The president of St. Paul’s College is leaving the historically black college in Lawrenceville for medical reasons.
The school announced Friday that Eddie N. Moore Jr. is heading to Texas for what it called a long-delayed medical procedure.
“We wish to express our most profound gratitude to Eddie Moore, who agreed to delay a well-deserved retirement to take the reins at Saint Paul’s during its restructuring and reaffirmation campaign,” said Dr. Oliver W. Spencer Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees, in a written statement.
Moore served as president of Virginia State University for 17 years. Since 1993, the VSU student body grew to more than 5,000 and more than $100 million in capital improvements have been made to the 236-acre main campus in Ettrick.
In 2008, Moore said he and his wife planned to move north of Dallas after retirement. Texas is his wife’s home state. But Moore stayed on at VSU until June 2010.
Moore then filled in as president at St. Paul’s College after Dr. Robert L. Satcher Sr. stepped down in November 2011. Moore was already serving as an adviser.
The St. Paul’s College Board of Trustees named Claud Flythe as interim president to replace Moore. Flythe came the college as chief of staff in January and was employed for 35 years at Virginia State University, retiring as retiring as chief of staff and vice president of student affairs.
“We are very fortunate to have someone of Claud Flythe’s judgment and expertise to lead the College thorough this next phase of its history,” Spencer said.
Flythe has served as the special assistant to the president and vice president of student affairs at Shaw University and the vice president for administration at Savannah State University. Flythe received his undergraduate degree from Shaw University, his graduate degree from the University of Indiana, and his Doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University. He has served as the chairman of the Board of Correctional Education under the Wilder Administration; he has also served on the boards of the Virginia Association for Reserve and Guard, and the Chamber of Commerce in Petersburg. He is a military vet, serving two years in the Army and six years in the Marine Corps Reserve.
St. Paul’s also announced that Richmond attorney Ashley L. Taylor will advise trustees on the future of the college. Taylor, a partner at the Troutman Sanders law firm, is a former deputy attorney general for Virginia and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
