THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160251
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 178 lines
Harrison B. Wilson, who has led Norfolk State University with a strong hand for the past 21 years, announced Monday that he will retire as president next July.
Wilson, who said he is ``over 65,'' still relishes the job and hasn't wearied of its demands. But he wants to spend more time with his family, especially his five grandchildren, who range from 1 to 11 years old.
His wife, Lucy, retired as associate vice president for student services at Old Dominion University last year.
``I feel I owe it to my kids and grandchildren to make myself more accessible to them,'' he said.
He spoke of his frustration at always missing 11-year-old Harrison IV's Saturday baseball games in Richmond, at being able to attend Grandparents Day only once at 10-year-old Rachel's school in Washington.
``It's a shame I can't get to give her one more day,'' he said.
Wilson is the most senior college president in Hampton Roads and one of the most senior across Virginia.
Under his tenure, Norfolk State's annual budget has grown from $14 million to $86 million and its enrollment from 6,700 to 8,100. The historically black university has added 14 buildings, acquired 51 acres and started its first doctoral program, in social work, last year.
At 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, Wilson is a towering presence. And his style as president has been just as commanding. Wilson is known to involve himself in most university matters, delegating little. Unlike other college presidents, he has faced hardly any public criticism from his faculty.
On Monday, nearly three dozen administrators and professors ringed a conference room in the administration building named for Wilson to hear his announcement. Afterward, they gave him a standing ovation, and he shook their hands as they left.
Wilson has never struck the stereotypical pose of an academic. He doesn't use jargon or mechanically spew facts and figures. He has won friends and admirers across the state with his folksy, passionate banter, peppered with plenty of anecdotes.
Monday, while discussing the need for historically black colleges, he focused on a Norfolk State graduate from Emporia, ``a country gal, you ought to see her - fresh-looking, attractive.'' The student graduated from NSU with a degree in chemistry and enrolled at the University of Maryland at College Park for graduate study in chemical engineering. Though she entered Maryland needing nine undergraduate courses in engineering, she received her Ph.D. this year at the age of 27.
``We give kids the kind of confidence to go anywhere else and fit in a very tough situation,'' he said. ``Evidently, there's the `X' factor they don't get at other schools: That's confidence, tender loving care.''
Gordon K. Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, praised Wilson on Monday as ``a great university president. He's had an enormously successful administration. He has helped it grow into a strong university, probably one of the strongest historically black universities in the United States.''
Wilson won support in Richmond, Davies said, because ``his style is tenacious. I don't know if he played football, but if he did, he played from the single wing - four yards and a cloud of dust. And he ran another four yards again. He just doesn't give up.''
State Sen. Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, agreed: ``When things are going bad and he thinks they haven't received what they should have received, he's like a pit bull. Everyone seems to like that about him: `Harrison won't let go; he'll stay here till the end.' ''
Dr. L.D. Britt, rector of Norfolk State's Board of Visitors, said at the news conference: ``I must admit, over the past few years I have been holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed that this would not happen during my tenure. . . .
``I'm not going to fool myself: There is no way you can replace a leader like this.''
Britt will head the search committee for a new president. He said he hoped to announce Wilson's replacement by January. The new president will take over July 1, 1997, and Wilson will then begin a one-year paid sabbatical, during which he intends to travel and write his memoirs, essays on urban problems, maybe a newspaper column. He earns $132,600 a year.
Wilson said he wasn't sure what he would do when the sabbatical is over, but Britt said he hoped to lure him back to teach a few classes. Wilson, a former basketball coach, has a doctorate in health science and administration.
Elaine P. Witty, dean of Norfolk State's School of Education, praised Wilson for keeping Norfolk State ``true to its mission of reaching students who might not otherwise be reached'' - underachievers who had done poorly in high school but who want a second chance. Yet, Witty said, he also has attracted many other types of students, including non-minorities. Eighteen percent of NSU's students are not black, a large proportion for a historically black college.
Oronde Andrews, a 22-year-old from Norfolk who recently received a bachelor's degree in history from NSU, said Wilson helped maintain ``a family-type atmosphere, with faculty and administrators who believe in your ability. They encourage you to do your best in everything.''
But some of Wilson's grand plans for the 61-year-old school - including a university-run hotel and an ``urban institute'' to help solve problems of the inner city - have never materialized. Wilson said Monday he was particularly disappointed that he couldn't attract enough funding to start the institute.
``If I were a politician,'' he said, ``I would use that as one of the planks in my platform - to work with higher-education institutions to help solve some of the problems in society today.''
Wilson also has clashed with Davies, the director of the state agency overseeing colleges, on NSU's academic standards. The state has prodded Norfolk State to tighten its admission policy and increase its graduation rate. Twenty-two percent of NSU's freshmen graduate within seven years, according to the state's most recent statistics.
Davies said: ``He's made good starts in those areas. Has enough been done? I don't think so. But the fact that we haven't agreed isn't a sign he hasn't done a splendid job.''
In recent years, the university has created tutoring and counseling programs to ensure that more students stay in school. But Monday, Wilson reiterated his belief that NSU's track record shouldn't be compared with those of other schools. Because Norfolk State students tend to come from less affluent families, he said, more have to take time off to earn money to cover tuition.
``It's not the lack of qualifications,'' he said. ``It's the life students have to live now, with costs so high, the stopping and the starting'' of school.
Outside the university, Wilson has served on the boards of such institutions as NationsBank and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He was also co-chairman of a committee that investigated the Greekfest student riot in Virginia Beach in 1989 and suggested approaches to avoid future problems. Said Davies: ``He's got a reputation as a person who has really tried to serve human beings - not only in Norfolk, but all over the state.''
At Monday's news conference, Lucy Wilson said: ``It's good to know my husband eventually will be with me because I am having a ball since I have retired. He has accomplished most of the goals he has set out to accomplish. I think it's time for him to begin to do some of the things he and I want to do.''
Yet Harrison Wilson still seemed reluctant to give up the challenge of another trip to Richmond to cajole legislators to cough up more money, the joy of another banquet to honor bright young scholarship recipients.
He said he decided about a month ago that he would retire, but even at 4 Monday morning, he was wondering if he had made the right choice.
``I had thought I would just die on the job. . . . I hope I don't decide at the last minute I don't want to quit.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK\The Virginian-Pilot
(ABOVE PHOTO)
Harrison Wilson has never struck the stereotypical pose of an
academic in his two decades as Norfolk State's leader and champion.
He has won friends and admirers across the state with his folksy,
passionate banter, peppered with plenty of anecdotes.
B/W photo by MORT FRYMAN\The Virginian-Pilot file
(BELOW PHOTO)
Wilson, right, receives the school's mace from former NSU President
Lyman B. Brooks while being inaugurated in 1975.
Graphic
[Box]
HARRISON B. WILSON
Personal: Born in Amsterdam, N.Y. Married to Lucy Reed Wilson.
Six children, five grandchildren.
Education:
Bachelor's degree: health and physical education/sociology,
Kentucky State University.
Master's degree: health and physical education/administration,
Indiana University, 1951.
Doctoral degree: health science/administration, Indiana
University, 1960.
Professional:
1951-60: Assistant professor of health and physical education,
head basketball coach, Jackson State College (Jackson, Miss.).
1960-67: Chairman of health and physical education department,
head basketball coach, Jackson State.
1967-68: Chairman of lower division and professor of health and
physical education, Tennessee State University (Nashville, Tenn.).
1968-71: Director of cooperative education, Tennessee State.
1971-75: Executive assistant to the president, Fisk University
(Nashville, Tenn.).
Since 1975: President, Norfolk State University.
KEYWORDS: HARRISON B. WILSON RETIREMENT NORFOLK STATE
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