Edward Waters College President Nat Glover will retire at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, the campus CEO revealed yesterday in tandem with the school announcing an $8.5 million investment plan from the City of Jacksonville in new athletic and residential facilities on the campus.
Nat Glover says it’s ‘time to transition’ and retire as EWC president
The man at the helm of Jacksonville’s historic Edward Waters College for the past seven years after two terms as the first African-American sheriff in the city has announced his retirement.Saying it is “time to transition,” 74-year-old Nat Glover said he would like to leave his office at the 151-year-old historically black college on Kings Road by May 2018 and remain as a volunteer adviser to the school.The college’s 29th president reiterates that he’s not been fired or forced
Glover, an EWC alumnus who has served as interim and permanent president since 2010, leaves as one of the school’s greatest executives, positioning the city’s flagship HBCU as a community resource in criminal justice training, public health research and education and with a record of increased fundraising.
Glover, 74, is the first African American to serve as sheriff in Jacksonville, and in 2014 secured a $2 million gift from local attorney Steve Pajcic, the largest in school history.
Local attorney donates $2 million to Edward Waters College
Few people know this, but Nat Glover and Steve Pajcic are longtime BFFs.Glover, the Edward Waters College president, and Pajcic, a prominent local attorney, grew up a mile away from each other in Jacksonville; they both landed their first jobs at 12 and they both went to college on a scholarship.
In 2013, EWC became one of the first black colleges in the nation to feature a civic police substation on campus which doubles as a student training facility in forensics and criminology.
“I had made a career in law enforcement, arresting and putting young people in jail. Then I have an opportunity to become president of my alma mater, and I have the chance to educate and graduate young men,” Glover told the Florida Times-Union. “That was the epitome of redemption in my mind. In so many instances, I had to arrest people and I entertained a heavy heart doing it. Seeing these people walk across the stage and get their degrees, and me being responsible for their education, has been the epitome. It has been one of my greatest blessings.”
