Lenoir Community College will hold its sixtieth commencement at 7 p.m. May 5 in the Student Center with Greg Lassiter as the guest speaker. Admission to the ceremony is by ticket only as seating is limited. More than 400 graduates are eligible to receive degrees.

Graduation will be livestreamed on the College’s website at www.lenoircc.edu for those who are unable to attend.

Athletics has been part of Greg’s life since before high school. He graduated from Rose High where he lettered in football and track and played American Legion Baseball.

A graduate of LCC where he played baseball, Lassiter has been in the health club business for more than 30 years. In 1984, he opened his first health club, Champions, in Ayden, North Carolina while teaching Health Education as a graduate assistant at East Carolina University. He has seen Champions grow through several locations starting with a very small gym with only three pieces of equipment in Ayden, to the more than 20,000 sq. foot facility now in Winterville.

Lassiter has an Associate Degree from LCC and a Bachelor of Science Degree from East Carolina University in School and Community Health. He taught middle school and was the head football and baseball coach at Ayden Middle for four years before deciding to focus on his health club business full-time. He also played in the Coastal Plains Baseball League for four years.

In 2008, Lassiter purchased Cherry Oaks pool and extensively remodeled it. This is now the home of the Cherry Oaks Torpedoes Swim Team. He converted the clubhouse into a top-of-the-line small community gym and fitness center. He still takes time out of his very busy schedule to connect with his members, offering personal training services at both Champions Health and Fitness and Cherry Oaks Pool and Fitness Center.

He attended the American Comedy Institute in New York City and in his spare time is a practicing stand-up comedian often sharing his talents at benefits and fundraisers. Besides stand-up comedy, he enjoys riding and racing. Married for 35 years to Monica Stokes Lassiter, they have two sons, Adam and Stokes.