NILES — Judy Truesdell remembers vividly the first board meeting she ever attended as a Lake Michigan College Board Trustee nearly 22 years ago.

The meeting sticks out because Truesdell joined the college in celebrating the ground breaking of its Niles campus, known as Bertrand Crossing. Since then Truesdell has been part of many other notable milestones at the college. And after checking many items of her to-do list, Truesdell decided in June that the time was right to retire from her role as trustee.

“You just know when it is time,” Truesdell said from her home on Market Street in Niles.

But the college could not let her go without first commemorating the work she had put in. On June 26, the board created a document and plaque to publically commend her for many of those accomplishments.

For Truesdell, who has long been passionate about education, the role was another way to feed this interest and serve her community.

Trustees who serve the board must be elected and serve a six-year term, meaning that in Truesdell’s tenure, she was elected three times.

The LMC Board of Trustees is made up of seven volunteer members. The board helps to create policies and legislation pertaining to the college, while also seeking to provide counsel and advice to the president.

Truesdell served the board in a variety of capacities and most recently as the board’s secretary. Besides setting policy for the college, Truesdell described her primary duty as a trustee as giving a voice to the students and staff that the college served.

With that mission in mind, Truesdell served as an integral part of the college’s expansion to several campuses, including Niles, the South Haven Campus, M-TEC and Hanson Technology Center, to name a few.

Truesdell was also credited by her fellow trustees for assisting with three successful millage renewals and a historic capital millage campaign, which passed in November 2016 and is expected to garner $40 million for the college in the next 10 years. The funds will be used for four target areas, including safety and security, modernizing classrooms and student support services. Her efforts also helped to guide the college through four successful fundraising campaigns, which raised more than $14 million. Truesdell said she did not accomplish these developments alone and worked alongside her fellow trustees.

Additionally, while she said these accomplishments are of note, Truesdell said she was proud to be part of the college’s growth in the past 21 and a half years.

“The college has grown considerably,” Truesdell said. “When I joined there were two buildings and that was the main campus and the Mendel Center.”

Another major development in her time at the college was the dual-enrollment partnership with the local schools, which allows high schoolers to take college courses for free and graduate with an associate’s degrees.

“That’s amazing,” Truesdell said.

For Truesdell and fellow trustees the most rewarding part of the job is seeing students earn their degrees.

“The happiest day in the year for all of my fellow trustees was always graduation day,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell had an early love for education which she said motivated her to be part of LMC’s board of trustees. She earned an education major at Eastern Michigan University, but said she did not work directly with education until her role as a trustee.

Prior to serving as a trustee, Truesdell and her husband Terry operated a business called Tree Play for 10 years. The business sold redwood play structures and operated out of an incubator in the former Kawneer Factory.

Confident that the college remains in good hands, Truesdell said she was proud to be part of LMC’s growth.

“Education is a noble cause and community colleges serve a critical purpose by offering affordable, quality education while also helping train the workforce,” Truesdell said.