Chamber to honor new Citizen of the Year, Frank Gornick, Surf Ranch, Marine Corps Relief, Darrell Smith at annual gala

By The Leader Staff
Former West Hills College District Chancellor Frank Gornick is shown here dedicating West Hills Lemoore's new student union. The Lemoore Chamber will honor Gornick as the Citizen of the Year.
Former West Hills College District Chancellor Frank Gornick is shown here dedicating West Hills Lemoore's new student union. The Lemoore Chamber will honor Gornick as the Citizen of the Year.

The 2019 Lemoore Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year is someone near and dear to those who value providing high-caliber educational opportunities to local students. While this year’s honoree may not have spent his entire life in Lemoore, he did spend his most productive years here – and there are thousands of college students thankful that he did.

The local chamber announced that former West Hills College District Chancellor Frank Gornick is this year’s Citizen of the Year, and he will receive Lemoore’s most prestigious honor at January’s annual gala.

The Lemoore Chamber also announced that Lemoore’s Surf Ranch has been designated as this year’s Business of the Year, while the NAS Lemoore Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is this year's Organization of the Year.

Recently retired Lemoore police chief, Darrell Smith, has been named the Chamber’s Public Safety Individual, and local attorney William Parry will receive the Chairman’s Award.

The 62nd Annual Lemoore Chamber of Commerce Gala is scheduled for Jan. 17 at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino from 6 p.m. till 10 p.m. Tickets for the gala are currently on sale at $55 per person until Jan. 2, at which point price increases to $65. Group tables are available for $510 for a table of 10, and the price goes up to $550 after Jan. 2.

Chamber to honor new Citizen of the Year, Frank Gornick, Surf Ranch, Marine Corps Relief, Darrell Smith at annual gala

There are also sponsorship opportunities. Call the Lemoore Chamber of Commerce at 559-216-0505 for more information. The Chamber is located at 116 Fox Street.

It’s been an interesting ride for the Chicago-born Gornick, a standout football player for his Windy City high school. Following a brief tenure at the University of Arizona, where he hoped to hone his NFL skills, he instead found a new home in Coalinga and its small community college (known in 1964 as Coalinga Junior College).

Read The Leader’s earlier story on Gornick

A lot of good things happened after he arrived. He met his future wife in Coalinga and embarked on what would eventually be a stellar career in education. Little did he know that years later, he would return to Coalinga and lead his former school to state and national respectability.

And he had plenty of success, on and off the field.

In 1967, after proving his mettle in Coalinga and playing a year of college football – he was named the team’s captain – Gornick enrolled at Sacramento State where he joined its football team while taking up a new sport: rugby, which he continued to play well after his college days. He distinguished himself in college, earning double degrees in physical education and history. He stayed to complete a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitative counseling.

Next, the well-educated Gornick began a journey that took him from California’s San Joaquin Valley to Maryland, where he took a job at Howard County Community College for a year before accepting a position in the Dallas Community College District in Texas, where he served as the Richland College director of financial aid – from 1972-75.

Along the way, he earned a doctorate at St. Louis University.

He helped to start a college center in Bellville, Illinois, and ran it until deciding that he and Gloria wanted to return to California. “We decided to go west,” said Gornick, who accepted a job at Bakersfield College, where he remained until 1994, which proved to be a pivotal year for Gornick and the future of West Hills Community College.

Gornick, the Bakersfield College Dean of Students at the time, was happy with his job, but the lure of a college presidency beckoned. He applied four or five times at various schools but never made the final cut. In 1994, urged on by a mentor, Gornick reluctantly decided to apply for the president’s job at West Hills College.

Since his arrival in 1994, Gornick’s leadership transformed the local district. He managed to convince his board and local voters to approve the expansion of the Lemoore campus.

Gornick has done his job well, helping to build a full-fledged college campus in Lemoore while earning the district rave reviews in national and state circles. Take, for example, its cutting edge Reg365, a student registration program that allows students to register for a full year of classes at once. West Hills also made developing open educational resources and free textbooks a priority, a goal that continues to be a focus today.

The district has indeed gained a statewide and national reputation for innovation. It has been singled out for its dedication to innovation three times since 2015 by the state of California, earning three Awards for Innovation in Higher Education. West Hills was the only Central Valley institution honored all three times.

Just a week ago, the college district announced that West Hills College Lemoore is one of 150 national community colleges eligible to compete for a $1 million Aspen Institute College Excellence Program prize. The Aspen Prize is the nation’s signature recognition of high achievement and performance among America’s community colleges.

 

Chamber to honor new Citizen of the Year, Frank Gornick, Surf Ranch, Marine Corps Relief, Darrell Smith at annual gala

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