giver and an achiever.

Raymond Burse grew up in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, with 12 brothers and sisters.

"My mother was very active in the community. We didn't have much, but she would always share a part of what we had," Burse said.

A country boy at heart, Burse grew up as the youngest of 13 children in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

"There wasn't a lot of money to go around," said Burse. "Going through that process I learned a lot about sacrificing, waiting your turn and being thankful for what you have."

Although his father attended school only through the third grade and his mother the seventh, Burse was a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a university president by age 30.

KSU President Raymond Burse during his college years.

"What they believed was iftheir children got an education, the education would serve them well for their entire lives," said Burse.

That education did indeed serve Burse well. After serving as Kentucky State University's president for eight years in the '80s, he went on to have a highly successful career with General Electric as vice president and general counsel of GE Consumer & Industrial.

After working at GE, Burse didn't have plans to come out of retirement.

"We would say that for every year you work at GE it is like working eight years somewhere else, just in terms of what GE required and demanded of you," said Burse.

Burse remembers going into his retirement "happy, content and enjoying" himself.

But when KSU President Mary Evans Sias announced her retirement in May 2014, Burse immediately got a