Keith McClanahan knows both the price and the reward of education. His parents did not graduate from high school and had a hard time getting back on their feet when his father became disabled, so at a young age, McClanahan knew that education was the key to changing his economic future. Now, in his role as provost and executive vice president of learning at Ozarka College in Melbourne, he said he hopes to open educational opportunities for students, regardless of their current economic status.
McClanahan was born in Forrest City and spent the first few years of his life around Marianna. His father was a John Deere service technician and manager, and the family moved to California when McClanahan was 3 years old. They stayed in California until McClanahan was in the sixth grade, at which time they moved back to Arkansas.
“I was kind of like Jethro Bodine,” McClanahan said. “He claimed that he ‘grad-ge-ated’ sixth grade. I thought I was going to fail sixth grade when I came back to Arkansas. We were doing algebra and precalculus back in California, and we came back, and it was fractions and ratios and all of the basic math. For a while, I was just lost.”
The move back to Arkansas took place when McClanahan’s father became disabled and thought it would be a good idea to be close to family. McClanahan’s family moved back to Marianna, and his father became a farm mechanic on a plantation. McClanahan helped out on the farm until he was in high school, and he said that experience shaped his views toward education.
“I grew up on the farm,” McClanahan said. “I started chopping
cotton and beans when I was about 10 years old. The farm was one of the things that made me decide that getting an education was probably the way to get out of our economic conditions at the time.
“Because of my dad’s disability, we went from a high-middle-income family to economically disadvantaged pretty quickly. Neither of my parents graduated from high school. My mother made it to the 10th grade, and my father got to seventh or eighth grade. I’m the only one in my family who completed traditional high school — I do have one sister who went back and got a GED. I then went on to college, and I believe I’m the only one in my family to go into the military.”
McClanahan joined the U.S. Marine Corps during his senior year at Brinkley High School. After graduation, he immediately went to San Diego, California, for boot camp.
“I didn’t know how I was going to pay for college, so I thought I’d go into the military to get the GI bill and go to college later,” he said. “I didn’t know until probably 2003 that my mom had gotten a scholarship notice for me from the University of Arkansas. I had already joined the Marines and was in boot camp. When I found out, she told me, ‘Well, you were already in your career, and I didn’t think it was important.’”
McClanahan said he did not initially plan on staying in the military, but it had become a 22-year career by the time he left. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering through the Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program. Less than 30 Marines were selected for the program, and the Marines sent him to the University of Mississippi to earn his bachelor’s degree.
While he was in school, he was promoted to staff sergeant E6; then after he graduated with his bachelor’s degree, he was commissioned as an unrestricted second lieutenant.
After a while, he was encouraged to go back to school for his master’s degree.
“The Marines had an advanced-degree program at that time, and I applied for it,” he said. “Again, I was one of 20-something Marine officers selected to go back to school.”
He went back to Ole Miss to get his master’s in electrical engineering. From there, he was assigned to the United States Naval Academy, where he served as an instructor in electrical engineering, as well as weapons and systems engineering, from 1984-1987.
“I had a unique experience with that,” he said. “First of all, I never expected to get assigned to the Naval Academy, especially not being an Academy grad.”
After his time at the Naval Academy, McClanahan went back into the fleet Marine Corps as an air defense control officer. In that role, he told pilots where to go to intercept missiles and other objects. He was deployed to Okinawa, Japan, in his 20th year with the Marines.
“I had been talking with my monitor about that. He told me he was sending me to Okinawa, and I told him it was my 20th year and I really didn’t want to go at this stage, and I could retire if I wanted to,” McClanahan said. “He basically said, ‘Well, you can, but I’ve got you for 364 days, and I’m sending you to Okinawa.’ I asked if there were any other options, and he told me I was going to Okinawa.”
When McClanahan returned from his deployment, he went to Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity at Quantico, Virginia, as a project officer testing military systems. He did some of the operational testing on some of the first unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones. After being approached about another three-year commitment to the military with little to no advancement attached, McClanahan submitted paperwork for his retirement. He retired in 1993 as a major.
At that point, Arkansas was calling him home. McClanahan got a job at Bryce Corp. in Searcy, where he worked as a maintenance supervisor. During his time at Bryce, McClanahan reflected back on his time at the Naval Academy and decided to see if any local colleges were looking for instructors.
“I contacted Arkansas State University-Beebe and asked if they had any need for an
adjunct,” he said. “They did. I got to do some evening adjunct work at ASU-Beebe teaching electronics-engineering technology courses.”
McClanahan was at Bryce for 18 months when his boss at ASU-Beebe approached him about an opening at Arkansas State Technical Institute for the position of industrial relations director of economic development. McClanahan applied and got the job, serving in that position until June 2001. At that point, he became the director of advanced technology and allied health at ASU-Beebe.
In July of this year, McClanahan started as the provost and executive vice president of learning at Ozarka College. He said he had known for a while that he wanted to become a president or other high-level administrator at a community college. He went to Arkansas State University and earned his specialist degree in community-college teaching in 2007, and then he went on to earn his doctorate in education leadership in 2011.
Ozarka had been on his radar for a while, and he jumped at the opportunity to apply for the provost position when it became open earlier this year.
“I had worked with people
from Ozarka, and they always talked about how friendly Ozarka was,” he said. “I knew there was a need in the area for people who were interested in helping students achieve. That pricked my interest, so I would occasionally check the website to see what was available.”
In the past month, McClanahan has been getting to know the faculty and staff of Ozarka and seeing how he can fit his knowledge and expertise into the college to ensure that students get
the best education possible.
“Benjamin Franklin has a quote that I like that says, ‘Genius without education is like silver in the mine,’” McClanahan said. “As educators, we’re the ones who get that silver out of the mine. Then we refine that silver and give the students the skills and knowledge to do well in the world. That’s my teaching philosophy.”
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.