MARSHALL—East Texas Baptist University’s board of trustees elected Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver of Waco as the school’s 12th president.
Oliver serves as vice president for student life at Baylor University, and has been employed at Baylor 16 years. He will join ETBU effective June 1, 2009.
He will succeed Bob Riley who is retiring effective July 16, 2009, after 17 years at the ETBU helm.
Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver, elected president of East Texas Baptist University by the school’s trustees, poses with daughter, Callie, and wife, Susie. (PHOTO/Jason Cowar/ETBU)
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“After an extensive nationwide search, Dr. Dub Oliver comes to ETBU very highly recommended to lead this university as its next president,” said Trustee Chairman Hal Cornish, who also served as the chair of the presidential search committee. “His credentials as a senior administrator are very extensive and impressive.”
In his current position, he is responsible for more than 14,000 students and supervises a staff about 500 people, Cornish noted. Oliver came highly recommended by Randall O’Brien, provost at Baylor University who recently was named president of Carson-Newman College, he added.
“We believe Dr. Oliver will be the ideal person to lead an already outstanding Christian university into the 21st century,” Cornish said.
Oliver expressed gratitude for his selection as ETBU president-elect, saying he and his wife, Susie, “are humbled and excited to have this opportunity to serve” the school.
“East Texas Baptist University, near the conclusion of its first century of service and at the beginning of a new century of faithfulness, is well positioned for increased excellence in all its endeavors,” he said. “In doing so, the university will, by God’s grace, become an even brighter light on the hill to a world that is desperately in need.”
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Riley expressed his support for Oliver and appreciation to ETBU.
“Gayle and I have had a wonderful experience at ETBU and we are going to miss the people we have worked with very much,” he said. “God has been good to us this past 16 ? years, and we believe it is time for a new vision. Gayle and I look forward to assisting Dr. and Mrs. Oliver in their transition to ETBU.”
A native of San Antonio, Oliver is a graduate of Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in education. He earned a master’s degree in educational psychology and doctorate in educational administration from Texas A&M University.
He is also a licensed and ordained Baptist minister, having served since October 2003 as pastor of Canaan Baptist Church of Crawford.
Oliver came to Baylor in 1992 from Texas A& M University to serve as director of student activities. In June 1999, he took on additional responsibilities as the associate dean for campus life, and he was promoted two years later to dean for student development.
He became assistant vice president for student life in June 2005.
For a year he served as interim vice president for student life before being named to the vice president’s post.
Oliver has also served Baylor as a visiting professor in the Hankamer School of Business, an adjunct professor in the School of Education, and interim university chaplain.
He served in the United States Air Force stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in the late 1980s. Before entering graduate school, he was a third grade teacher in the Fort Worth Independent School District.
His wife, Susie, is an adjunct faculty member and fulltime cheerleader coach at Baylor. They have a daughter, Callie, who is a junior in high school.
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