Francis X. McDonald
BUZZARDS BAY – A change of command ceremony will be held at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy this afternoon, as Admiral Richard Gurnon retires after 10 years as the academy’s president.
Gurnon has been with the Academy for over thirty years. He said he won’t be relaxing very much in his retirement.
“I have a 100-year-old house, an 89-year-old dad, a 17-year-old daughter who’s still in high school, and three grandchildren under the age of six who live thousands of miles away, so I will be busy,” said Gurnon.
Vice President and 1985 graduate Fran McDonald will assume command. He has worked at the campus since 1994 when he became the associate director of advancement.
The Barnstable resident also served in several other capacities at the school, including director of cooperative education, dean of enrollment management, adjunct professor, board of trustees clerk and vice president of operations.
McDonald says his goal is to improve the outcomes the school produces from academic programs, the commitment to the cooperative education policy of learn-do-learn and the commitment to the regiment of cadets in the leadership laboratories.
“Everything we are going to be looking at trying to do in the upcoming year and years will have to have some positive impact on those three things,” McDonald said.
McDonald said the school also faces a number of challenges moving forward with the diversity of the student body being first and foremost.
“We sit here with only about 10 or 15 percent women with even less than that for students of color,” the next president said. “So we have some real challenges to get the word out on the opportunities Massachusetts Maritime Academy can provide.”
Other challenges ahead of McDonald include a flat budget year.
“We’ve had some recent growth on the campus and as you are looking at a flat budget year you really want to be able to invest in faculty and maintain class size and academic quality,” he said.
McDonald said a little further down the road a big project will be the replacement of a vessel.
“We have a training ship, a training platform, that is 46 years old and we have to be doing the work down in Washington to begin to put together a plan to replace that training ship as she nears her end of life,” he said.
The change of command ceremony will take place at 3 pm at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay.
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