Henderson set to ride off into sunset

The head administrator at John Abbott College will be calling it day after about 11 years at the helm of the Ste. Anne de Bellevue CEGEP.

Keith W. Henderson, who became JAC's director general in February 1998, is set to retire from his education career at the end of January. Afterwards, he will work together with his wife in her management recruitment consulting firm.

Henderson, 54, said he will be retiring from an education career which started off in 1975 as an instructor at a university in France and later included stints as a teacher and a high school principal.

Henderson initially planned to do leave after a 10 years as DG but stayed on an extra year to set up the project to build a new state-of-the-art 10,000 square-metre science and health technologies centre. The $38 million investment is mainly being financed by funds raised by the sale of undeveloped land along Highway 40 in Pointe Claire, a deal that he completed in 2007 after years of delay due to a legal dispute over ownership. “We hope to break ground sometime between July and September (2009),” Henderson said of the new centre. “We expect it to be completed by fall 2011. It’s a huge project and includes renovations to existing buildings.”

However, aside from the current expansion project breaking ground next year, Henderson is quite proud, that during his tenure, John Abbott took ownership of the land it rests on in 2002. The college had been leasing the land from McGill University which runs its Macdonald campus on the same sprawling Ste. Anne campus as John Abbott.

When asked about his legacy will be, Henderson joked “that he didn’t ruin the place.”

In all serious, he said believes he has helped build John Abbott’s reputation. “Due to the work of the entire staff, we are one of the best known CEGEPs outside the province and are known as dynamic institution,” he said.

Henderson said John Abbott has also worked at attracting foreign students, from Germany and Japan, for instance, over the years and signed international contracts. He was in India just recently trying to develop contacts with educational institutions while on a Canadian trade mission when he also reviewed Canadian funded development projects that were launched a decade ago.

“We have established exchanges for our students, faculty and staff as well,” Henderson added. “These (international deals) also mean added funding for us.”

Gerald Stachrowski, JAC’s director of administrative services, said Henderson always provided great leadership and foresight.

“He negotiated funding from Quebec City so we could purchase the land we leased from McGill,” he said. “And now plans are underway to build a building and it’s all our money (from the land sale).

“While the shovels (for the new centre) will only go underground after he leaves, he did all the work to tie everything together and to make sure John Abbott College is known inside and outside the province,” Stachrowski added.

Judy Kelley, head of John Abbott’s board of directors, has nothing but high praise for Henderson and what was accomplished during his 11 years. “He’s a very determined man and has lots of energy,” she noted.

Since Henderson took over, JAC’s enrolment has grown, due partly to the implementation of new programs, such as the three-year pre-hospital emergency care course which started this year, to 5,750 students from about 4,900 in 1998.

While Henderson is set to retire from his life-long profession, he will still sit on the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation until his four-year mandate runs out in about two years. He was appointed to the independent body, which the provincial government consults before making any changes in education. During his last month at JAC, he will help his successor Ginette Sheehy, who is being promoted from academic dean to DG, step right in to her new post which she assumes Feb. 2.