Former Germanna president dies

Arnold E. Wirtala, founding president of Germanna Community College, died Tuesday at his home in Fredericksburg. He was 85.

Wirtala, whose tenure spanned from 1969 to 1980, shepherded the college through periods of lean enrollment, uncertainty and controversy. Today, GCC serves nearly 13,000 students and seven counties.

“As the first president of Germanna, Dr. Wirtala helped to create the foundation for the college that serves the region today,” current President David A. Sam said in a news release issued Wednesday. “He will be deeply missed.”

When Germanna opened its doors in 1970, many argued that the campus’ location — on the Rapidan River just across from Culpeper County — was too remote. According to school spokesman Mike Zitz, only 400 students attended the first year, and the state legislature considered closing the college.

Putting the campus in Locust Grove — 17 miles from Fredericksburg and 14 miles from Culpeper on Route 3 — “sparked a controversy over all the years of my tenure,” Wirtala later said.

But in 1997, Germanna opened a campus in Fredericksburg, then expanded to Culpeper in 2006. In 2009, it plans to open a campus in Stafford.

“My own view,” Wirtala said in a 1995 book documenting GCC’s first 25 years, “is that the Germanna site donated by the Germanna (Historical) Foundation was the proper one in the long term. If a Fredericksburg site had been chosen, I seriously doubt a campus to serve the rest of the region would have been built. … (It) required an act of faith and a commitment to the future. The first years were not easy.”

After leaving Germanna, Dr. Wirtala and his wife, Mary, retired to Gainesville, Fla. He was preceded in death by his wife and spent his final years living with his son Joe and his family in Fredericksburg.

He is survived by his daughter Cathy Keathley of Gainesville, Fla., his son and five grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were incomplete as of Wednesday afternoon.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Germanna Community College Education Foundation, Inc., or the University of Florida College of Education Support Fund.
About GCC’s first president

Arnold E. Wirtala was born May 4, 1923, in Ashtabula, Ohio. He graduated from Murray State (Ky.) University in 1947 with a degree in music education.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1943-45 with the 117th Armored Group, 3rd Army Battalion in Normandy, France; the Battle of the Bulge, Rhineland, and in Central Europe.

Before serving as Germanna Community College’s first president from 1969-80, he was the assistant dean of men in 1962 at the University of Florida. From there, he was dean of academic affairs at Central Florida Community College in Ocala from 1965-68. He returned to the University of Florida as the coordinator of undergraduate studies in the College of Education from 1968-69.

Wirtala spent his retirement years in Gainesville, Fla., and Fredericksburg.

Source: Germmana Community College