In January, Trainor became the ninth MCC faculty member to earn the special recognition, which is chosen by the MCC Faculty Senate with the approval of the MCC President and Board of Trustees.
A native of Royal Oak, Mich., Trainor earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Western Michigan University and a doctorate in human development/psychology from the University of Kansas.
Trainor joined MCC in 1976, and in addition to teaching he chaired the Technology Council and the Faculty Association’s Scholarship Committee. He impacted thousands of students in positive ways as an exceptional instructor who maintained a standard of academic excellence.
Among his honors, the MCC Student Government Association presented him with its Outstanding Faculty Award, and he also received the Liberal Arts Network for Development (LAND) Innovation Award for the development of an Interactive Media and Game Designer Degree.
“The draw of technology to me has always been its potential to improve our lives, especially how we educate ourselves,” he said. “I have used technology to teach college classes online and developed multimedia materials for on campus courses. Experience has taught me successful strategies for integrating technology into the classroom using my understanding of how we learn and a realization that people learn in different ways.”
Trainor was a leader in the development of a culture of entrepreneurship at MCC. “I believe my community needs to promote the idea that people can work for themselves,” explained Trainor, who worked with MCC colleagues and administrators to launch an Entrepreneur Associate’s of Applied Science degree. “As part of Muskegon Community College’s faculty, we realized that a two-year college was perfectly positioned to help do it.”
Trainor retired from MCC in 2010 and resides in Muskegon, where he formed a Web game development company, Gwythdarian, LLC, with MCC instructor Jim Landes.