06/25/2005

By WILLIAM L. HOLMES  / Associated Press

Within three years of arriving at Wake Forest University, school president Thomas K. Hearn helped persuade university trustees to stop letting the state's Baptists run the school.

The decision of the former seminarian cost the school some of the goodwill — and cash — of the denomination that founded Wake Forest back in 1834 and stuck with it through 150 years of sometimes strained financial times. Hearn still characterizes the breakup in 1986 as the most difficult in his 22 years at Wake Forest, but he and others also see it as the start of a transformation.

"The university was a respected regional player in the '80s," said Murray Greason, chairman of Wake's board of trustees. "Now it is a — as Tom likes to call it — a national institution with a Southern accent. Tom's leadership has been responsible for all that."

Having guided Wake Forest through that transition, leaving behind an institution that stands with Duke University, Emory University and other top schools of the South as among the best in the nation. While criticized at times for his gruff demeanor and aloofness, he is gathering nothing but praise from those at Wake Forest and outside the university as he prepares to retire at the end of June.

And while he'll continue to lead the influential Knight Commission, a major player in the reform of collegiate athletics, Hearn knows he'll miss the daily interaction with students, professors and administrators he has cherished since embarking on an academic career.

"Being around a university is a passion I've had since I was an undergraduate," Hearn said during a recent interview in the wood-paneled conference room adjacent to his office. "I realized one day that the person at the (head) of the room was getting paid to read books and talk about them and I said, 'That's for me.'"

Hearn's first full-time job in higher education was as a philosophy professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. After nine years, he left in 1974 to head up the philosophy department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and had moved up to senior vice president when he left for Wake Forest.

At the time, the state's Baptist Convention appointed the school's trustees.

"It was strangling Wake Forest because we were unable to reach out across the country," said Greason, who abandoned the denomination as an undergraduate in the late 1950s after a dispute over dancing on campus. "It also created an image problem because some of the tenets held by the Baptist church for many years had a tendency to turn some people off."

Hearn decided the school needed to dissolve those ties, so he set about lobbying the trustees — appointed by the church — for their support.

"In effect, this was the institution deciding that we were going to be the best school we could be," Hearn said.

At the time of the split with the state's Baptists, Wake Forest already ranked among the best regional colleges in the South. Moving ahead, Hearn sought partnerships in both Winston-Salem and across the country for the school.

Wake paired with the city to build a coliseum for its popular basketball team. Hearn founded and led an economic development group tasked with helping rebuild Winston-Salem as its traditional industries of tobacco and textiles faltered through the 1980s and 1990s.

He won an appointment to the Knight Commission and helped Wake Forest draw two national presidential debates to campus, putting the city and the school squarely in the public eye.

Wake also added a divinity school, a nod to its religious heritage, and was among the first universities in the country to require its undergraduates to start their college careers with a laptop in tow.

During his tenure, the demographics of the school also shifted dramatically. Enrollment has increased 35 percent to about 6,500, including students in the Wake's law, business and medical schools. About 40 percent have studied overseas, nearly twice as many as in 1983. The number of minority students has tripled to almost 18 percent, and the number of faculty has nearly doubled. The endowment grew from about $125 million to more than $800 million.

"It's a major achievement, really," said William C. Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system and Hearn's predecessor as chairman of the Knight Commission. "It's one of the really significant achievements in the South in the last 25 years."

Hearn was derailed from his work in late 2003 and early 2004 after doctors discovered a brain tumor. He had surgery in December 2003 to help with his treatment and returned to work in April 2004, when he also announced his plans to retire.

Hearn said his illness didn't force him into retirement, but said he plans to use the next year to continue his recuperation. Along with his work on the Knight Commission, he plans to continue as chairman of the board for the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro.

Taking Hearn's place at Wake Forest is University of Notre Dame Provost Nathan O. Hatch. It won't be an easy record to match, said Sheldon Steinbach, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education.

"He was creative and he was willing to take risks and be assertive," Steinbach said. "This is in a risk averse environment for college presidents. One can say truly that Tom Hearn is a profile in courage. And it's not because he has brain cancer. It's not because they play in the (Atlantic Coast Conference).

"People make a difference. And Tom Hearn makes a difference."

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On the Net:

Wake Forest University: http://www.wfu.edu

American Council on Education: www.acenet.edu