Dr. Glenn Jonas had been at Campbell for nearly a decade when he saw an old friend on campus in the spring of 2015. That friend was a fellow student in seminary at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in the late 1980s, so seeing him in Buies Creek, North Carolina, all these years later.
“I surmised that meant he was a candidate for our presidential opening,” Jonas recalled Wednesday during a Founders Week celebration honoring his former classmate. “I sent him a text message and said, ‘If this means you’re going to be our new president, I couldn’t be happier. You would be perfect here.”
Several hours later, he got a text back.
“Yeah,” Creed wrote to him. “I was in town seeing a man about a dog. But keep it quiet.”
Creed got the job as just the fifth president at Campbell since 1887. He will step down this summer after 10 years at the helm, leading an ambitious five-year capital campaign that culminated in the construction of the Oscar N. Harris Student Union — where Wednesday’s event was held — and through the challenges brought on by the pandemic in 2020.
Creed and his wife Kathy were the focus of this year’s Founders Week celebration as more than 100 students, faculty and staff came to hear him speak and wish him well as he enters the final few months of his presidency. During his time at the podium, Creed recalled being told that “finances would be the least of his problems” upon his hiring and then facing very big financial decisions brought on by the pandemic in 2020.
On a lighter note, he shared some of his favorite Campbell memories, such as the call he got from some other old friends who congratulated him on being named president before the announcement was ever made.
“My friend from Washington, D.C., had been spending the days in Myrtle Beach and was headed back when he stopped in Dunn on I-95 to use the restroom,” Creed said. “As he’s walking into the gas station, he saw a copy of the Dunn Daily Record and an above-the-fold headline that read, ‘Campbell to select new president’ with my photo there.
“And right next to my picture were five mugshots of people who’d been arrested for dealing drugs. And we were both above the fold. I’ll hold on to that paper for the rest of my life.”
He recalled letting a few male students walk his 90-pound boxer as they were moving into their house on campus during his first week, and the students came back with a group of female students to return the dog. “I don’t think they knew I was the new president,” he said, “So I guess that dog was their ‘chick magnet.’”
Then there was the cat they lost during that first week, before a student fessed up to him and admitted it had been staying in her dorm.
That first year at Campbell also took the Creeds on a 13-city tour to meet alumni all over North Carolina and the East Coast. They met hundreds of alumni and donors during that trip and came away with an understanding that Campbell’s spirit was strong and its alumni were proud of its success.
“I never set out to be a university president,” Creed said. “During graduate school, I thought at some point I’d like to be a faculty member. I think I got into what I’m doing because I love to learn. Students graduate from this university every year, and I just keep coming back. Well, I’m finally going to graduate this spring.”
Vice President for Student Life and Christian Mission Rev. Faithe Beam and her team surprised Creed with a video message from his 95-year-old father, Dr. Charles Creed, from his hometown of Jacksonville, Texas. In the video, the elder Dr. Creed congratulated his son on his retirement (joking that he was a little young to do so) and offered some words of advice.
“As you leave Campbell, I just trust that you will take the experiences, the fond memories and the friendships that you made there and hold onto them, because that has been a big part of your life,” he said. “We hope that now that you’re retired, perhaps the 1,200 miles that separate us will hopefully shrink. We love you, and remember, trust in the Lord and He will make your path straight.”
The celebration ended with a gift of letters from Campbell students, and members of the student body and faculty laid hands on the Creeds to pray over them before they embark on the next chapter of their journey.