Geneva College appoints William J. Edgar, Ph.D. as interim president

BEAVER FALLS, PA (04/14/2015)(readMedia)-- Geneva College's Board of Trustees recently appointed William J. Edgar, Ph.D., as interim president beginning July I, 2015.

Edgar's appointment follows the recent resignation of Dr. Ken Smith. After serving as Geneva's president for 11 years, Smith is moving on to University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas, where he has been appointed Dean of the McLane College of Business. He said, "When I was recruited by the Board of Trustees, I committed to serving for eight years; it has now been 11, several years longer than the average for college presidents. In God's providence, in recent months I became aware of an opportunity for which I seemed particularly well suited and have decided to move in that direction."

Geneva's Board of Trustees Chair Joye Huston noted that Dr. Smith did "good and valuable work for the college over the last decade."

Edgar is the immediate past chair of Geneva's Board of Trustees and currently chairs its Board of Corporators. Prior to his board work for Geneva, he chaired the Board of Trustees of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He also has extensive family connections with Geneva: his son Daniel graduated from Geneva two years ago, Dr. Edgar's parents were both graduated from Geneva, and his grandparents Dr. and Mrs. John Coleman were Bible professors at Geneva for many years.

He graduated from Swarthmore College with a major in history and minors in political science and philosophy. After earning an M.S. in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, with secondary certifications in social science and mathematics, he received his Ph.D. in history from the same university. Edgar conducted his dissertation research in Athens, Greece, with the help of a Fulbright Dissertation Grant.

Edgar recently retired as pastor from the Broomall Reformed Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia where, aided by his wife Gretchen, he served for 34 years. For 30 of those years, he also taught mathematics at East High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Huston said, "We believe that God will continue to provide the resources that the college needs to meet the spiritual, academic, enrollment, and budgetary challenges ahead of us. Our interim president, Dr. Edgar, is well suited to the task at hand."

Geneva's Board of Trustees will conduct a search for Geneva's next President during Dr. Edgar's interim presidency.

Geneva College invites students to step forward and leap ahead with an academically excellent, Christ-centered and affordable education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and campus-based options, and high-demand advanced graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top 10 Best Value with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the inerrancy of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's