LSCO President Johnson to retire in August

From his third-floor office, LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson's can see new buildings that weren't there when he came to the job nearly seven years ago. And those buildings are one of the reasons he has decided to retire in August.

"When I got here, I had a ten-year plan in place and I've accomplished all of them (the goals), he said.

He said he wants to travel and see more of the world. "I'll be 63 next month and my wife, Karen and I would like to travel when we're still relatively young to enjoy it."

His replacement will be chosen by the Texas State University System, which oversees LSCO and six other colleges and universities.

Johnson will be ending more than 40 years of work in the public sector, including 20 years with the Houston Police Department and a second career in public higher eduction.

Johnson was born in Port Arthur and grew up in the Big Thicket area of East Texas between Livingston and Woodville. He was the first person in his family to attend college and went to Angelina Junior College in Lufkin before going to Sam Houston State University.

In 1982, while in college, he pursued his interest in government and got a job with U.S. Representative Charles Wilson, a now legendary congressman who represented Orange County for many years. "The first time I got on a plane was to go to D.C. to work for Charlie," he said.

By the time he left Sam Houston State, he had earned bachelor's and master's degrees. Then he started with the Houston Police Department, spending time in six different divisions. He spent six years working at the department's police academy, which gave him his first experience at education administration.

"I decided I didn't need another degree in criminal justice, I needed a degree in education," he said.

Southern University in Houston offered doctoral classes at night, so he was able to graduate while continuing to work his day job with the police department.

After his twenty years, four months, and ten days at the HPD, he was able to retire and change careers to higher education. Most of those years were spent at Tyler Junior College. He also worked at Houston Community College and Sam Houston State.

He came to Lamar State College Orange in 2018 and has overseen the expansion of the local campus, plus the opening of another campus. The college has also increased its courses and work training programs.

The expansion locally includes the construction of the new Academics Building, the addition of an industrial mechanics training center, and the Stark Foundation donation of the historic century-old church building which is being repurposed and expanded into a welcome center.

But the growth hasn't all been local. LSCO opened a satellite campus in Lumberton and has worked with Lamar Institute of Technology and Lamar State College Port Arthur to open a joint campus in Livingston.

The growth has led to LSCO increasing from 2350 academic students in 2018 to 3,613 academic students. The college also has workforce classes with enrollment going up from 544 a year to 2,448 students today. In the spring of 2018, the school had 99 graduates and was up to 350 spring graduates in 2024.

The statistic Johnson loves the most, though, is that two-thirds of the students at LSCO are first generation college students, like he is.

Johnson said he loves the Orange community and its people. He's grateful for the time he has spent here, especially being close to his late father, who was in his 90s. "I got to spend a lot of time with him in his last five years," Johnson said. Plus, he has lots of relatives nearby that he has been able to visit.

He'll stay here for another eight months, but then, he hopes his traveling takes him and his wife further away than East Texas.