The final day of the 100th anniversary Homecoming celebration at Paris Junior College did not disappoint, with a parade, Distinguished Alumni Reunion lunch, tailgate, basketball games, crowning of a king and queen, and capping the day with a concert from Clay Hollis.
The Distinguished Alumni luncheon was a reunion to honor all previous honorees, their friends, and family. Dr. Stephen Benson, ninth president of PJC, gave a very warm welcome to the audience.
“Since 1924 PJC has been a place where students could grow, explore and achieve,” said Benson. “We are proud to have alumni whose contributions span industries and communities, from business and healthcare to the arts and sciences. We have had the privilege of watching legends emerge, individuals who’ve made and continue to make a significant mark in their fields. Today, they represent not just PJC’s success, but the powerful impact of community colleges.”
First guest speaker at the luncheon was Kelley Baxley, a 2010 inductee into PJC’s Academic Hall of Honor, who had a decades-long career in the building automation industry as a senior account executive. He spent 10 years with Johnson Controls and 32 years with Siemens, managing the latter’s higher education vertical market for 23 years and the Lockheed Martin aerospace division in Fort Worth for nine years. He was named four-time sales professional of the year at Siemens and retired in February 2024. Among many accolades, he was awarded the prestigious Eagle Award by the International Association of Physical Plant Administrators for Colleges and Universities in 2010.
“Happy birthday PJC, 100 years – how about that,” said Baxley, upon taking the podium.
Baxley relayed how he began his career as a 19-year old graduate. Taking the advice of his air conditioning professor to enter the control business, he interviewed with Johnson Controls. Arriving to interview for the position he applied for, he was instead asked to apply for a new position – pneumatic applications engineer.
“Parlez-vous français – hey!” Baxley said. “I told them I would certainly interview and five hours later, I was shown where my office would be.”
The company sent him to an engineering school in Wisconsin. On the first day, as fellow students introduced themselves, Baxley found they had all graduated from university programs.
“I boldly stood up and looked at that crowd and said, ‘I’m Kelley Baxley, I’m from Paris Texas, and I graduated from PJC with an associate’s degree in air conditioning and refrigeration.’ You could hear a pin drop. At the next break everybody came to me and asked ‘what did you do to get here?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.'”
Returning home, he was told that while his scores weren’t as good as they’d like, he’d outworked everyone and asked if he would bring the same work ethic to his job, he responded, “yes sir, I sure will.”
“That’s how my career started,” Baxley said, crediting PJC for instilling that discipline in him.
Next to speak was Mandi Watson, who is in her 23rd year in the field of women’s and children’s health care, Director of Women’s and Children’s services at Paris Regional Health, managing the hospital’s maternal and neonatal program. She has a national certification in inpatient obstetrics, and her electronic fetal monitoring have provided top notch care to patients. Her nursing background includes surgical, pediatric, geriatric, and obstetrical care. She was awarded the Nursing Excellence Token and received corporate recognition for contributions to the Maternal Safety Initiative Program.
Watson served as perinatal co-chair for the Northeast Texas Regional Advisory Council and remains a board member. She graduated from Leadership Lamar County and serves on its board, participates in the United Way Reading to the Future campaign. She started at PJC, where she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the two-year honor society, and elected president of the associate degree nursing program. She obtained her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Texas at Arlington.
“I would not have been able to obtain my personal goals without PJC,” Watson said. “As children, we often think of what we will be when we grow up, and registered nurse was high on that list. But my parents had not gone to college, and I worked at their business. I married young, had a daughter and was a single mother. I went to work as a unit secretary in the emergency room at McCuistion Medical Center and saw amazing nurses saving people’s lives every day.”
Most of those nurses attended PJC, and and they took her to the campus to register. She went to the Educational Opportunity Center at PJC and with the aid of now-retired employee Donna Glass, filled out all the paperwork for admissions and financial aid.
“I still have that folder today,” Watson said, holding up the folder. “I keep it as a reminder of where I started on December 12, 2000.”
After completing the vocational nursing program, she married and had a son. Her husband Justin is also a PJC graduate. She then completed the associate degree nursing program.
“It took me five years, but I did it. I was a non-traditional first generation college graduate,”
Her daughter started PJC and joined the cheer squad, then graduated in 2019 and transferred to the University of Texas at Tyler. Her son took dual credit classes in high school from PJC.
“As a nurse leader,” Watson said, “I can appreciate having Paris Junior College’s nursing program in our community. This is such a benefit that we are able to teach, train and recruit the new nurses to our facility and assist them on a on their educational journey. Without accessible, affordable education at PJC, I would not have been able to obtain the goals that I wanted and been able to support my family and to continue to work and grow in the community that I live, and I’m just very thankful for all the opportunities and all the help. All it takes is one person who can really help you along that journey, and I have since returned the favor. There’s been a few people that I’ve actually guided to the Educational Opportunity Center so that they, too could start their journey. But I’m just so very thankful for all that PJC has given me.”
The final day of Homecoming continued with a Tailgate at the Hunt Center parking lot that was well attended. The women’s and men’s basketball teams played Southwestern Christian College, and both won.
During halftime of the men’s basketball game, Gabriella Sosa and Connor Freeman were crowned Homecoming King and Queen. Other students on the Homecoming Court included Nevaeh Brown, Stefano Carvajal, Victoria Russell, and Kordrick Turner.
The evening ended with a Clay Hollis concert at the Love Civic Center. Hollis is the grandson of H.L. “Hub” Hollis, who was PJC’s first athletic director. More than the historic link during PJC’s 100th anniversary, the audience appreciated the music and most danced throughout the concert.
PJC’s next Homecoming will begin on November 8, 2025.
Pictured: PJC alumnus and Hall of Honor inductee Kelley Baxley who spoke of how far his associate’s degree in air conditioning and refrigeration took him.
