David Wright has fond memories of making Indiana Wesleyan University his personal park as a boy.
On July 1, the institution will be his sandbox once again.
“It feels like them considering giving the keys to the whole place to a little kid who used to run around the yard playing,” he said Tuesday. “It’s a great honor and privilege.”
Wright, 57, will ascend to IWU’s top office when he becomes the university’s ninth president this summer.
He has been part of a three-person management team serving as president while outgoing President Henry Smith is on sabbatical from Jan. 1 to June 30. The other members are Executive Vice President Keith Newman and CFO Duane Kilty.
The Marion native attended IWU after graduating from Marion High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in Christian ministries and Biblical studies to start a varied career that led to his 2008 appointment as provost.
Wright discussed his journey from wandering teenager to president-elect during a town hall meeting at Phillippe Performing Arts Center’s auditorium Tuesday morning.
The gathering followed a meeting of IWU’s Board of Trustees at which Wright was officially approved.
Board Chair Carl Shepherd described Wright during the town hall as “an innovative leader” who can guide IWU through a changing higher education landscape.
“IWU is uniquely and strongly positioned to take advantage of opportunities to expand its reach in higher education,” he said. “IWU needs a visionary leader to lead it into that future.”
Karen Hollenbeck, board member and chair of IWU’s Presidential Search Committee, said the ideal candidate needed to be a fit with Wesleyan doctrine, financially and academically strong and able to relate to everyone.
“One name came up to us many, many times. People would say, ‘That person will be a president. If you don’t make that person president, somebody else will.’ But we stood by our process,” she said. “Fortunately for us, that person applied.”
Four candidates came to IWU for interviews, including internal and external candidates, Hollenbeck said. Two candidates were interviewed a second time, and Wright was selected.
“We selected someone who has a global perspective, someone who’s innovative, someone who’s a visionary (and) someone who loves Jesus with all of his heart,” Hollenbeck said.
Wright was born Aug. 10, 1955, according to an IWU release. He grew up in the Philippines before moving to Marion at 15 years old, said university spokesperson Janelle Vernon.
Wright graduated from IWU in 1977, the same year he married 1977 IWU nursing graduate Helen Joy Cox. Today the couple is still married and has two daughters: Christin (Wright) Taylor, born 1979, and Andrea “Annie” (Wright) Els, born 1982.
After serving as pastor of Northside Wesleyan Church in Fort Wayne from 1978 to 1980 and earning a 1980 master of arts degree in Biblical studies from George Fox University in Portland, Ore., Wright returned to Grant County. He served as pastor of Back Creek Wesleyan Church in Fairmount from 1980 to 1982.
After leaving that position, Wright spent the next 12 years as an administrator at Intitut Theologique Wesleyen in Petit Goave, Haiti, and Wesleyan Bible Institute in Birmingham, England.
Wright received a doctorate of philosophy in education from the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky.) in 1990.
He returned to IWU in 1994 and served in several roles before leaving in 2005 to serve as dean of the School of Theology and a professor of education at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif. He remained there until 2008.
Wright’s local ties also include serving as a board member at College Wesleyan Church each year since 1997, except 2000, and as a member of the Grant County All-Academic Team Interview Committee for the Marion-Grant County Chamber of Commerce in 2003.
He has also contributed numerous presentations and publications on Christian higher education, developed online courses and written applications for several educational grants.
Wright declined to speak specifically about his goals as president. The university continues to expand its online education, which Wright helped begin, and its focus on health science, as evidenced by a new $42 million facility.
Wright succeeds Smith, who has served since July 1, 2006, and will become chancellor until Dec. 31, 2015.