Joyner to Take Early Retirement

August 30, 1996

G. William Joyner Jr., the vice president for university relations at Wake Forest University, has announced his intention to take early retirement effective Sept. 15.

He joined the Wake Forest staff in 1969 as director of alumni affairs. During his tenure, the university has conducted three successful capital campaigns: the One Fifty Fund in the 1970s; the Sesquicentennial Campaign in the 1980s; and the Heritage and Promise Campaign, which concluded last year $25 million over goal, with $175 million in contributions. During Joyner’s 27-year tenure, Wake Forest has receipted more than $475 million in charitable gifts.

In 1970 with alumnus and trustee Arnold Palmer, Joyner helped found the President’s Club, a cornerstone of the alumni giving program, and membership now totals more than 2,000. Wake Forest won the U.S. Steel Award in 1974 for improvement in annual giving and awards for sustained performance among private universities in 1980, 1981, 1984 and 1985. In 1993 and 1994, the Council for Advancement and Support of Higher Education (CASE) recognized Wake Forest’s development efforts with the Circle of Excellence Award for Exemplary Performance in Fundraising.

Wake Forest president Thomas K. Hearn Jr. said that Joyner “has built a development and alumni staff that is admired nationwide, for which I am very grateful. Our alumni are among the most loyal and supportive in the country.

“We will miss Bill’s leadership,” Hearn added.

According to the Council for Financial Aid to Education, 45 percent of Wake Forest alumni contributed to the university in 1995-96, placing Wake Forest among the top five major private universities in the nation in the percentage of alumni contributing. During the last five years, Wake Forest’s total annual support has averaged more than $31 million.

Joyner, an Asheboro native, is a 1966 graduate of Wake Forest, where he was a member of the basketball team in the Bones McKinney era.

He received in February the Quarter Century Award for Exemplary Service from CASE. He is an alumnus of Leadership Winston-Salem, a two-time past president of The Summit School Board of Trustees, a trustee and executive committee member of Reynolda House, a member of the board of advisors for Triad Methodist Home, a founding member of the board of advisors of Graylyn Conference Center and a past president of the board of directors of Forsyth Country Club. He was recognized in 1995 by Wake Forest’s board of trustees with a resolution of appreciation and by the Wake Forest Alumni Council following the conclusion of the Heritage and Promise Campaign.

He and his wife, Jane Cottle Joyner, are the parents of two children, Sara-Peyton Joyner of New York City, a 1996 graduate of Wake Forest, and G. William Joyner III of Charlotte, who earned his B.A. at Princeton and his JD/MBA degree at Wake Forest in 1996.

Joyner said he plans to write about fundraising and leadership and consult nationally with not-for-profit organizations about advancement.

“The strength of our staff gives great promise to future success at Wake Forest. I have been honored to serve this great institution for so long, and now I want to try to share what we have learned with other universities and charitable institutions,” said Joyner.

Hearn said that Sandra C. Boyette, the vice president for public affairs at Wake Forest, will assume interim management responsibilities for university relations.