Mat-Su College grows from no students, no staff to 1,900 students and 90 faculty

PALMER — Excitement filled the air as the crowd mingled in the entry of the Glenn Massay Theater for its opening reception Feb. 7 at Mat-Su College, 8295 East College Dr. in Palmer.

The slick black invite that arrived in the mail weeks earlier said the party started at 7 p.m. And, until then, the eager crowd mingled in the entry while ushers blocked the doors to the theater, delaying entry until the appointed hour.

When the doors were at last flung open to reveal a sea of 520 fuchsia-colored theater seats and deep blue stage curtains and walls, people exclaimed with delight. “Oh, beautiful.” “Wow!” “Amazing.” “Incredible.”

On stage, Matt Sale — the theater’s managing director — treated the crowd to a taste of his sense of humor by briefly pretending to be the master of ceremonies before scurrying off stage to make way for Mat-Su College Director Talis Colberg, who led the evening’s festivities.

“This building is really the culmination of 57 years of steady progress,” he said. “This is a big step for our college.”

Colberg said the new building is already bringing the community to the Mat-Su College campus. The building opened to the public with a Whistling Swan Productions show by The Duhks Feb. 8 and continued this week with a fundraiser for the Mat-Su Food Bank’s Food 4 Kids program Feb. 14.

Northrim Bank’s Lecture Series will bring Tim Bradner to the theater at 7 p.m., Feb. 19 to talk about “The Oil Price crisis: Can the state of Alaska Survive It?” A reception precedes the lecture at 6 p.m.

And Colony High School’s performance of “Shrek, the Musical” is at 7 p.m., Feb. 21 and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Feb. 22.

“Our goal is that this theater becomes a reason for people to come to Mat-Su College,” Colberg said.

University of Alaska Provost Sam Gingerich shared brief remarks before Colberg turned the stage over to the Mat-Su Concert Band Feb. 7.

“This project has spanned more than a decade,” Gingerich said. “Tonight we celebrate completion.”

Conducted by Gleo Huyck, the community band christened the new stage with a performance of “Alaska’s Flag,” sung on short notice by the band’s clarinetist and Wasilla High music teacher Ashley Wedge.

The band performed five numbers, including selections from Les Miserables, which include a trumpet solo by George Carte and a solo dance performance by Jamie Metcalf.

Huyck said the band is about 30 years old and had never performed on a “real” stage before that Saturday. The group practices weekly at Teeland Middle School and has performed in cafeterias, schools and churches across the Valley for three decades, he said.

But not any more, Huyck said.

Managing director Sale said Huyck was one of the first to call and book the new theater last year.

“This is our permanent home,” Huyck told the audience.

Roger Hickel Contracting was the contractor for the 34,000-square-foot, $20 million state-of-the-art facility, the first new building to open on UAA’s Palmer campus since 2003.

Major subcontractors on the project include Redi Electric, Slayden Plumbing and Heating, Bucher Glass, Rite-way Roofing, Elite Acoustics, Commercial Contractors, Goliath Construction, Swanson Steel Erectors, Protech Theatrical Services, and Pyramid Audio and Video.

‘So many people helped make this possible’

Director Colberg said the University of Alaska Board of Regents in September 2014 unanimously approved naming the theater for former Mat-Su College Director Emeritus Glenn Massay. Although he died in 2013 at the age of 81, his wife, Donna, was able to attend the opening ceremony.

“The campus and community flourished under his leadership,” Colberg said, reading from a letter nominating Massay for the recognition.

When classes were announced in the Jan. 9, 1958, edition of The Frontiersman, Palmer Community College had no faculty, no staff, no building and no students. Classes began at Palmer High School Jan. 21, 1958. By Feb. 6, 1958, the school had 125 students enrolled and had added another section of welding classes to help meet demand. About 3,000 people lived in the Valley then.

Now the college has a 951-acre campus, 90 faculty, 120 adjunct faculty, 25 student employees, and 1,900 students. About 98,000 people live in the Mat-Su Borough, according to the latest population count.

“So many people helped make this possible,” Colberg said.

People like college director Al Okeson who convinced the Mat-Su Borough donate 100 acres of land near Trunk Road for the college in 1971. Renamed Matanuska-Susitna Community College in 1964, it held its first classes at the new location in the fall of 1972.

Massay was hired in 1974 as the founding President of the Tanana Valley Community College in Fairbanks and moved to Palmer in 1980 to build enrollment at Mat-Su Community College, where he served as academic dean. He was promoted to Director after the retirement of Director Okeson and the campus merger with the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1986.

‘It is a great college’

When Massay became academic dean at Mat-Su Community College in May 1980 there were 312 students in mostly night classes. By that fall, Massay and staff had created 12 daytime courses to add to the offerings.

Massay retired in 1995 and was named “Director Emeritus.” He returned to service as acting director in 1999.

He spoke to the Frontiersman in 2008 for a story marking the 50th anniversary of the college.

“It’s just a wonderful college and it continues to serve the community,” he told the Frontiersman in then. “I always felt it was an honor to work at Mat-Su. It is a great college.”

Valley attorney, musician and former college director Bill Tull also was in the audience to help mark the theater’s opening.

He said Dick Jones was president of the school board and the manager of the Matanuska Valley Bank in 1958 when Tull landed a job there after moving to Alaska from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Jones was looking for someone to keep the college program going, so he hired Tull who worked days at the bank and nights at Palmer High running the college program, Tull said.

Perhaps Tull’s most important accomplishment at the helm was building a connection with the state’s university system that allowed Palmer students to earn university credit for the classes.

He said although the college didn’t become part of the University of Alaska system until 1986, students could get university credit for classes as early as 1960-61.

Tull’s tenure at the college was short-lived, he returned to university that fall to earn his law degree. He came back to Alaska in 1964, and continued his relationship with Mat-Su College as an instructor and student, he said at his Palmer office Friday.

“And the rest is history,” he said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.