Dr. Gary L. Carroll
Annual Faculty Lecturer 1995-1996
GARY L. CARROLL is a native Southern Californian who, with the exception of his military service overseas, has lived here all his life.
A childhood fascination with how and why things worked, coupled with an early aptitude for math and science, led him to enroll at UCLA as a math major. After a year of classes he found his chemistry courses to be more interesting and changed majors, earning a B.S. in Chemistry. He entered the Ph.D. program at UCLA, but was drafted into the Army after two quarters of graduate study. He returned to UCLA after his military training and a 14 1/2 month tour of duty in Vietnam to complete a Master of Science Degree in Chemistry.
In 1974 he was hired by Golden West College as an Instructional Associate in the Chemistry Department, where he was in charge of an open laboratory program. Here students from several different levels of chemistry classes completed experiments any time within a given week. In addition, he taught General Chemistry in the evening college program.
HE JOINED THE Chemistry Department at SBCC in 1976 and, after a semester of teaching, enrolled as a full-time graduate student at UCSB, where he worked for Dr. R. Daniel Little and pursued studies in synthetic organic chemistry. His concurrent teaching at SBCC and research at UCSB continued for 5 1/2 years and culminated in the awarding of the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.
In 1981 he became SBCC Chemistry Department Chair, a position he has continuously occupied. He has served on numerous college committees, including Safety, Curriculum, Media Resources and others. He was Vice President of the newly formed Instructors' Association and helped write that organization's constitution and bylaws.
After a number of years as a member of the Representative Council of the Academic Senate, serving as a Representative and Vice President, Dr. Carroll was elected President in 1991. It was during his term as President that SBCC changed to the early calendar and major organizational changes were made in the Senate.
HAVING COMPLETED his term as Academic Senate President at SBCC, he served for two years on the Local Senates Committee of the Statewide Academic Senate, with responsibility for developing and maintaining a database of all the community college academic senates and coordinating information for eight local community colleges.
His fascination with how and why things work continues, sometimes finding expression in designing and building. Dr. Carroll also enjoys camping, hiking and traveling . . . and trying to show his students the lighter side of life.
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