Now nearing the end of his third decade of service to the college, Rodger Boyce has become something of a fixture not only on campus at NCTC but also around the local area, having been actively involved in numerous civic and community projects over the years. Armed with his bachelor's degree in English and Journalism from Texas Tech, the native west Texan began his career as a newspaper reporter and editor in the dusty cotton farming community of Lamesa south of Lubbock. A few years later, he took a job in private industry with Moore Business Forms in Midland, and that job eventually brought him east to Denton and the company's Southern Division headquarters. It was while working in Moore's public relations and sales promotion department that a co-worker told him of a job opening a few miles to the north in Gainesville. The co-worker's wife was a member of the faculty at Gainesville's small community college, known then as Cooke County College, so Rodger made the 27-mile trip, put in his application for the newly created position of Public Information Director at CCC, was hired in July 1976 and has been with the college ever since, serving under three presidents.

In his early years at the college, Rodger also took on a part-time teaching assignment, serving as a journalism instructor and helping revive the defunct Hilltop News student newspaper. For several semesters, Rodger also taught a course for NCTC in desktop publishing. It is through that technology that Rodger and his staff produce the layouts and artwork for virtually all of the printed materials published by NCTC, from the college catalog and class schedules to brochures, fliers and even forms and stationery. Over the past year, Rodger has also ridden his computer (he's a confirmed Macintosh geek) into cyberspace, having become NCTC's webmaster (or, as some colleagues have dubbed him, the "webfool").

A former president of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, Rodger has remained active for several years in that organization, having co-founded the Chamber's popular Annual Rodeo for which he served several times as committee chairman.

Rodger is also a principal founder of another local organization now well into its second decade of existence -- the Butterfield Stage Playhouse. Having become active in community theater in Denton where he was severely bitten by the acting bug, he helped organize the local theater group, helped find it a home and directed its first production -- the first of many he would either direct and/or perform in. Rodger has also been at the center of several memorable joint productions of the Butterfield Stage Playhouse and NCTC. He was Pseudolus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," Daddy Warbucks in "Annie," Moses in "Two by Two," and he directed "The 1940s Radio Hour."

Deciding on a whim several years ago to try to get into acting professionally, Rodger went to Dallas, lucked into signing with an agent and -- to his utter astonishment -- began actually getting paid for pursuing a passion he would gladly have done for free. Over the years, he has appeared more than a dozen feature films and nearly 30 made-for-television movies, including a number of mini-series such as TNT Network's "The Rough Riders," and several weekly TV series (including, of course, Walker, Texas Ranger). Youngsters may remember him from appearances in two episodes of the popular PBS children's series "Wishbone." Check it out on the Internet Movie Database.

Rodger and his wife Juddi, a licensed professional counselor who works with students of various Cooke County public schools, are parents of three children and just recently welcomed the arriveal of their first grandson, Drew.