Former Virginia Wesleyan president Billy Greer remembered for building strong community

William “Billy” Greer was known as a Southern gentleman with a Georgia drawl; a speed walker, and a family man with a penchant for telling funny stories about him and his wife, Fann. The former Virginia Wesleyan University president was an avid Marlins fan and the heart of the VWU community.

Greer – who insisted on being called Billy and not Dr. Greer or the Reverend Dr. Greer – died Aug. 30 in his Asheville, North Carolina home. He was 81. A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center on campus.

“Virginia Wesleyan was a very small school with a real small family feel, and he just continued that,” former colleague Lina Green said. “He was a man who could build community.”

He was Virginia Wesleyan’s third president and a minister who officiated a few of his staff members’ weddings. He’d often roast a pig for lunch so students and staff could come together over pulled pork sandwiches.

Greer was VWU’s president from 1992 to 2015. Before that, he served as minister at various Methodist churches in Georgia and as president of Andrew College in Cuthbert, Georgia, in 1980.

At Virginia Wesleyan, he was noted for helping the small campus grow, from enrollment to campus facilities. But his role wasn’t limited to fundraising for improvements, such as the Jane P. Batten Student Center and Brock Village. It was more personal.

Green worked with Greer off and on for more than two decades. He officiated her wedding and when she walked out in her dress, he told her, “Well, don’t you look pretty today,” and told her husband-to-be to treat her well. He had done the same for other staff members.

He was not someone who sat in his office, Green said.

Greg Freedland, who graduated in 1997, remembers sitting in the stands and watching Greer pacing the sidelines of the basketball court, pumping up the students and cheering on the Marlins. Freedland still remembers “Billy” introducing himself to high schoolers and their parents visiting campus as such.

Freedland believes the genuine, kind and caring demeanor of the minister was what made the campus community what it was and is today.

“Leadership starts at the top,” Freedland said. “He set the tone for the caring community that Virginia Wesleyan was and is.”

Greer loved athletics and, under his leadership, the Marlins flourished. His fundraising fueled the construction of the Batten Student Center, the Trinder Center and Foster Field, which is now part of the Tassos Paphites Soccer Complex, and the Everett Tennis Center. In 2006, the men’s basketball team won the NCAA Division III title, and in 2015, he was inducted into the Virginia Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame.

He also was a strong supporter of environmental sciences, and after his retirement, the Greer Environmental Sciences Center was dedicated in his honor.

Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com