Brianna Guillory and Bekka Wiedenmeyer
@BlatedNani and @Bcwieds
For Ted Kaye, it all started with a mouse. But in the summer of 2015, it will end with a hawk.
On December 2014, Kaye officially announced his retirement from his position as the LPC Foundation’s CEO. Leaving behind an eleven-year legacy, Kaye’s retirement date is set for July 1.
“I don’t know how to describe it except to say that it’s time. It’s just time. It feels like I have done everything that I can do,” Kaye said.
According to the mission statement on the organization’s website, the role of the LPC foundation is “to support and advance the College and its students through active resource development and effective community partnerships.”
Among his accomplishments during his time at LPC, Kaye is known for working with his team and developing the foundation’s structure for business, promoting the school’s visibility and taking part in raising millions of dollars for various departments on campus.
“Over the years he has really taken this position and developed it and made it its own. It looks very different from when he first started,” said Cynthia Ross, current events coordinator for the Foundation and former Director of Student Life for the school.
“I think he’s improved it. I think probably his main accomplishment over the years is to have increased the visibility of the college in the community,” she said.
Kaye first assumed the role of the foundation’s CEO in 2004, when he was approached and recommended by Jim Ott, who was the chairman of the Livermore Chamber of Commerce at the time. Ott got to know Kaye through his wife, Dale, who had been recently hired by the Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m sad to see him go. He’s been a tremendous, positive force for building the foundation and having it be an important part of our campus as well as in the community,” Ott said. “He’s been great. He had a lot of great ideas and has been able to make a lot connections with people around the community.”
Part of the connections that Kaye has made include contacting vendors for donations for the Best of the Best Gala, an annual fundraising event for the school. Because of events like Best of the Best, funds for departments like the Child Development Center and the Science department have been able to be acquired at high volumes.
Being in his sixties, and being in the working force for over forty years, Kaye has decided to pursue new endeavors.
“There are other things I want to do. On the fun side, I want to start going to the gym a lot more. And I want to do reading, which I really like, but I don’t have time for. I want to get a dog,” Kaye said.
He also plans to become more involved with the Tri Valley community and has recently joined the board of directors for the School of Imagination, which is an organization based in Dublin meant to provide nurturing support for children of all needs.
As for Las Positas, Kaye and his wife Dale plan to give back, not just to the students, but also those who help provide the education for them.
“Dale and I have decided that we’re going to start a scholarship here but not for students. It is going to be for faculty and staff and administrators, and it is going to involve people who engage in innovation,” he said.
According to LPC president Barry Russell, Kaye is a great asset to the school with all of the work that he has done over the years.
“His absence will require the campus community to pull together to continue the work that he has been doing,” Russell said in an e-mail with The Express.
A job posting as been posted on the Chabot Las Positas Community College District’s website and will close on May 6. Russell says the school hopes to have a new Foundation CEO by August 2015.
