Mary Thornley, who has led Trident Technical College as president for more than 30 years, announced Tuesday that she will retire, effective June 1, 2024. She made the announcement at a meeting of the college’s area commission, according to the college.

Thornley, 80, has worked at the college for 50 years. She is its longest-serving president, The Post and Courier reported.

“We’ve got things to do,” Thornley told The Post and Courier, listing projects that will be underway through the end of her tenure. “You’re either growing or you’re dying. Trident Tech is growing.”

After her announcement, the college’s area commission voted to give her the honorary title of president emeritus once she retires, the newspaper reported. At Thornley’s request, the title comes with no pay.

The commission will run a national search for her successor, a process expected to take more than six months, according to the newspaper.

A college that doubled in size

Under Thornley, enrollment at the North Charleston-based college has grown from just under 8,000 students to more than 13,000 this fall, The Post and Courier reported. The campus footprint has more than doubled, and the college has grown from three campuses to five, including campuses in Mount Pleasant and Summerville, plus two training sites. Last year the college received the final funding to renovate its Berkeley Campus in Moncks Corner.

In 2018, the college’s area commission named the main campus in North Charleston the Thornley Campus to honor her service, according to the newspaper.

Some of the college’s biggest growth came early in her presidency. After the Charleston Naval Shipyard closed, former base workers went back to school and the college saw double-digit growth, Thornley told the newspaper.

The college needed more land. It bought 118 acres from the Commissioners of Public Works and, six months later, 32 more acres next to the campus, The Post and Courier reported.

Thornley said the board’s willingness to take a risk on the land was significant, and that an easy working relationship with the board is one reason she stayed.

“They make decisions that are regionally strong,” she said, according to the newspaper. She noted that a typical community college president’s tenure lasts less than five years.

Training for new industries

Trident Tech has trained workers for the region’s growing industries under Thornley. The South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center, which opened on the main campus in 2019, provides high-tech manufacturing programs and aeronautical studies, The Post and Courier reported.

“Trident has been involved in every major new initiative on the industrial side,” said Bill Finn, retired CEO of AstenJohnson and a member of the Trident Technical College Foundation board since before Thornley became president, according to the newspaper.

Chris Fraser, managing director of Avison Young in South Carolina and also a foundation board member, said the college’s training programs helped the region recruit industry after the base closure.

“Trident Tech factored heavily into the region’s ability to attract others to come and find employees because of the training programs available,” Fraser said, according to The Post and Courier.

“The things that are important, she won’t let go of until she wins and the whole community wins when she does that,” said Will Helmly, CEO of Home Telecom and another foundation board member, according to the newspaper.

From adjunct to president

Thornley joined Trident Tech as an adjunct instructor in 1973 and became a full-time instructor the next year, the newspaper reported. She worked her way up to department head, dean and vice president before becoming president in 1991.

“I accidentally became one,” she said of becoming a college president, according to The Post and Courier.

The daughter of mill workers in Concord, North Carolina, Thornley grew up in a family of six children that struggled to make ends meet. She attended Mars Hill College on a scholarship and holds a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina, according to the newspaper.

Her honors include the Order of the Palmetto and the Joseph P. Riley Leadership Award, The Post and Courier reported.

“I see myself in our students,” Thornley said.