A fixture in the state’s public school system can now add another honor to his lengthy resume.

This week, Andy Tompkins, the former Kansas education commissioner and Kansas University School of Education professor, will be inducted into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame at Kansas City, Kan., Community College.

“It’s not something you seek,” said Tompkins, 59, now Pittsburg State University’s education dean. “It’s something that others seek on your behalf, so you feel good about that. You’re kind of humbled by it.”

He’s best known for his role with the Kansas Department of Education. No one has served longer as education commissioner than his nine-year term, until he stepped down in 2005 to serve two years as a professor in KU’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. He moved into his second stint at Pittsburg State last summer.

“I consider it another lucky part of my life where I still get to be involved in trying to help the next generation of educators,” Tompkins said.

He was close to leaving the field after teaching one year in Oklahoma, until he landed an English job in Hugoton, which started his nearly 40-year career as a teacher and administrator.

“His support through his direct contact with schools was instrumental in his successful record of accomplishing for Kansas education,” said Ray Daniels, a former Kansas City, Kan., superintendent, who originally nominated Tompkins.

The 12th annual induction program will begin 8 p.m. Saturday at the Jewell Student Center on the KCKCC campus. A dinner precedes the event. The public gathering is a fundraiser for the college’s endowment association. Tickets cost $65.

Posthumous inductees are longtime Leavenworth educator Richard Warren and Sister Mary Janet McGilley, longtime president of St. Mary College or what is now the University of Saint Mary. Other inductees are Olathe Northwest teacher Josh Anderson and Science Pioneers and Hallmark Cards, both of Kansas City, Mo.

Tompkins already has received the KU Distinguished Service Award in 2004 and was inducted into the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame in 2001.