https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/239 Oral histories conducted and/or supervised by Dr. Thomas Scott, Professor Emeritus of History, on the development of Kennesaw State University and the local community. Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:08:26 GMT 2026-03-06T10:08:26Z https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7400 Linda B. Akanbi Scott, Thomas Allan (1943- ) Oral History with Dr. Linda B. Akanbi As a student in the segregated schools of Newport News, Virginia, Linda B. Akanbi had a number of outstanding teachers and knew from an early age she wanted to be a teacher too. After graduating in 1966 with a BS in Education from a traditional HBCU, West Virginia State University, she began her teaching career as a reading teacher in Virginia, working with Title 1 federal programs designed to help children from underserved communities achieve reading competency. From there, she went to the University of Buffalo for MEd and EdD degrees, completing her work in 1978. During that time, she served as coordinator of reading instruction at the university’s Learning Center. Dr. Akanbi’s college teaching career included an instructorship in 1977-78 at Southern Illinois University, followed by an assistant professorship the following year at Norfolk State, and then service as a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. Returning to the United States, she taught briefly at Virginia State University, then taught for ten years at Albany State University in Georgia, where she was an associate professor and coordinator for the graduate reading program. During her tenure at Albany State, she took advantage of a Regents Development Program in the University System of Georgia, where she worked closely with the president and vice president at Armstrong State College in Savannah. In 1992, Dr. Akanbi moved to Kennesaw State College as head of the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, a post she held for seven years. During that time, she was successful in diversifying the department’s faculty and also in recruiting minority students for careers in education through a Ford Scholars Program. From 1999 to 2003, she served as director of KSU’s Reading Institute. By the time she retired in 2008 and throughout her post-retirement years, she has gained an international reputation through her work with the Eisenhower People to People program in South Africa, her work with an International Reading Association project in Nigeria, and papers at international conferences on a variety of continents. In retirement, Dr. Akanbi continues to work as a reading consultant and author. In 2019, she published a book, My Father’s Daughter: An Untold Story, A Personal Journey of Discovery. At KSU, she has also created the Linda B. Akanbi Annual Scholarship for Education. Her papers are in the KSU Archives. https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7400 https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7399 Tykeisha Palmer Scott, Thomas Allan (1943- ); Mints, Steven Oral History with Tykeisha Palmer A native of Eulonia, Georgia, in McIntosh County, Tykeisha Palmer devoted her early adult life to the field of Human Resources, serving as a branch manager for Snelling Staffing and an HR director for a major airline. In 2018, she started her own consulting company, KP Financial LLC. When her teenage son became a victim of gun violence in 2020, she started a nonprofit, KP 17 Inc., for other grieving parents who lose children in that way. The purpose of the nonprofit is to help people put their financial house and spiritual life back in order after having gone through traumatic instances that caused them to give up on life and ignore their finances. She also works with Bishop Steven Mints on a variety of outreach programs for veterans and the homeless in northern metropolitan Atlanta, helping them to establish credit and put themselves on sound financial footing. Her business activities have also included work as an international real estate agent. In January 2025, the outgoing Biden Administration presented her with a presidential lifetime achievement award. https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7399 https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7307 Dr. Ron C. Newcomb Scott, Thomas Allan (1943- ) Oral History with Dr. Ron C. Newcomb Dr. Ronald C. Newcomb was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1949, but grew up in southwest Georgia near his mother's childhood home. He graduated from Lee County High School in 1967, received an AA degree from Albany Junior College in 1969, and earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Georgia 1971. For the next ten years he was a graduate student in Political Science at UGA, earning an MA in 1978 and finishing everything but the dissertation for a PhD. His career plans changed, however, when he did an internship in 1980 at the Georgia General Assembly where he met Joe Frank Harris, who at the time was chair of the House Appropriations Committee. When Harris ran for governor, Newcomb worked for the campaign as research director. When Harris won, Newcomb served the next four years as Special Assistant to the Governor. The Harris administration was noted for its educational reforms, and Newcomb played a role in the development of the 1985 Quality Basic Education Act and the creation of the Board of Postsecondary Vocational Education. In 1988 Newcomb was chosen to be a vice president of the newly created North Metro Technical College in Governor Harris' home county of Bartow. He arrived before a single building had been constructed or student enrolled and remained for the next couple of decades, with the exception of the years 1999-2002 when he was on assignment to state government as educational advisor for Governor Roy Barnes. Throughout this time, he lived in Smyrna and also held elected office for twenty years (1991 to 2011) as a city councilman, working with the city leadership on a number of redevelopment projects. During the Great Recession of 2007-09, pressures mounted for the merger of area technical schools, and Newcomb worked on a committee supporting the consolidation in 2009 of North Metro with Chattahoochee Technical College and Appalachian Technical College. By then he had returned to graduate school to earn an EdD in higher education from the University of Georgia with a 2011 dissertation appropriate to the problems of the day, titled "Understanding the Resistance of County Leaders to the Mergers of Technical Colleges in Georgia." At the time of the merger, he was acting president of North Metro. When the three school were consolidated as Chattahoochee Tech, he became provost and executive vice president. Then in 2012 he moved up to the presidency, a position he held until his retirement at the end of August 2024. https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7307 https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7306 Dr. Thomas "Tom" Scott Livingston, Tamara Oral History with Dr. Thomas "Tom" Scott Thomas Allan Scott was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1943. When he was a year old, his family moved to west Tennessee. The family lived there for three years before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, where Scott grew up. He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he received a B.S. in History in 1964, an M.A. in History in 1966, and a Ph.D. in History in 1978. Scott taught at Western Piedmont College in Morganton, North Carolina, for the 1967-1968 term. In 1968 he joined the faculty at Kennesaw Junior College, just two years after the school opened. He has been on the faculty of Kennesaw State University until the present time. Dr. Scott served as Professor of History in the Department of History and Philosophy from 1968 to his retirement in 2011. He is currently a Professor of History Emeritus and Campus Historian. Dr. Scott is the author of two books on the history of Georgia: Cobb County, Georgia, and the origins of the suburban south: A twentieth-century history (2003) and Cornerstones of Georgia history: Documents that formed the state (1995). https://soar.kennesaw.edu/handle/11360/7306