Wingate University

its administration, faculty, and supporters as well as the post-World War II college enrollment boom. The Baptist State Convention resumed financial support in 1949, and Charles Cannon, a local businessman and philanthropist, began making substantial donations to the college beginning in the 1950s.
In 1952, Wingate Junior College was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and in 1977, became a four-year institution, Wingate College. The college continued to grow, especially under the leadership of Jerry McGee, added graduate programs, and became Wingate University in 1995. Wingate also has a campus in Hendersonville, NC, home to graduate programs in pharmacy and physician assistant studies.
From its founding, the institution was affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2007, the university began the process of separating from the convention to allow the university's board of trustees to elect its own members. Wingate was among …