“One of the reasons we brought him in was just not the knowledge of the college and the seminary but also because we thought he could bring some peace and harmony to the different constituencies”

In 1955, Randall T. Ruble arrived on the campus of Erskine College as an undergraduate student after a four-year stint in the Air Force, prepared to spend his time at the school readying himself for a future in the legal world.

More than 50 years later, Ruble is still in Due West, his office residing on the same nearly 90-acre grounds he attended college.

Erskine’s president since 2006 and a part of the college nearly continuously since his first day as a student, the end of Ruble’s tenure as Erskine’s president is suddenly surrounded by the controversy resulting from the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church General Synod’s dismissal of almost half the college’s trustees March 3.

Nonetheless Ruble, 77, is nearing his final day as Erskine’s president and on July 1 will begin his second retirement.

“I feel good about what we’ve accomplished — I sure do,” Ruble said Thursday. “I think God has been good to us at Erskine, and I’m glad we’ve been able to achieve what we’ve achieved. Part of my role is putting staff into place. I think a role of the president is building a good staff and building a good faculty. The school’s about faculty and students. It’s not about administration.”