Riverside Community College Norco Campus
Norco Campus Commencement 2008

2009 Academic Speaker

Bob Prior, MARobert Prior, M.A.
Associate Professor, Mathematics

Bob Prior has been a full-time faculty member for the Riverside Community College District since 1990 and was one of a handful of faculty who began teaching at the Norco Campus in its inaugural year, Fall 1991, teaching mathematics and serving as the Campus's first student activity coordinator (1991-94). To prepare for this, Prior received his bachelor's degree in Mathematics from UC San Diego (1980) and his master's degree in Mathematics from Cal State Fullerton (1988). He also taught high school mathematics for 10 years prior to his move to RCCD.

Prior served the campus for 10 years as a department chair, most recently for the Math and Sciences department. He has seen the campus grow from five buildings and 2,300 students to more than 10 buildings and 10,000 students. Through a University of California grant, Prior partnered with UCR to offer intensive summer math institutes to high school algebra and upper elementary school teachers.

In addition, Prior serves the communities of Norco and Corona as a member of the Norco Kiwanis club and as a member of the Corona-Norco Day of the Child Committee, serving as master of ceremonies and assistant to the assistant sound technician (i.e., water boy).

Prior has authored three developmental math texts for use in on-line and campus classes for RCCD: Basic Math, Pre-Algebra, and Elementary Algebra. Recently, Addison Wesley published two of those titles for its national collegiate audience. He has been a frequent presenter at both regional and national math conferences. At the California Mathematics Council of Community Colleges conference in 2007, he won an opportunity to appear on the TV show NUMB3RS. He has also appeared on two TV game shows (still in reruns on the Game Show Network) where he won $1,500 and "lovely parting gifts."

Prior and his wife, Laura, reside in Norco. In addition to being married nearly 24 years, the Priors' major accomplishments include seeing both their children graduate from college and marry their soul mates. Katie married Arash in San Diego in 2008, and Nate married Samantha in Wichita, KS in 2009. There is no hurry on grandchildren.