THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050280
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Paul S. Trible Jr., an attorney and former Republican U.S. senator, was named president of Christopher Newport University, a school official said.
Trible was elected unanimously by the Board of Vistors Monday night. He replaces Anthony R. Santoro, who announced in June that he was resigning to return to teaching. In September, a search committee was formed with a deadline of Jan. 31, 1996, to replace him, the school's newspaper said.
Santoro was president for more than eight years. He was credited with helping the school gain university status in 1992, developing graduate programs, bringing the first dormitory to the campus and buying a nearby high school to double the university's space.
The school wanted a president who would raise more money, increase enrollment and student retention, bolster the business-school program and make the university a regional academic center.
``When Paul Trible expressed an interest in the position, the Board of Visitors studied that request,'' said Robert L. Freeman Jr., a Newport News attorney and a board member. ``We discovered he was a very unique candidate. The more we studied, the more we realized it would be best for the university.''
Trible represented the Peninsula's 1st District as a congressman before becoming a U.S. senator in 1982. In 1988, he decided not to seek re-election to the Senate, saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two children. In 1989, he lost a primary campaign for governor to former Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman.
Since then, Trible has practiced law at two firms, in Washington and Virginia Beach. In 1989, he spent four months as an Institute of Politics fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. by CNB