A-B Tech Library Dedicated to Don C. Locke
Ceremony to be Held October 17, 2016
A-B Tech Community College will dedicate its campus library in honor of late trustee Don C. Locke at 1 p.m. Monday, October 17 in the Ferguson Auditorium on the Asheville campus, followed by light refreshments in the Locke Library.
Locke, who died June 8 from complications due to lung cancer, had served on the A-B Tech board since 2010, most recently as vice chairman. The board of trustees voted unanimously on June 6 to rename Holly Library in his honor. The library will carry numerous books Locke had written.
“Dr. Locke has been a friend of this college and more importantly a friend of higher education for several decades,” said Dennis King, President of A-B Tech. “It just seemed to be an appropriate thing to do.”
Locke retired in 2007 from UNC Asheville as director of Diversity and Multiculturalism. He also served as director of the Asheville Graduate Center and director of the NC State University doctoral program in Adult and Community College Education at the Asheville Graduate Center.
In 2015, he received the community service award from the Martin Luther King Association of Asheville and Buncombe County. He was also awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2016.
During Locke’s tenure as a trustee, he served as chairman of the search committee during the search for a new president. “Dr. Locke served A-B Tech through his knowledge and experience from a lifelong career in higher education, as a champion for diversity and as a mentor for many of our students,” King said.
