The town of Decatur lies in the heart of Illinois about two and half hours south of Chicago, forming a triangle with nearby Springfield and Champaign-Urbana. With manufacturing and agriculture as the primary employment, Decatur is known as the soybean capital of the world.

In this small town atmosphere, State Center Community College District chancellor Deborah Blue grew up with her grandmother and step grandfather. Blue’s mother, who had her when she was only 17, also lived nearby in Decatur while her father lived in Richmond, Calif.

On Feb. 28, when Deborah Blue is inducted to the State Center of Community College District’s Wall of Fame at the African-American museum on Fulton Street, she will join tens of other African-Americans who have distinguished themselves in various ways.

Blue will take her place as the first African-American woman to lead one of the largest college districts in California – a long way from her humble beginnings. But it is more than the position for Deborah Blue. It is, she said, about inspiring others – to pursue their dreams and persevere, regardless of obstacles.

Early Influences

Blue learned the meaning of hard work early, thanks to her grandfather, who owned a janitorial business and her grandmother, who cleaned houses in the evening.

She said Decatur suited her. It was a safe place; she could walk to school and back home safely. But even in the small town environment, Deborah Blue could not escape the reality of life in the 1960s.

Blue was only 7 years old when she realized for the first time that she was different; that when people looked at her, they saw her race first.

She had gone over to introduce herself to her new neighbors, a white family which moved into a house down the street. Instead of a neighborly visit, Blue was shocked by the way the mother in that household treated her. The woman had not allowed her to enter the house and told her [Blue] she was not allowed to play with her daughter.

“In school we had a lot of diversity. Black children and white children played together for the most part. When it happened in the neighborhood, it was a shock,” said Blue.

Blue left Decatur for the first time at the age of 10. She wanted to live with her father and rode in a Greyhound bus with her paternal grandfather all the way to Richmond, Calif.

She went on to attend Richmond High School, hoping to start her college education at Contra Costa Community College. But she was terribly homesick and returned to Decatur without graduating from Richmond.

Blue returned to Decatur and was named homecoming queen of her high school class. She said no one anticipated the outrage that this caused in her community.

“People called the radio stations. They said, ‘who is this black girl that has been named homecoming queen?’” Blue said. “I was hurt. I didn’t understand why that was an issue. I learned that the difference between people wasn’t just something I see on television during the Civil Rights movements. It was still alive and well in my hometown.”

Blue also recalls the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and how it impacted her life.

“I experienced it all on television and it was announced in school,” said Blue. “Those were eye-opening experiences for me because I didn’t have the same experience. But I realized I was as much a part of this as anybody else in any state. We weren’t immune just because we were in the Midwest.”

As a child, Blue says she absolutely loved learning. One of her favorite books came from her grandfather, who bought her two books with a description of different career choices.

Career Choices

“First I wanted to be a nurse. Then I wanted to be an attorney,” Blue said. “But by the time I was a senior in high school, I decided I want to be a speech therapist.”

She went on to Illinois State University to pursue her dream. At the end of her first semester, however, she transferred to Western Michigan University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and ideology as well as a minor in elementary education. From there, it was on to the University of Illinois, where she earned her master’s degree and began the course work for a Ph.D. in speech and hearing science in 1978.

The next step for Blue was to finish her dissertation, but destiny had a different plan. Her professor from Western Michigan University suggested she meet a psychologist at the osteopathic medical school of Michigan State University. She did, and ended up being hired to replace an instructor who had just resigned.

“It was my dream. I wanted to be a university professor. It happened a lot faster than I thought it would happen,” Blue said.

While it was a dream come true, it would also be one of the most challenging times for Blue.

“I loved teaching but I had a child and I was married,” said Blue. “I taught full time and the first year, I didn’t get anything done on my dissertation. I was getting used to teaching and doing research. My second year, my adviser said you need to finish this degree.”

And so Blue woke up at 3 a.m. every day, worked on her dissertation, went to work, then came home to work late, all in addition to raising a child and running her household.

Blue’s teaching career at Michigan came to an end three years later when she moved back to California to work at the Sonoma County Office of Education as a program specialist. Though she loved her job as program specialist, what she wanted even more was to work as a community college administrator.

She found the answer in a newspaper advertisement for a community college job fair. At the job fair, Blue received two offers for an assistant dean position. One was at Contra Costa College and the other was at Chabot College. She took the offer from Contra Costa, wanting to stay close to where she lived.

Later during her time as community college administrator, Blue met her husband, who was president of West-Hills College in Lemoore. Needing to stay close to her husband, Blue applied at FCC and became associate dean of the humanities division in 1991.

But her husband would relocate to the Bay Area and Blue would once again follow, this time, taking a position as vice president of assistant superintendent for educational programs and services at Sierra College in Rocklin.

Six years into her career at Sierra, Blue had yet another ambition; she wanted to be a college president. And so in the year 2000, she was hired as president of Laney College.

“I had experienced so many opportunities to grow and advance from the beginning of being a student through my teaching career at community colleges,” said Blue. “I finally reached a point where I needed to step back and reevaluate my career.”

To achieve that, she would leave the presidency at Laney College and pursue something different, “to have time to think about where I was heading,” she said. Blue went to the Accrediting Commission of Junior Colleges.

But after one year, Blue said she started to feel she belonged on a campus. Nevertheless, she stayed with the accreditation committee for three-and-a-half years.

She then returned to campus as vice chancellor for district-wide planning and educational services for the Contra Costa Community College District.

“I was happy to be back. I loved being part of the community colleges again,” said Blue.

Before long, yet another window opened. As usual, Blue did not hesitate to take a peek.

Madame Chancellor

This time she had a chance to go back to Fresno as Chancellor of the State Center Community College District, a position she assumed in 2010.

It hasn’t been the easiest of times for Blue, thanks in large part to the budget crisis. But she said her mission all along has been to stay positive and serve the students.

“We’re trying to stay focused on the positive and trying to support students as much as possible and not be so focused on the budget that we forget our true focus, which is to inspire and support students,” said Blue.

“It’s a hard balance to strike between what takes up so much of our time and what our attention should be focused on. It has been extremely stressful,” she said.

Moving forward, Blue says the goal is to refocus on enhancing what has been pulled back.

“We need to go back to restoring the things that we had to take away. We need to increase class offerings, increase access for students to programs. It’s all about getting back to that feeling of growth,” said Blue.

Sitting in the position of chancellor as the first African-American to hold that position, Blue sees how far she has come. She hopes to see the district experience leadership from future chancellors of different ethnic and racial backgrounds.

“I got this opportunity to be among the African-Americans who lead this district, and I won’t be the last. I hope women and other people of color will continue to lead this district in the future,” said Blue.

“There is some purpose in my life that is bigger than myself,” she said. “For some reason, I was given the opportunity to have this experience.”