Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993 TAG: 9302020229
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SALEM LENGTH: Medium
ROANOKE COLLEGE DEAN TO HEAD TENN. SCHOOL
Gerald W. Gibson, vice president and dean of Roanoke College for nine years, has been chosen president of Maryville College in Tennessee by a unanimous vote of Maryville's board of directors.He will assume his duties July 1 as the 10th president of the 173-year-old private four-year school.
"My family and I are delighted with the prospect of [going] to Maryville," Gibson said after learning of his selection. He said he looked forward to continuing the advances "made in the college's long and distinguished past."
Gibson will succeed Richard Perrin, who resigned the Maryville presidency last April. A search committee representing the board, faculty, staff, students, alumni and community presented Gibson's name to the board Friday.
"The board feels fortunate in having attracted a new president for Maryville College of Dr. Gibson's caliber," said the board's chairman, Dick Ragsdale. "He comes to Maryville with a distinguished career in higher education and a proven record in administration and development."
At Roanoke College, Gibson worked with the faculty on a new general education curriculum which has gained national attention. He also worked in finance and strategic planning.
During his time at Roanoke College, the faculty was expanded by 36 percent, the student to faculty ratio decreased from 17-to-1 to 14-to-1, and faculty salaries at all levels were brought above the national average for four-year colleges for the first time.
Full-time enrollment also grew 26 percent, mostly through improved retention of students.
Gibson serves on the boards of the Salem Research Institute and Veterans Administration Medical Center and advisory board of the Cabell Brand Center for International Poverty and Resource Studies. He is also on the council of College Lutheran Church in Salem.
A South Carolina native, he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Wofford College in 1959 and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Tennessee in 1963. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.
He enrolled in Harvard University's Institute for Education Management in 1983 and held a writing residency at the institute in the summer of 1990. He was nominated for the Frederic W. Ness Book Award in 1992 and also is known for his poetry.
His book "Good Start: A Guidebook for New Faculty in Liberal Arts Colleges" was published last year. He has also written extensively on organic chemistry.
He and his wife, Rachel, have three children.
Gibson has worked previously as an information chemist for the U.S. Army Chemical Research and Development Laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md., and as professor of chemistry at the College of Charleston, S.C., where he was chairman of the budget review and planning committee and associate provost for academic affairs.