They gathered in downtown Bend at the original Bend High School, in the evening, in the basement, for classes like typing and algebra, attending a college that didn’t yet have a permanent home — or a name. The date was Sept. 20, 1949, and Central Oregon was seeing its first-ever higher education “campus” open its doors, with 109 students enrolled. Oregon’s first community college, later to be named Central Oregon Community College, was off and running.

Seventy-five years later, COCC is toasting the momentous anniversary with a community event at the Bend campus on Friday, May 2, from 4-7 p.m., with guest speakers, historical items, program displays and refreshments.

One of the students from those early years was a Madras teen named Ron Bryant who’d make the evening commute down Hwy. 97 after his dayshift at Erickson’s Market. “I was in Bend every night for school. I enjoyed it,” says Bryant, recalling life in 1955. “The school wasn’t very big, maybe 200 or 300 people.”

Bryant’s experience included working on the student newspaper, taking French and journalism, and playing on the basketball squad. That formative experience and growth encouraged him to go on to a law degree at Portland’s Northwestern College of Law. He’d return to Central Oregon in 1964, settling in Madras initially, then joining a well-established law firm in Redmond. He’d become mayor of Redmond and director of the Redmond Chamber of Commerce. “It’s the cornerstone of what makes Central Oregon go,” he says of COCC.

As Central Oregon began to grow, so did its college. In the years that followed, the 10,000-square-mile college district was created (1962), the Bend campus opened on Awbrey Butte (1964) thanks to a generous land gift from the Coats family, and, in 1967, the name officially became Central Oregon Community College. The Redmond campus opened its doors in 1997, and the Madras and Prineville campuses followed in 2011, providing access to college-level education in communities across the district’s three counties — the largest district of its kind in the state.

Tens of thousands of students have graduated from COCC since it was first established; many have taken credit or noncredit classes to gain a new skill or try a new experience.

“I took a huge variety of classes,” says Jamie Bowles, state wildlife expert, who grew up in Tumalo and went to Redmond High School. She began attending COCC in 2010 after the recession derailed her job. Trying some natural resources classes, Bowles found new footing. For someone who grew up hunting and fishing, seeing the world of wildlife through a career lens put life into new focus.

She landed an internship with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and after earning a bachelor’s degree in natural resources management at Oregon State University-Cascades, Bowles completed a master’s at OSU. Now, just a decade later, she serves as the agency’s regional district habitat biologist.

COCC offers more than 70 unique academic programs and a wide scope of noncredit courses. And campus to campus, there’s a lot happening on any given day. Over at the Redmond campus, for instance, Automotive Technology students are getting trained on vehicle scanners and electronic programming. In Prineville, a Business Administration class puts math basics up on the whiteboard. Aspiring storytellers at the Madras campus — its expanded site to open this winter — are discussing topics of plot and structure in a creative writing class. And in Bend, future chefs are learning the dicing essentials of the Culinary Arts. These and many other educational paths await at COCC.

For Lucy Lawrence, earning a Medical Assistant certificate in 2021 allowed her to find a meaningful position with St. Charles Health System’s clinic in La Pine, making a “positive impact by improving the health of both individuals and the greater community” — and it opened her eyes to new possibilities. She’s now pursuing her Doctor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.

For members of the community who aren’t students, longstanding COCC traditions like the Central Oregon Symphony, Chandler Lecture Series, Jungle Run, Season of Nonviolence and Salmon Bake continue to engage and inspire, while every year new opportunities and events — topical and inspiring — add to Central Oregon’s cultural enrichment.

From Gilchrist to Bend to Warm Springs, Central Oregonians can come to COCC for affordable, accessible education and lifelong learning, where new technologies, trainings and opportunities contribute to the region’s well-being. It’s a mission shared and supported by area schools, employers, agencies, contributors and taxpayers, and wouldn’t be possible without those enduring partnerships.

You’re invited! Please join us on May 2 to help celebrate 75 years of higher learning, engagement and enrichment. Free and open to the public, with guest speakers, refreshments, program overviews and historic items. Visit cocc.edu/75 to learn more.