As Beaufort County this week prepared to lose one of its most-prominent leaders to the private sector, another well-known official confirmed he’s delaying his departure from the public scene.

Confirmation of McLawhorn’s postponed retirement came days after Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill announced he will resign effective June 24 to become general manager and chief executive officer of Tideland Electric Membership Corp.

McLawhorn, originally set to retire July 1, said he asked the BCCC Board of Trustees to let him stay on for the completion of BCCC’s new, $7.6 million Allied Health building.

The building will house the college’s nursing program.

Mitch St. Clair, chairman of the BCCC board, said the building is intended to accommodate future growth in the college’s nursing program.

The board hopes to see that program double in size over the next few years, St. Clair projected.

McLawhorn, informally known as “Dr. Mac,” suggested the run-up to his retirement already had been lengthened by BCCC’s leadership requirements before the board committed to the five-month extension March 30.

“When I originally told the board of my pending retirement, they wanted a year’s notice,” he explained, adding the board then requested he stay on another six months to get the Allied Health building project under way.

“I went back to the board,” McLawhorn continued, “and said, ‘Well, how about extending my contract five more months so I can be here at the end when the building’s completed?’”

Though consideration of BCCC’s tightening budget also was a factor in the contract extension, at the center of McLawhorn’s lengthened tenure is the Allied Health building, funding for which reportedly is around $400,000 short.

The county agreed to raise half of the money for the building if BCCC raised the other half, said Commissioner Robert Cayton, also a BCCC trustee.

BCCC has done its part, and now it’s up to the county to meet its obligation, Cayton related.

Keeping McLawhorn on a little longer will aid the search for grants to generate the necessary money for the Allied Health structure, said Cayton, speaking as a county commissioner and not a representative of the BCCC board.

“The county will certainly come up with its half, but the more that can be raised the smaller the percentage the county has to come up with,” Cayton commented.

“Everything’s on target,” St. Clair said of the Allied Health construction time line.

“We’re heavily involved with that with the board,” he added. “We’ve just got a lot of things going on. Enrollment is up.”

According to St. Clair, the trustees are holding off on searching for McLawhorn’s replacement, at least for now.

“It won’t affect it in a negative way,” he said of the search. “It just gives us a little more time to actually do a good search and be able to find a real good replacement for him. The way it originally was, we could’ve have gotten it done, but really it gives us a little more time to do a better job.”

According to a 2010 news release from BCCC, McLawhorn replaced retired President Ron Champion after serving as the school’s dean of instruction for 11 years.

The release noted McLawhorn had presided over “unprecedented enrollment growth and several new construction projects at the college, which celebrated its 40th anniversary during (his) tenure.”