By Jeff Brumley
The presidents of two North Carolina universities with Baptist affiliations have announced their impending retirements.
Wingate University’s Jerry E. McGee announced in April he would retire in May 2015. He is Wingate’s 13th and longest serving president with 23 years on the job. He’s also held a college presidency longer than any current president in North Carolina.
Also last month, Campbell University’s 11-year president, Jerry M. Wallace, told his board of trustees that he intends to step down June 30, 2015. A one-year sabbatical will be followed by an honorary role as university chancellor.
“It is with a heavy heart that the Campbell University board of trustees accepts President Wallace’s request to transition to the chancellor’s role beginning July 1, 2016,” trustee chair Benjamin N. Thompson, said in an announcement posted on the university website.
Wallace has served the university far longer than his tenure as president. He has been a member of the Campbell faculty for 44 years and is only the fourth president in its 127-year history.
As its leader, Wallace expanded Campbell’s health program to boost its pharmacy program and to meet the shortage of health care professionals in North Carolina, according to university officials. He oversaw the opening of the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2013 — the state’s first new medical school in 35 years.
Undergraduate enrollment steadily increased during Wallace’s service, and now exceeds 4,500 undergraduates at the main Buies Creek campus and extended campuses at Fort Bragg/Pope Field, Camp Lejeune/New River, Research Triangle Park and Campbell Online.
Intercollegiate football returned to Campbell in 2008 along with a new study abroad program.
“When I came to Campbell as an adjunct instructor in 1970, I had no idea that one day I’d be the university’s president,” Wallace said in the online release.
Wallace is an ordained Baptist minister originally from Rockingham, N.C., who also has served as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and as provost.
At Wingate, McGee’s retirement announcement said he had secured hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts and grants for scholarships, endowment and campus improvements.
Wingate achieved university status and triple enrollment under McGee. The school also became a doctoral-granting institution during a time that included a number of new facilities, including the Levine College of Health Sciences and J.M. Smith Residence Hall.
New graduate programs also proliferated under McGee’s leadership, including pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant studies, sports management and others. Undergraduate programs added include nursing, political science and criminal justice.
McGee was also active outside the president’s office. He officiated more than 400 college football games in 36 years and served on the boards of the North Carolina affiliate of Fifth Third Bank, the Wilma McCurdy Trust and the McSwain Foundation.
The search for Wingate’s next president will begin immediately. McGee will complete the 2014-15 academic year.
Campbell University also said its presidential search will begin immediately.