After serving UTM for more than 30 years, Chancellor Nick Dunagan announced Thursday he will retire at the conclusion of the Spring 2007 semester.

He made the public announcement at a community tailgate party before UTM’s first home football game against Urbana University. In the announcement, Dunagan said he will miss the university’s faculty, staff and students, but he added he looks forward to spending retirement with his wife, Cathy.

Dunagan said he will be catching up on his role as grandfather and hopes to get in some long-awaited traveling after the culmination of his tenure at UTM in May.

“My most fulfilling part of the chancellor’s job is the opportunity to interact with students,” Dunagan said. “I still feel the excitement of the first week of school, and continue to be amazed by the feats of ours students. The growth I see makes my job one of the most fulfilling in the world. I will miss students the most.”

He added being named chancellor was the “most wonderful honor of [his] life.”

While there is never a good time to leave, Dunagan said he has “every confidence that UTM has the personnel to complete everything underway in great style.”

UT system President John Petersen was present at the tailgate party, and thanked Dunagan for his service to the university.

“Nick and Cathy [Dunagan] are two of the most unselfish people that I’ve ever met,” Petersen said. “I think the exciting thing is the fact that we are in such good shape at this institution.”

After serving as interim chancellor three separate times, Dunagan was named UTM’s chancellor in April 2001 by the UT Board of Trustees. He began work at UTM in 1973, serving as the university’s director of development. He has also worked as vice chancellor for student affairs, vice chancellor for development and administration and executive vice chancellor since beginning employment at UTM.

Dunagan also serves as the executive director of WestStar, a regional leadership development academy sponsored by UTM. Dunagan, a native of Caruthersville, Mo., graduated from UTM in 1968. He then earned a law degree from the University of Missouri in 1971, followed by a doctorate degree in higher education from Vanderbilt University in 1990.

He is married to the former Cathy Porter, a UTM graduate from Humboldt, Tenn., and they have four children, including UTM Assistant Professor Stan Dunagan.