WAYNE – Wayne State College announced on Tuesday that former president Dr. Richard Collings has died.
Collings was WSC’s 11th President, serving from 2004 to 2009. He was from Louisville, Kentucky and was a first-generation college student. Collings came to Wayne State from Western Carolina University, where he served as vice chancellor for academic affairs. He replaced Dr. Sheila Stearns, who left Wayne to become Montana’s Commissioner of Higher Education.
“Our hearts go out to the entire Collings family in their time of loss,” the college said in a social media post Tuesday afternoon.
According to the WSC website, “Collings emphasized the college’s first priority of student learning. His second priority was to connect with place-bound adults in the community for undergraduate and graduate program needs.”
Collings previously stated that the school must stimulate the local economy, and “welcome the community—both adults and students—to come to our events and programs on campus.”
Collings’ wife, Marilyn, passed away in 2013, four years after his retirement.
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