Terry O'Banion
President Emeritus, League for Innovation in the Community College
With deep gratitude for his decades of service to the League for Innovation and the community college field, we mourn the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Terry O’Banion, who passed away on July 25, 2025.
Terry served as President of the League for Innovation for 23 years until his retirement in 1999. Under his leadership, the League became an international organization serving over 750 colleges recognized by Change magazine in 1998 as “the most dynamic organization in the community college world.” Since retirement, O’Banion has worked on special projects for the League for Innovation, MetLife Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Chauncey Group International, Walden University, National American University, and Kansas State University.
In honor of his decades of service to education, six national awards have been established in his name: the Terry O’Banion Student Technology Award created by Microsoft; the Terry O’Banion Prize for Teaching and Learning created by Educational Testing Service; the Terry O’Banion Shared Journey Award created by the National Council on Student Development; the O’Banion Leadership Scholarship created by Walden University; the John Roueche and Terry O’Banion International Leadership Award created by the League for Innovation; and the Terry O’Banion Provocateur Award created by the League for Innovation.
In a survey of 11,000 higher education leaders reported in Change magazine in January 1998, O’Banion was named one of 11 “Idea Champions” who set the agenda for all of higher education—and was the only community college leader on the list.
O’Banion consulted in more than 1,000 community colleges in the United States and Canada. He was one of the leading spokespersons in the U.S. on the Learning College and keynoted conferences on the Learning College in dozens of states and Canadian provinces and in Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
Author of 18 books and over 250 monographs, chapters, and articles on the community college, his 1997 book, A Learning College for the 21st Century, was awarded the Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature in the Field of Continuing Higher Education. In March of 2019, Rowan & Littlefield and AACC published O’Banion’s 13 Ideas That Are Transforming the Community College World and, in the spring of 2020, published his Academic Advising in the Community College. His newest book with co-author Maggie Culp, titled Student Success in the Community College: What Really Works? was published in January 2021.
O’Banion served as a Dean of Students at Central Florida Community College, Founding Dean at Santa Fe Community College (FL), and Vice Chancellor for Education for the Dallas County Community College District (TX). He was a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Illinois; Distinguished Visiting Professor at The University of Texas; Visiting Professor at Berkeley, Florida State, Hawaii, and Toronto; the Marie Y. Roberts Endowed Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Texas; Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Antioch University McGregor School of Management; Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Doctoral Faculty at National American University; National Thought Leader for Educational Testing Service; and, at the time of his death, Senior Professor of Practice in the Community College Leadership Program at Kansas State University.
O’Banion was also a published poet and won over 40 blue ribbons from the International Date Festival and Orange County Fair for his creative cooking. He is survived by his wife, Yolande, and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
