Curry retires from Colorado Mountain College

Dr. Peggy Curry was one of the speakers at the 2013 commencement exercises for Colorado Mountain College’s Edwards Campus. Curry is retiring from the college after 12 years as campus vice president. Photo Pettit Photography
Dr. Peggy Curry was one of the speakers at the 2013 commencement exercises for Colorado Mountain College’s Edwards Campus. Curry is retiring from the college after 12 years as campus vice president. Photo Pettit Photography

[EDWARDS, Colo.] – Dr. Peggy Curry, campus vice president at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards, is retiring after 12 years at the helm of the college’s Eagle County campus.

“We are most grateful for Peggy’s passion in leading the campus through a period of substantial growth,” said Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, president of the college. “She has been deeply committed to the mission of the college, to student success and to the Vail Valley community.”

Curry said a personal highlight of her years with the college was a recent, historic Partnership for Education meeting in which the members voted unanimously to move forward with deeding the remainder of the Berry Creek parcel to the college and to dissolve the partnership. “This was done in a loving way in recognition of the results achieved through this extraordinary partnership among Eagle County, the school district and the college,” she said.

Other highlights of her tenure include leading the construction and expansion of the campus on Miller Ranch Road, embracing programs to serve first-generation students in Eagle County, leading and responding to significant increases in enrollment, developing the college’s largest concurrent enrollment program and launching a successful fundraising program to support the campus’s HERO scholarships.

Doris Dewton, CMC Foundation Board member and former chair of the college’s board of trustees from Eagle County, has known Curry since she was first hired. Dewton explained that through their work together on the HERO scholarship committee, she saw the campus vice president as “selfless, tireless and passionate – totally devoted to CMC and its mission and its students.”

Edwards Graduation May 2, 2014
From left to right: Dr. Peggy Curry, vice president of Colorado Mountain College in Edwards; student commencement speaker Celia Franklin; CMC President Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser; and CMC Board of Trustees President Glenn Davis celebrated the achievements of the 2014 graduating class at the campus’s May commencement ceremony. Photo Pettit Photography

“I have been able to achieve so much at the college, by focusing on helping others to achieve,” said Curry. “This is what makes me tick. The community here is so alive and took me right in from the very first. I have so many people to thank.”

In particular she expressed gratitude to the Rotarians, Vail Leadership Institute, CMC-Edwards Advisory Council members, Dewton and, especially, “the hard-working and loving staff and faculty at the Edwards Campus — you are all amazing and my achievements are really our achievements,” she said.

Curry also expressed gratitude to the CMC Foundation and HERO Scholarship donors for making education possible for so many students. “And to all the students who are here or who have come and gone — thank you for being courageous and committed to learning and to your lives,” she said.

Curry said she looks forward to pursuing her dream of working with children and deepening her Zen practice

Starting July 1, Dr. Peter Perhac will serve as acting vice president of the Edwards Campus, while also continuing as the campus vice president in Steamboat Springs. In addition, he will co-chair the college’s search committee for a new campus vice president in Edwards.