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Bruce E. Whitaker,
Chowan University's 17th President,
Passes at Age 87
University Relations
May 5, 2009

MURFREESBORO, NC – Bruce Ezell Whitaker, 87, president emeritus, Chowan University, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, died on Tuesday, May 5, 2009, in Raleigh, N.C.

A celebration of Whitaker's life will be conducted at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9, at Wake Forest Baptist Church in Wake Forest, N.C., with Dr. William A. Slater and Dr. M. Christopher White, president of Chowan University, officiating.

He had spent over four decades as an educator and administrator prior to retiring in 1989, after 32 years as president of Baptist-related Chowan College, 1957-1989. He and his wife, Esther, have resided in Raleigh since 2002.

Oldest of the eight children of Fay Alvin and Oveda Ezell Whitaker, Bruce Garry Ezell Whitaker was born on a farm in western Cleveland County, June 27, 1921. Reminiscences of his childhood including pride and gratitude for the nurturing of family, farm life, and rural community were chronicled in his 2008 autobiography, From Plough Boy to College President.

Ordained to the Gospel ministry by Sandy Plains Baptist Church, Cleveland County, August 20, 1944, Whitaker served as pastor of Smithville (1945-1949) and Wise's Landing (1945-1947) Baptist churches, Henry County, Kentucky. He served as Assistant Pastor and Minister of Education, Druid Hills Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia (1953-1954), and served as state secretary of the Baptist Student Union, Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, in September 1954. As an educator he served as an instructor, Indiana University Extension, Jeffersonville, Indiana, 1947-1950; professor of religion, Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee 1950- 1951; professor of religion, Belmont College (now University), Nashville, Tennessee, 1951-1952; and professor of sociology/assistant to the president, Shorter College, Rome, Georgia, 1952-1953.

Whitaker was elected president of Chowan College in March 1957. He assumed his duties on May 15, 1957, and served for 32 years until his retirement, on August 2, 1989. He was named president emeritus upon his retirement and provided an office on campus with secretarial assistance. In this new role he facilitated the compilation of archival materials he accumulated during his lengthy tenure as president. Those materials are housed in a special collection in Whitaker Library at Chowan University.

Whitaker's tenure as president at Chowan witnessed the progress of that institution from a small, struggling school with largely parochial interest and appeal to a nationally recognized two-year, church-related, liberal arts college. Student enrollment increased from less than 300 at the time of his accession to the presidency to over 1,500 at one point during his administration. Total college assets increased from three- quarters of a million dollars to nearly 25 million dollars. The number of students earning degrees from 1958 to 1989 far exceeded the total number of degrees conferred during the first 110 years of the college's history.

The personal and professional esteem in which he was held within the broader educational community and as a civic- minded citizen of the State and Nation is at least partially noted through the wide array of honors, recognitions, and responsibilities which were accorded during his professional career. Representative among these were memberships on the Advisory Executive Committee to the Board of Higher Education, State of North Carolina, 1962-1966; Executive Committee, North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, 1975-1978, 1982-1989; board of directors, American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, 1976-1982; board of directors, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, 1977-1978, 1981-1989; and North Carolina State Board of Mental Health, 1966-2000.

In terms of honors bestowed, Whitaker was featured as "Tar Heel of the Week" by the Raleigh News & Observer (February 18, 1962); had tributes paid to him in the pages of the Congressional Record by Congressman Herbert C. Bonner (March 1, 1962) and Senator Jesse Helms (September 23, 1976); and was included in Who's Who in American Education (1957-1958ff.), North Carolina Lives (1962), Personalities of the South (1967, 1979), Who's Who in the South and Southwest (1969ff.), Who's Who in America (1974ff.) and Who's Who in the World (1978-1979ff.). In 1985 a study funded by the Exxon Education Foundation named him as one of the Nation's Eighteen Most Effective College Presidents. In 1982 his service in promoting mental health were recognized by the renaming of the North Carolina Special Care Facility for Re-Education of Children in Butner as the Whitaker School. In 2009, he and his wife received the Baptist Heritage Award from the North Carolina Baptist State Convention for his life of service and giving in Christian higher education and Baptist life.

A devoted husband, father and churchman, Whitaker is survived by his wife of 62 years, Esther Adams Whitaker; two sons, Barry Eugene and wife, Becky, of Raleigh, and Garry Bruce and wife, Pam, of Winston-Salem; two granddaughters, Amy Lynn and husband, Steve Tamayo, of Buena Vista, Virginia, and Jean Ann Whitaker of Fayetteville; five sisters, Margaret Louise Wood, Myrtle Elaine Price, Betty Ruth Davis, Jean Ann Humphries, and Jessie Elizabeth Jones; one brother, John Bob Whitaker; and several nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by one brother, Alvin Hoyte Whitaker.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Bruce and Esther Whitaker Scholarship, Chowan University, 1 University Place, Murfreesboro, North Carolina 27855.

Arrangements by Bright Funeral Home & Cremation Center, 405 S. Main St., Wake Forest, NC 27587. (919-556-5811)

Online condolences may be made at www. brightfunerals. com

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