Methodist University President Stanley T. Wearden, who with Cape Fear Valley Health System is launching a medical school in Fayetteville, announced on Thursday he plans to retire as of June 30, 2027.
“When I retire in a year and a half, I’ll be 74 years old, and I’d really like to have the opportunity to spend more time with my family,” including a new granddaughter, he told CityView. He plans to move back to Ohio to be near his family.
Wearden started at Methodist in January 2019, and he noted a number of achievements.
“Well, certainly the biggest thing is the School of Medicine, and that partnership with Cape Fear,” he said. Ground was broken for the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine in September 2024, and the first class is to begin in July.
“It’s certainly the best thing that ever happened to Methodist University. I think one of the better things that’s happened in the community,” Wearden said.
In addition to the medical school, Wearden highlighted:
- Gains in student retention rates and graduation rates among its 2,000 students.
- Expansion of the school’s online offerings. When Wearden arrived, there were some classes, he said. Now it has 30 degree programs available online, with 300 students enrolled. Many students in the online programs are from military families, he said, “which is exactly what I built them for.”
- Partnerships with six community colleges, coupled with scholarships, to help the community college graduates transfer to Methodist.
- Donations. “During my presidency, we’ve raised about $130 million in cash and commitments,” he said. “A lot of that for the medical school, but for other things as well.”
Methodist had problems to solve when Wearden arrived in 2019, he said.
“There were some damaged relationships with community leaders and donors,” he said. “One of the first things that I did coming here was just getting to know people and letting them see that there was new leadership at the university and that things were going to be different.”
The university needed to adjust its strategies and boost its fundraising, Wearden said.
“The decision to focus on professional programs, particularly health sciences professions, was important to the university as well,” he said. “There’d certainly been some building done in that area before I came here, but having a kind of a focused strategy around that was important.”
Tim Richardson, chair of the school’s board of trustees, lauded Wearden’s work.
“Dr. Wearden has certainly laid a strong foundation for Methodist University—and the community it serves—to flourish in the future,” he said in a statement. “He has been a consistent example of professionalism, wisdom, sound strategic planning, execution, and strength. Our University and community owe him an abundance of gratitude.”
Trustees will soon begin searching for Wearden’s successor, Richardson said.
According to background information provided by the university, Wearden is Methodist’s fifth president since it was chartered in November 1956. He came to Methodist from Columbia College Chicago, where he was the provost and a senior vice president. He spent much of his career at Kent State University in Ohio, as a professor and administrator. He has a doctorate in mass communication research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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