R. Stanton Hales, vice president for academic affairs at The College of Wooster, has been elected Wooster's 10th president by the College's board of trustees.

The announcement was made on Friday (March 8) by Stanley C. Gault, chairman of Wooster's board of trustees and chairman of the board of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

Acting upon the unanimous recommendation of the board's executive committee, the trustees elected Hales during a special meeting held on Thursday (March 7).

Hales has served as acting president of Wooster since August 1995. He succeeds Henry Copeland, who retired after 18 years as Wooster's president.
"Stan Hales has been outstanding in his service as the acting president since last August. He has clearly demonstrated his leadership ability during this time," Gault said in making the announcement. "We are indeed fortunate that Stan decided to become a candidate in this search, thereby permitting us to have such an experienced teacher and administrator available as Wooster's next president. Now, individually and collectively, we must commit our fullest support to him to move our College forward."

"I am especially impressed by Stan's appreciation for and understanding of the special role that private liberal arts colleges like Wooster must continue to play in higher education in the United States during the next century," said John C. Dowd, a partner in the Cleveland law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey who is vice chairman of the board of trustees and served as head of the presidential search committee.

A native Californian, the 53-year-old Hales received his bachelor's degree from Pomona College in 1964, majoring in mathematics and graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned both the master of arts and the Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1964-65.

Hales began his teaching career at his alma mater in 1967 and rose from instructor to full professor. In 1973, he was named associate dean of the college, a position he held until he left Pomona in 1990. He served for one year as acting dean of the college.

At Pomona, Hales chaired seven faculty committees, was the senior administrative representative in two major building projects, and was Pomona's faculty representative to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He was the project director for the Western Cluster, Pew Science Program, from 1988 to 1990 and was named the Rudolph J. Wig Distinguished Professor at Pomona in 1971.

"Stan Hales will be an excellent president for Wooster," said David Alexander, the president emeritus of Pomona and currently American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust. "At Pomona, he was a superb administrator. He is imaginative and implemented several new initiatives and interesting programs, including an extremely successful forum for faculty members to discuss their current research. His energy level is among the highest I've ever seen in anybody."

While at Pomona, Hales chaired the board of trustees of Foothill Country Day School from 1985-90 and was a member of the board of the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Calif. He was treasurer of the Phi Beta Kappa alumni in Southern California from 1983-90.

Reed College President Steven Koblik, a former colleague of Hales's at Pomona, said: "Stan Hales represents, for me, some of the best qualities of undergraduate education in America. He blends a commitment to teaching with a set of ethical values and principles. He is dedicated to learning, and he has fun doing it all."

Nancy Bekevac, president of Scripps College in California, described Hales as "a man who has lived his entire life in small colleges and understands the power of a college like Wooster to mold a whole life, not just the academic part but all the other parts that go into a whole life. I can't imagine anybody better suited to lead Wooster."

In 1990, Hales was named vice president for academic affairs and professor of mathematical sciences at Wooster. In that capacity, he has spearheaded several new initiatives, including the CollegeÅs participation in the new Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium, the continued support of Wooster's academic computing capabilities, and the development of new technologies for the campus.

He has been project director and chair of the Hughes Council Undergraduate Initiative Grant at the College and has been especially interested in making Wooster's preprofessional programs more effective by improving the advising system. He has worked to enhance the College's support for students seeking postgraduate scholarships and, in recent years, Wooster students have been the recipients of several major awards, including a Truman Scholarship, a Mellon Fellowship, and eight Fulbright Fellowships. This year, Wooster has been invited to join The Henry Luce Foundation's Luce Scholars Program and The Thomas J. Watson Foundation's Watson Traveling Fellowship Program, two of the most prestigious fellowship programs.

Hales has continued to teach mathematics since coming to Wooster and has presented several mathematics colloquia.

In addition, Hales continues to be active in his avocation -- international badminton. This summer he will serve as one of three deputy referees for the badminton competition at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. A two-time U.S. men's singles champion (1970 and 1971), he is a member of Council of the International Badminton Federation and is former president of the U.S. Badminton Association.

Hales and his wife, Diane, have two children, Karen, a fifth-year graduate student in molecular biology at Stanford University, and Chris, currently a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., who will enter Stanford as a freshman in the fall.