James B. Tatum, president of the Crowder College Board of Trustees, is holding the trophy he received after being named the recipient of the 2007 Mel Carnahan Hall of Fame Award presented by the Missouri Community College Association. With him (L-R) are his wife Lynn and Diane Andris, MCCA president.
James B. Tatum, president of the Crowder College Board of Trustees, was honored recently by the Missouri Community College Association by being named the recipient of the 2007 Mel Carnahan Hall of Fame Award. Initiated in 2000 by the MCCA, the award perpetuates the name of the former Governor Mel Carnahan and his commitment to community colleges.
A trustee of Crowder College since 1963, Tatum served as president of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and has the distinction of being the only trustee elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC) by community college presidents.
Tatum has served as an ACCT CEO search consultant for more than 70 community colleges and currently serves as an ACCT Board Retreat Facilitator, conducting retreats for over 150 community colleges. As a retreat facilitator, Tatum especially focuses on ethical decision making by using the experience he gained at the Josephson Institute for Ethics in California and the Global Ethics Workshop by Rushworth Kidder in Maine. His experience in servant leadership includes all aspects of consensus making, receptive listening and resolution of conflicts.
An alumnus of Wentworth (Missouri) Junior College and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Tatum'sservice as a board member, commission, and committee member in education-related organizations is extensive. Among his many roles are having been a delegate to the 1960 White House Conference on Education, a member of the Missouri Governor’s sub-committee which drafted the original legislative concept creating the state’s community college districts, a member of the President’s Education Advisory Council, and a member of the board of directors of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities. Tatum served as a member of the Greenleaf Center Board (the Servant Leadership Concept) and from 1987-1994 was its chairman. He also has served on numerous philanthropic boards and committees and from 1955-63 was a member of the Anderson Missouri Public School Board and the McDonald County School Board.
Tatum has received many honors including the AACJC’s Trustee Leadership Award, the Association of Governing Board's Distinguished Service Award (the only community college trustee ever to receive the award), the ACCT M. Dale Ensign Leadership Award in 1979 as the outstanding community college trustee in America, and the North Central Association of Community College’s Outstanding Service Award. In 2000, he was one of three community college trustees honored by ACCT as being “one of the transformational leaders in community college education for the 20th Century."
In 2006 when Tatum retired as the president of Tatum Motor Company of Anderson, MO, he received the Sperry-New Holland Public Service Award that is presented to the individual dealer in North America who has made the greatest public service contribution.
James B. Kellerman, MCCA Executive Director and CEO, stated that it gave him "great pleasure to present the 2007 Mel Carnahan Hall of Fame Award to a special person who embodies the qualities of honesty, integrity, high standards, dedication, decency, and a strong work ethic, all distinguishing characteristics of Missouri's late Governor, Mel Carnahan.“
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