“I’m left handed. So I rolled up my right sleeve to get the tuberculosis test. She’s right handed, so she had, well . . . she had a sundress on,” he grins, then pauses. “I had my arm out. She had her arm out, and it was brown,” he says, holding out the word “brown.”


“Okay, okay,” Lisa interrupts, blushing and moving the story along.


She noticed him, too; of course, he was hard to miss, with his bright paisley print Ralph Lauren tie.


“I liked his tie. It was the ’80s, so it was the age of those, you know, very colorful ties,” she laughs.


At the orientation luncheon, they sat together. When Gene found out Lisa had graduated from Baptist university Car- son-Newman, he became even more interested in her.


Gene had just moved into town, but he already knew where to go to church the next Sunday: one of the local churches where his family band had played. To his surprise, he ran into Lisa again.


“I walked into church on that Sunday morning, and there they all were: her and her cousin and all their friends,” he says. “I knew I had moved to the Promised Land at that point.”


Gene and Lisa began dating right away. One year later, they got engaged, and then they married in 1989.


FROM “PROFESSIONAL STUDENT” TO PROFESSOR


Gene’s family always loved reading and learning. That love stuck with him, and even after finishing two degrees, he wanted to go back to school. For the next several years, in fact, both Gene and Lisa continued to earn numerous degrees. Between the two of them, they hold seven.


After nine years of marriage, the couple had twins: Ethan and Emily. Around this same time, many of Gene’s friends and colleagues began recommending that he should be- come a university president.


“I’m the beneficiary of people who have seen things in me that I did not see in myself,” he reflects.


As an example, he says his boss at the University of South- ern Mississippi pulled him aside on his last day of work. He told Gene he thought he might become a university presi- dent one day, so they needed to talk.


“It was actually a pretty scary conversation, because it’s a big job. At a Christian college, in particular, you bear the burden of making sure that the mission is not lost on your watch,” he says. “So I’ve tried to be intentional. I always want to do the job I’m doing, but prepare for whatever might come next.”


After that conversation in 1995, Gene continued to ad- vance in the ranks of the university. On the academic level, he has served as a graduate teaching fellow, assistant professor, full professor, department chair, college dean, vice president, and executive vice president. Most recently,


he served as provost and chief academic officer at Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA).


But in some moments, he felt he couldn’t move forward. After serving as English Department chair at Mississippi College, for instance, he moved “not up but over” to the same position at Union University. Again, he later served as chief academic officer at Union then shifted to the same position at PBA.


“I felt strongly that God would guide our steps, even if the steps were sideways rather than forward. I just want- ed to be in positions where I could learn something new and serve others,” he says. “God’s been faithful to provide those places, and now it feels like they have prepared me specifically for NGU.”


COMING TO NGU


Gene first heard about NGU through classmates in sem- inary, and since then, he’s continued running into NGU alumni throughout his career.


On his way home from a summer vacation in Asheville, N.C. in July 2016, he and his family decided to pay their first visit to the campus. Gene had heard the university was in search of a new president, but he hadn’t given the opportunity much thought.


The Fants looped around NGU’s campus, admiring the mountain views, and then stopped to fill up at the Tigerville General Store. While there, they asked a youth pastor who was on campus for FUGE what he knew about NGU.


NGU’S 8TH PRESIDENT


NAME: Dr. Gene Fant Jr. DATE OF BIRTH: June 30, 1963 HOMETOWN: Laurel, Miss.


FAMILY MEMBERS: Wife – Lisa Children – Ethan and Emily


DEGREES: Doctor of Philosophy, English, University of Southern Mississippi


Certificate in Educational Management, Harvard University


Master of Education, Educational Supervision, University of Southern Mississippi


Master of Divinity, Biblical Languages, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary


Master of Arts, English, Old Dominion University


Bachelor of Science, Anthropology, James Madison University


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