Don Bressler, the ousted but still working president of Renton Technical College, kept his promise to this summer’s college graduates.

Wednesday night, he attended their graduation, just as he has done since he became the college’s president nine years ago.

“It was emotional for me,” said Bressler. He doesn’t hand out diplomas, but he shakes hands with each graduate off stage.

About 550 students received certificates Wednesday night at the ShoWare Center in Kent.

Just the day before, on a 3-1 vote, the college’s Board of Trustees fired Bressler, 69. The trustees invoked the wording of a clause in his contract, “termination for convenience,” as the reason for his firing.

Bressler’s last day is Friday, Aug. 21.

Frank Irigon was the only one of the college’s five trustees to attend the ceremony. Rich Zwicker was there, but the just-resigned trustee sat in the audience with members of the RTC Foundation.

Attending the graduation is one of the trustees’ “primary responsibilities,” Bressler said.

Trustee Ira Sengupta told fellow board members at Tuesday’s meeting that she wouldn’t attend; she had made a special trip back to Renton for the board meeting.

Trustee Tyler Page is recovering from accident injuries. Chair Ronnie Behnke indicated she had a family commitment.

Wednesday night, Bressler fulfilled his pact with students made months, if not years earlier.

Bressler and other members of his executive team meet with entering students as part of their orientation to RTC.

At orientations, Bressler thanks the students for taking the first step in furthering their education – attending RTC. There are other steps along the way to graduation, including coming to class, working on assignments and completing all the requirements.

Complete those steps, he tells the students, and “I’ll be waiting at the end of the stage to shake your hand when you graduate,” he said.

He stays in the background by design.

“That’s my style,” he said.

Bressler will have a graduation of sorts next Friday. He will have completed “46 years of dedication to students” and “caring for the community of Renton.”

He would have preferred to end his career “quietly,” he said, but he said he had no control over his last days.

So, save for a couple days off, until Aug. 21 “I will be at my desk.”