in the South to be defeated in the Republican landslide that year. Lancaster worked briefly for Governor Jim Hunt handling federal issues. President Clinton then asked that he assist him with the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which he accepted. In the fall of 1995, the president nominated Lancaster to become Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, a position for which the U.S. Senate confirmed him in January 1996. In this capacity, Lancaster was primarily responsible for policy development and advocacy for the Army Corps of Engineers before the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, and the Congress. In 1997, Lancaster was chosen President of the North Carolina Community College System. Lancaster sought to increase state and private funding for facilities, equipment, faculty salaries and instruction and to strengthen the system's essential role in workforce and economic development. He led community college participation in the successful Higher Education Bond referendum of 2000, which included $600 million for community college construction, repair and renovation. He focused particular efforts on increasing the role of community colleges in preparing "homegrown teachers" for public schools and in workforce training for biotechnology and other high–tech industries. In the summer of 2003, he was elected Chair of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges. In March 2007, Lancaster announced that he would retire as system president in the spring of 2008. After the announcement, a column in the (Raleigh) News and Observer praised his service, comparing him to former UNC system president William C. Friday. The columnist wrote that "Lancaster has well-served all of the [colleges] by making it clear to legislators that community colleges are a key, perhaps the key, to the state's economic growth and recruitment of jobs." He was named President Emeritus of the community college system in April 2008. In March 2008, Lancaster announced that in September he would be joining the largest law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan. He will serve in an "of counsel" position with the firm, concentrating in regulatory and administrative law. In February 2009, Lancaster joined Dawson & Associates in Washington, DC as a senior advisor on Federal transportation and environmental policy. Lancaster was made an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, for his services to the people of Northern Ireland. References