Krug: 
Tyree a good find for MCC

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It’s not that Larry Tyree can’t keep a job.

He probably could stay wherever he’d like for as long as he’d like. The past four assignments he’s taken on have lasted only 34 months, but don’t let the résumé fool you.

Such is the life of the interim college president.

Tyree, as you probably read last week in the Northwest Herald, has been identified by the McHenry County College Board of Trustees as the person they’d like to see take over as interim president while a search is conducted for a full-time No. 1.

“Wherever I have been, ironically, my approach has been to try to establish a sense of stability,” Tyree said via phone from Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., where he is wrapping up the final days of a 10-month stint as interim president.

Score one for the MCC board, if they can get this deal completed.

Soft-spoken and open, Tyree, 64, seems like the perfect buffer between the past and the future: a strong enough leader to push the college forward, but ever mindful of his role.

The sticking point on the deal, Tyree said, is not compensation but rather the freedom to travel back and forth from Illinois to Florida and North Carolina during the contract period.

He doesn’t need MCC. He’s interested, but the school sought him out.

And part of the deal is ensuring that he has the time to stay in close contact with his family.

“I’ve done this four times – gone through the uprooting process,” Tyree said. “I just need, for me, to stay in touch with family. There are some provisions in the contract that provide for that. It’s an area where I am not willing to sacrifice. I will need some time away.”

Tyree said that contract negotiations, which he thought might have been wrapped up by Thursday’s board meeting, have focused on a 10-month agreement that would begin in mid-August and extend through June 2010. A provision of the deal, he said, is a 30-day out for him and MCC, in the event that a candidate is found.

Beyond stabilizing a college that has had a rash of nightmarish public relations issues and reassuring staff and administrators of their mission and value to the community, Tyree also should play a part in the process of identifying and hiring MCC’s next full-time president. One conversation doesn’t reveal all, but it appears that is a professional strength.

“In each instance, I’ve worked with the board on the search for a new president,” he said.

Tyree added that he already had compiled a list of seven candidates who would be suitable for the office of the president at MCC.

“Some already are presidents, some not yet,” he said. “But I think all of them would be qualified.”

In 42 years as a college administrator and 30 as a president, Tyree has been named president seven times. He has served on community college campuses in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Kansas before moving on to New York. He was named interim president at Monroe Community College in June 2008. From 1988-1990, he was chancellor of the Dallas Community College District, which encompassed 95,000 students.

Upon his introduction to the news media last spring in Rochester, Tyree was asked whether he planned to be a caretaker at Monroe Community College.

His reply?

“If I planned to be a caretaker, I would go work in a cemetery,” Tyree said. “All along the way, I have seen each of these opportunities as president to make improvements. … I have followed [MCC] from a distance for the past few years, and all across the country, people who know the college have a positive and favorable opinion of it.

“There have been some bumps in the road, without question. But I look forward to the opportunities there.”

• • •

Under consideration: Members of the MCC Board of Trustees met Thursday night and decided that it probably should find something more than nothing for President Emeritus Walt Packard to do. After all, the college is extending his benefits through the end of June 2010.

Board member Scott Summers told Northwest Herald reporter Brett Rowland that, the “pile of money that Dr. Packard is being paid will be justified.”

New metric: A pile of money equals at least $188,546 plus bennies.

That means that MCC will have to come up with a creative way to take Packard off the bench and put him into the game. It’ll be interesting to see where they pencil him in on the lineup card.

• • •

Just saying: Hey, Island Lake, Cicero called.

Folks over by dere are worried you’re going to usurp their reputation.

So simmer down, Island Lake.

• • •

Name-the-team contest: McHenry County Professional Baseball has partnered with the Northwest Herald on a contest to name the new team that will begin playing along Route 14 in the spring of 2011. You can find the form to enter your submission today on page 3 in the Sports section.

Long ago, I suggested that they be called the McHenry County Rabid Bats. I’m sticking with it, although I am probably not eligible for any of the prizes. But if I can create a groundswell of support for that moniker and it wins, that would be prize enough for this guy over here.

So what I am saying is that if you are not with me on the Rabid Bats idea, there is plenty of time to get Stephen Colbert involved in the process.

So far, there has been no word whether the team will have a contest to name the stadium.

I think Crab Field at Curmudgeon Yard has a nice ring to it. Naysayer Park and Crank Stadium also are worth consideration.

At least in my humble opinion.

• • •

Fore sure: Procrastinators beware, slots are filling up for the 26th annual McHenry County Men’s Amateur Golf Tournament, a grand 36-hole event that will be played exclusively at Pinecrest Golf and Country Club in beautiful Huntley on July 10 and 11.

To register, fill out the entry form on page 4 of today’s Sports section or contact Brent Maring at 815-526-4483.

• • •

And finally … : It’s flag weekend.

Take down the white flag with the big blue “W” on it.

Take down the flag that boasts your alma mater.

Take down the flag that lets everyone know that you are Irish, Polish, Mexican or the one that might cause your neighbors to suspect you think the Civil War still is raging.

Fly the Stars and Stripes, my friend.

After all, it’s a grand, old flag. You might even say that it’s a high-flying flag, and, true to the sentiment of George M. Cohan, forever in peace may it wave. It’s the emblem of the land that we love, my friend, the home of the free and the brave.

• Chris Krug is executive editor of the Northwest Herald. Contact Chris by calling 815-459-4122 or via e-mail at ckrug@nwherald.com. Keep up with Chris’ rants, raves and insights by following ChrisKrug (no space) at Twitter.com.