Obituaries
Charles Everett Rollins, Founding President of Bucks County Community College, Dies At 94
A memorial service will be held August 2 at Bucks County Community College.
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Obituary via www.swartzgivnish.com:
Charles Everett Rollins, of Newtown, Pennsylvania, born on June 1, 1922 to Arvin L. Rollins and Roselia Harper Rollins in Appleton, Wisconsin, passed away on July 18, 2016 at Pennswood Village in Newtown.
He was the husband of 65 years to the late Audrey Dyer Rollins, whom he met while they were in the United States Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. Charles is survived by two sons, Russell and Christopher, four grandchildren: Jason, Heather, Lelia, Ariel; and three great grandchildren.
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Charles was the first person in his family to graduate high school and attend college. He lettered in football, basketball, track and baseball while in high school and college. Graduating with a B.A. in History from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, Charles then went on to earn his M.A. and ED.D from Columbia University (Teachers' College) New York, New York.
Rollins taught history and coached basketball at Pittsville High School in Wisconsin, Avon-Grove High School in West Grove, Pennsylvania, and A.I. Dupont High School in Wilmington, Delaware.
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He was the dean of York Junior College (now York College of Pennsylvania) for 10 years, the founding president of Edison Community College (Edison State College) in Fort Myers, Florida as well as the founding president of Buck County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Twice, Charles was president of the Pennsylvania Association of Two Year Colleges and twice president of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges Association of Colleges and Universities. At Pennswood Village, Newtown, Pennsylvania, Charles was a member of the corporate board of directors. Shortly after he retired from Bucks County Community College in 1987, Rollins was named chairman of the blue ribbon committee to review operations of Bucks County government.
He was a member of the board of A. Marlin Moyer Scholarship Fund and an honorary member of the Bucks county Community College Foundation as well as a former member of the Knights of Pythias, Defiance Lodge, #335, Newtown.
In their millennium edition, The Doylestown Intelligencer named Rollins one of the 100 Bucks citizens who had the greatest impact on the county of Bucks in the 20th century, citing a Middle States Accreditation Report of 1973 which stated, "Charles Rollins was the founding president of Bucks County Community College beginning in 1965 until his retirement in 1987."
A 1973 report by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges summed up the influence Rollins had on Bucks County Community College. "The present president is the college's founding president and his influence is apparent, pervasive, and reflective in the character of the institution: its integrity, its relentless drive toward excellence, its rare dedication to students, its vitality, its confidence, its industriousness."
Burial will be next to his wife in Vermont's National Veteran's Cemetery, Randolph Center, Vermont.
A Memorial Service will be held August 2, 2016, 4 P.M., at Bucks County Community College, Newtown Campus in the Solarium of the Rollins Center.
Donations to the Charles E. Rollins Library Fund are suggested in lieu of flowers, ℅ Bucks County Community College Foundation, Swamp Road, Newtown, Pa.
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