The rate of turnover among community college chief executive officers (CEO's) is high, but the effects of administrator succession on organizational effectiveness has received little scholarly attention. To address this, a theory of community college CEO succession was derived from an analysis of case study data gathered at four locally governed public community colleges and from a literature review of leader succession studies conducted in other professions. The four college case studies involved CEO turnover from two routine retirements, one encouraged retirement, and one departure to accept another CEO position. The study utilized institutional histories, board/council records, and semi-structured interviews with presidents and other knowledgeable persons at the four colleges. Study findings indicated that: (1) CEO successions in public community colleges are followed within 2 years by changes in the administrative structure and in the membership of the college's administrative council; (2) governing boards will often seek and select successors who they think epitomize the institution and can represent it well to interested constituencies; (3) governing boards often use opportunities presented by presidential retirements to redirect the institution and compensate for perceived leadership deficits; (4) governing boards intuitively or consciously accept a "visible," extroverted administrative style as necessary for institutional change; (5) governing boards select successors who are different from their predecessors; and (6) governing boards seeking changes in direction will seek an outside successor. A literature review and a 33-item bibliography are included. (GFW)