February 10, 2003
New Howard Payne president has been there before
___BROWNWOOD--The search for a new president at Howard Payne University has brought the past to the future.
___Lanny Hall, former executive vice president at the Brownwood school, was named the university's 18th president Feb. 3.
___Hall is the first person to serve three Baptist General Convention of Texas schools as president.
___He left Howard Payne in 1989 to accept the presidency of Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, a post he held until 1991. He then served 10 years as president of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
___In 2001, Hall was named chancellor at Hardin-Simmons, a retirement from full-time administrative work that allowed him to teach a few courses.
___That rest proved to be short-lived, however. When Rick Gregory stepped down as Howard Payne president in June 2002, Hall was called in as acting president until an interim president could be named.
NEW Howard Payne University President Lanny Hall (center) poses with Russell Dilday, who served as interim president, and W.C. "Dub" Wilson, chairman of the school's trustee board. Wilson said the school has been "doubly blessed" by Dilday's interim leadership and the promise of Hall's future leadership.
___Russell Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, assumed the interim president role in August 2002. He will conclude his service March 1, when Hall returns to the Brownwood campus as president.
___"I am deeply honored and feel very fortunate to be asked to return to Howard Payne University," Hall said. "Howard Payne has a rich heritage and a very bright future. I look forward to great experiences as we seek to help students realize their dreams and continue to provide quality higher education in a nurturing, unapologetically Christian environment.
___"While I have enjoyed my role in teaching political science and leadership over the last two years, I have missed the challenges that come with being a university president," Hall said. "Carol and I feel strongly that God has opened this unexpected door of opportunity and we look forward to returning to Howard Payne."
___Trustees praised Hall as the right person for the challenges presented by Howard Payne and lauded Dilday for his work as interim president.
___"As a Brown County resident, Howard Payne University graduate and chairman of the board of trustees, I am comfortable in saying that HPU and Brownwood are doubly blessed by Dr. Russell Dilday's leadership as interim president and by having Dr. Hall now join us as president," said W.C. "Dub" Wilson.
___The chairman of the search committee told the Brownwood Bulletin it was obvious Hall was the ideal candidate. The search committee's hardest job, he said, was convincing Hall of the match.
___"We wanted someone with ties to Howard Payne or who had held a similar presidency, someone who had lived in a community the size of Brownwood, someone committed to higher education and the goals of the university, and it seemed, as we looked, we kept finding all of those things in Lanny Hall," said Chairman Tim Lancaster.
___"We had our minds made up. We just had to convince him."
___Hall countered that he wasn't hard to convince.
___"I've fallen in love twice with Howard Payne," he told the Bulletin. "The first time when I came here as the executive vice president and again when I was here last summer."
___In addition to university administration, Hall's 32-year career includes service as a public school teacher, congressional aide, businessman, state representative and state agency executive.
___He served as deputy executive secretary for special programs with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1979 to 1984.
___Hall earned the doctor of philosophy degree in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin and the master of education and bachelor of science degrees from North Texas State University.
___At Hardin-Simmons, he accumulated a long track record of advances. The university's endowment grew from $31 million to $75 million. Undergraduate and graduate enrollment increased, as did the number of degree programs. He launched the Institute for Leadership as an interdisciplinary minor. During his tenure at Hardin-Simmons, the school constructed five new buildings and renovated five others.
___Insiders predict those institution-building skills will be put to the test at Howard Payne, which has faced faculty unrest and severe financial constraints in recent years.
___Howard Payne is the smallest of the eight BGCT universities and is considered the most financially vulnerable against the challenges confronting all private colleges and universities.
___Nevertheless, Dilday predicted Howard Payne will emerge stronger than ever under Hall's leadership.
___"My experience at Howard Payne University has convinced me of two things--one, that the university is poised to enter the best years of its distinguished history, and two, that Dr. Lanny Hall is the right person to lead us into that future," Dilday said.
___Hall and his wife, Carol, are the parents of two children--Lana McCutchen and her husband, Johnathan, of Abilene, and Chad Hall of Fort Worth. They have one grandchild, Lilly.
___
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