to 1999.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, who has served 28 years with Kibbie, said it will be a sad day at the stately Capitol “when we walk into this building and Jack Kibbie's not here.”

“This is a monument,” Gronstal said of the Statehouse setting, “but the monument that Jack Kibbie built is the 110,000 people who get a ticket to a better life every single year. That's a monument and a legacy we all come only be envious of.”

Kibbie used the opportunity to address the group – including the governor and top lawmakers from both parties – to press for full funding for the 15 community colleges this session as a key element of Iowa's efforts to expand its skilled workforce and retrain Iowans adversely impacted by the sluggish economy.

“I never dreamed of such a day as today,” said Kibbie, who has a building named after him at the Iowa Lakes Community College and was the first commencement speaker at Kirkwood Community College's graduation ceremonies in 1967. “It's really not about me. It's about these young people that have been through this system and the success stories of people all over this country that went through this community college system.”