2002 – 2008, PRESIDENT G. THOMAS DELAINO
During his six-year tenure, 2,755 donors gave $6,546,112 to support the college. The average gift was $1,038 and. The top 12 donors from this same time period were responsible for 72 gifts totaling $3,046,533. The average gift from these 12 donors was $42,313.
Following a national search, G. Thomas Delaino became Pensacola Junior College’s fifth president on September 18, 2002. Delaino had served as Senior Vice President and Vice President of Planning and Administration at the College since 1993.
In fall 2003, ceramics professor Bill Clover was awarded the Anna Lamar Switzer Endowed Teaching Chair.
That same year, the PJC Foundation welcomed sculptor Albert Paley and Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg for speaking engagements and student workshops.
In 2003, donors continued to support the College and enhanced the student experience through The Sansing Scholars program supported by Sandy and Peggy Sansing of the Sansing Foundation. The Charles A. Atwell Endowed Chair for Educational Leadership was dedicated in April. In the Fall semester, Joe and Betty Zimmers Music Lecture Hall and The Baroco Music Lab was established.
Between 2002 and 2008, donors establish 76 new scholarships to support 3,834 PJC students with over $1.5M in awards.
Anna Society for Visual Arts is founded in March 2005 with 30 founding members.
The lead donor from 2002-2008 is an anonymous donor who pledges $1M in honor of Raymond B. and Leila Hobbs. Pensacola Junior College honored this gift to the PJC Foundation by dedicating Building 11 on the Pensacola Campus as the Raymond B. and Leila Hobbs Center for Teaching Excellence
In 2005, the D.W. McMillan Trust began giving $50,000 a year for the next three years to support nursing and health science students who were pursing a nursing or other health science degree at Pensacola Junior College.
The Foundation celebrated its fortieth Anniversary in 2005 by honoring the six visionary businessmen who launched it in 1965 — Crawford Rainwater Sr., E.W. Hopkins, M.J. Menge, Warren Briggs Sr., Howard Rein, and Gaspare Tamburello.
In Fall 2005, sculpture faculty member Michael Boles was awarded the Anna Lamar Switzer Endowed Teaching Chair.
In 2006, phlebotomy faculty member Wilma Duncans-Burnett was awarded the Mary Ekdahl Smart Endowed Teaching Chair.
The Raymond B. and Leila Hobbs Center for Teaching Excellence was launched with a naming ceremony in October 2007
By 2008, D.W. McMillan Trust’s giving to PJC, totaled $675,000.
The McMillan Center at the Warrington campus is named to honor the combined gifts received from the D.W. McMillan Trust.