Dr. Peter MacDougall, a man made of class and charisma, a whip-smart dealmaker who wore a smile and air of confidence in every room he entered, and who transformed Santa Barbara City College into the premier community college in the nation, died on July 30. He was 85.

MacDougall, as superintendent-president, led Santa Barbara City College for more than two decades, from 1981 to 2002, and oversaw the expansion of the college to West Campus and the development of two adult education centers. He sparked an enrollment jump from about 10,000 to 15,000 and increased the number of transfer students to four-year universities to among the top three in the state.

“He had charisma, but he had so much more than charisma; he had substance,” said Dr. John Romo, a former superintendent-president of City College who worked under MacDougall for a time. “He really was a national leader.”

Romo said MacDougall was “totally devoted” to community colleges and Santa Barbara City College specifically.

MacDougall believed in the mission of community colleges — that they were places that transformed lives and allowed students a fresh start and the ability to transfer to four-year universities.

Under his leadership the college emerged as a destination for every type of student: from the first-generation college student to the senior citizen taking adult-education classes. It became an attractive destination for California kids who wanted to pay in-state tuition and go to school in a beach town, as well as a home for international students who learned of the college’s stellar academic reputation.

“He was one of my heroes,” said Bill Cirone, the former superintendent of Santa Barbara County Schools.

Cirone called him a “giant” in public education. MacDougall’s reputation, Cirone said, attracted a higher caliber of candidates for the Board of Trustees and faculty members.

He said MacDougall supported the college’s culinary, food management and food service program that became a “gem in the local community.” At the time, the college’s restaurant became a destination for community members.

MacDougall also developed business training programs for students and started the Computers for Families program, which put computers in the hands of families who could not afford them.

Patricia Stark, the former chair of the journalism department at City College and advisor to the student newspaper The Channels, said MacDougall was always a friend to the student press.

“He told me at the beginning of every semester that he wanted students working on articles to call him 24-7 if they needed information. He said he’d rather be woken up in the middle of the night than to have the students write an inaccurate story about the college. So I always had his home phone number. And he was true to his word.”

Stark said her City College mementos were filled with handwritten notes from MacDougall in his “near illegible scrawl.”

“When I got tenure, the birth of my children, my students doing well in competitions or winning individual awards—Peter would send off a little note congratulating me. How he managed to do that for some 300-plus full-time faculty members just amazes me.”

MacDougall was born in Rhode Island and was the second born of nine children of Warren J and F. MacDougall. MacDougall was an Airborne Ranger who rose to the rank of captain and commanded a division in Korea in the early 1960s.

After he retired from City College, he served on multiple boards and was elected to the Santa Barbara County Office of Education. He served for 16 years before stepping down.

“Peter was one of Santa Barbara’s incredible leaders in everything he did,” said Ron Werft, the former CEO of Cottage Health. “He led City College to become the best community college in the United States.”

Werft said MacDougall led Cottage Health, as board chair, bringing all of the hospitals under one umbrella. Along with Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, Michael Towbes and Palmer Jackson, he led the campaign for the multimillion-dollar rebuild of Cottage hospital.

“It was Peter’s connections and credibility with people that made that campaign successful,” Werft said. “He was a man of great intellect, compassion, and has a wonderful sense of humor.”

Werft said he was “lucky” to have the opportunity to work with him “and more importantly have him as a friend and mentor.”

Steve Ainsley, former publisher of the then-New York Times-owned Santa Barbara News-Press and a former Cottage Health board member, said MacDougall belongs on the “Mount Rushmore” of community leaders.

He said MacDougall was able to distill any issue into “three things.”

“Invariably, he nailed it,” Ainsley said. “It was testimony to his ability to see through a problem to its natural solution and then implement a strategy to move toward resolution. It was a remarkable skill and one which served Santa Barbara for decades.”

MacDougall also served as president of the boards of Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara County’s United Way, Santa Barbara Partners in Education, and Fighting Back. He accumulated numerous awards, according to the SBCC Foundation website, including being named One of the Twelve Most Influential People in Santa Barbara by the then Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce in 1991.

He received the News-Press Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992 and was selected as KEYT-Santa Barbara Foundation’s Man of the Year in 2000.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, where he played football and was in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He earned a master’s degree from Rhode Island College and a doctorate in education administration from Pennsylvania State University, in Penn State College, Pennsylvania.

MacDougall is survived by his wife, Leslie, three children and 10 grandchildren.