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Wake Forest University's 12th president dies at 71
Journal File Photo / Journal Graphic by Richard boyd II
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Published: August 19, 2008
Thomas K. Hearn's legacy will stretch beyond the boundaries of the Wake Forest University campus, friends and colleagues said.
Hearn died yesterday at 71, nearly five years after undergoing surgery on a brain tumor that doctors discovered in the fall of 2003.
His cause of death was not immediately known. A memorial service is expected to be held later in the week, but details had not been completed last night.
Hearn, an Alabama native, retired in June 2005. He was the university's 12th president and served 22 years in the post. He was succeeded by Nathan Hatch.
"What I will remember most was his devotion to Wake Forest and to its people," Hatch said.
"Tom embodied the very best of the university's ideals. He was a leader and moved the university in keeping with its aspirations."
Hearn oversaw the rise of Wake Forest from a regional institution to one with a national reputation, and he pushed for stronger ties between the university and the city.
"He wanted to make sure that Winston-Salem was allied to Wake Forest, and that Wake Forest was allied with Winston-Salem," said Ed Wilson, a retired WFU provost who worked with him. "You can see those allegiances today."
University moved in 1956
When Wake Forest moved to Winston-Salem in 1956, the university mostly stayed on campus "and minded its business in typical ivory-tower style," said Murray Greason, a member of WFU's board of trustees who served as its chairman for two years during Hearn's tenure.
The school had community projects within the city, but it wasn't until Hearn became president that the university made a real commitment to Winston-Salem, Greason said. He encouraged WFU faculty and students to get involved with the city, and the city to get involved with WFU, he said.
"That was one accomplishment that a lot of people didn't know about," Greason said.
In the 1980s, the city's self-esteem and its biggest companies were battered. USAir bought out Piedmont Airlines. RJR Nabisco moved its top executives to Atlanta, and then sold itself in a leveraged buyout a year later. AT&T shut down a local plant that employed 3,300 people.
In response to the economic changes, a private group called Winston-Salem Business Inc. was formed in 1987 to help bring jobs to the area. Hearn was the group's chairman during its first three years.
Hearn's role in starting Winston-Salem Business was a "renewed effort for the city in recruiting new businesses and industries to Winston-Salem," said Mayor Allen Joines, who said that Hearn's death is "terribly sad for Winston-Salem."
Hearn also founded Leadership Winston-Salem and supported the expansion of the Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown, where WFU has a significant presence.
Worked tirelessly for WFU
Hearn came to the Winston-Salem when "we needed some outside energy," said Gayle Anderson, the president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. And he helped lead the city's economic-development efforts.
"That was something that we needed to do," she said.
Hearn also worked tirelessly for Wake Forest itself, Wilson said. "He wanted to strengthen the university in every way."
Hearn arrived at Wake Forest in 1983 after serving as the senior vice president for the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Within three years, he had negotiated WFU's split with the State Baptist Convention, allowing the university to appoint its own trustees and giving up the group's financial support.
"That was a major step in the history of Wake Forest," Wilson said. "It made it a more diverse school."
Hearn helped start the university's School of Divinity and helped strengthen its law and business schools. The university was also consistently lauded in national college rankings.
Bigger staff, endowment
During Hearn's presidency, the number of faculty and staff more than doubled in size, and the private school's endowment ballooned from just under $125 million to more than $812 million.
By the time Hearn retired, the school had an undergraduate student body about 31 percent bigger than when he arrived.
In 1983, 56 percent of the students came from out of state. In 2004, 72 percent of students were from outside of North Carolina.
During his presidency, two presidential debates were held at Wait Chapel on campus -- in 1988 and 2000.
After Hearn began his job at Wake Forest, he told the Winston-Salem Journal that "it will be terribly important to be taught by faculty, administration, trustees and students -- the people who make it work. I will spend a lot of time becoming a member of the Wake Forest family."
Hearn wasn't always popular on campus, though. Some faculty members found him aloof and objected to his salary and other compensation, which was more than $600,000.
Hatch, Greason and Anderson said that Hearn was a fan of the WFU athletics teams. He also worked as the chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.
"He knew that he had a great athletic director in Ron Wellman," Greason said. "Tom was a great supporter of all of his coaches. He also was a knowledgeable fan."
Wilson said that when Bill Dooley coached the Wake Forest football team and Skip Prosser coached the basketball team, Hearn "would coach from his seat."
Greason said he was "deeply saddened" over Hearn's death.
"He was a good friend for 20 years," he said. "When he set out to accomplish something, he accomplished it. We will all miss him."
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
A look at Hearn's tenure
Thomas K. Hearn was the 12th president of Wake Forest University, serving from 1983 to 2005 and increasing the university endowment from $125 million in 1983 to $812 million in June 2004.
He was born in 1937 in Opp, Ala. He received his bachelor's degree from Birmingham-Southern College, his divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and his doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Before coming to Wake Forest, he served as the senior vice president for the University of Alabama.
Here is a timeline of his life in Winston-Salem:
• 1984: Hearn helped form Leadership Winston-Salem, a group that brings community leaders together to discuss issues that affect the community.
• 1986: Named chairman of United Way of Forsyth County Inc.
• 1986: Wake Forest splits with Baptist State Convention of North Carolina over the election of the board of trustees.
• 1986-90: Served as chairman of Winston-Salem Business Inc.
• 1988: WFU plays host to a presidential debate for the first time.
• 1993: Worrell Professional Center for Law and Management opens.
• 1996: The university forms the Piedmont Triad Research Park.
• 1999: Divinity school opens.
• 2000: Second presidential debate comes to WFU.
• 2003: Hearn begins treatment for a brain tumor. Provost William Gordon serves as acting president while Hearn recuperates.
• 2004: Hearn announces he is resuming as president but will retire in June.
• 2005: Hearn retires.
• 2008: Hearn dies.
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