BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) — Frank Bonner, provost of Gardner-Webb University, was elected president of the Baptist-affiliated school May 1.
Bonner, 57, provost and senior vice president of the North Carolina school since 1992, was elected unanimously in a called meeting of trustees. He is the 100-year-old school's 12th president, replacing Frank Campbell, who served as interim president since 2002.
The new president was recommended by a 10-member committee after a nationwide search. “After this thorough search, we came to the conclusion that we had the most qualified candidate right here at the university,” said Frank Beam of Shelby, N.C., chair of the committee and the trustee board.
Bonner, who will assume the presidency July 1, joined Gardner-Webb as dean in 1987 and still teaches in the English department. He grew up in Greenville, S.C., and graduated from Furman University. He has advanced degrees from the universities of Georgia and North Carolina.
Gardner-Webb's former president Christopher White, for whom the divinity school is named, resigned in 2002 after admitting he changed the failing grade of a student athlete in order to keep the athlete academically eligible. The school is under three years of probation from the NCAA.
Beam said Bonner is well known to the university community, the area and North Carolina Baptists. He is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Shelby. In a statement, Bonner said his goals as president are to increase endowment and improve campus facilities and programs.
Located in Boiling Springs, 50 miles from Charlotte, Gardner-Webb has 4,000 students. In March the university hired author and professor Charles Bugg as dean of the divinity school, which has 200 students.