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College dropout to college president

Joe Keegan took the scenic route on his career path

North Country Community College President Joe Keegan discusses his journey to his current position in an interview in his office Monday. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

SARANAC LAKE — It was just over 30 years ago that North Country Community College President Joe Keegan graduated from this same school. He started his new position as president Monday, and his journey has been a scenic-route version of what one might expect.

Keegan grew up in Syracuse with 12 years of Catholic education. It was during this time that he discovered his passion for these lands.

“Since I was 14 I wanted to live in the Adirondack Park,” Keegan said.

He was a Boy Scout in a group that had its camp in Sabattis, and the area captivated him. In 1979, he moved up here to further his education at Paul Smith’s College, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“This is the unredacted version — I had a really unstellar, if that’s a word, performance at Paul Smith’s. I was not a great student,” he said.

Keegan said he was the kind of student he would now worry about at night.

But even after an unsuccessful year at Paul Smith’s, he didn’t leave the area. His family was friends with the Cavallo family who owns the Belvedere Restaurant in Saranac Lake. There he worked, staying within the mountains that took his heart during his youth.

“I worked at the Belvedere from January 1 of 1981 until the end of August 1989, and they were just great to me,” he said. During those eight years he felt like part of the Cavallo family, and through them and the job, he met many people in the village. Many still remember him from his days there.

“In fact, I got a note from somebody — he was down in Florida. He said, ‘I read about your recent appointment. I remember you when you were a waiter at the Belvedere,'” Keegan said.

In 1987, he restarted his academic career at the age of 26, this time at NCCC.

“I knew I needed something more in my life, intrinsically,” he said. “I loved what I was doing, but I needed more and I didn’t know what that was.”

He got his two-year degree in liberal arts and moved up to SUNY Potsdam to earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology.

There he was encouraged to continue his education and attend SUNY Albany for a master’s in anthropology, which he did. In July 1994, freshly out of graduate school and working at St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center as a per-diem because of his alcohol and drug addiction counseling background, he was on his way to dinner at the now-closed Foote Rest Cafe in Saranac Lake when he ran into Bill Price, then the dean of social science at NCCC.

“He said, ‘Hey, you just got out of your graduate program,’ and I said, ‘I did,’ and he said, ‘Do you want to teach for me?'” Keegan said.

Keegan responded enthusiastically and not long afterword was teaching anthropology on campus and at a local prison where NCCC offered classes. That same semester he returned to his not-quite alma mater, teaching as an adjunct in addition to his adjunct classes at NCCC.

“And Ben Howett — and I think Ben’s probably gone, too, God rest his soul — Ben introduced me as probably the only student that didn’t quite get through Paul Smith’s that got welcomed back as a faculty member,” Keegan said through a wide smile and his own chuckles.

In 2001, Keegan joined NCCC’s faculty and then worked as a vice president from 2009 to 2010. Then in 2014 the then-president Steve Tyrell asked him to return to the position of vice president of academic affairs from his teaching position at the school. Five years later, he now is as high as one can get in the administration field, with a salary of $165,000 a year.

Keegan’s hiring as president received high praise from locals on Facebook and on the streets. Tim Fortune, an artist, met Keegan years ago at the Belvedere and said he is composed and clear-minded and rarely at a loss for words. But when asked about his jump from unsuccessful Smitty to president of North Country Community College, he was almost at a loss for words.

“I could never have imagined being here,” Keegan said. “I come to do my job, and it’s just that my job has changed some. I have to pinch myself. It’s an incredible honor.”

PART 2 of 3:

Tuesday: Keegan talks on first day of presidency

Thursday: New president has background implementing new academic programs

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