East Tennessee State University President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr. today announced his retirement effective March 1, 2009. He made the announcement during the ETSU Foundation Annual Meeting at The Millennium Centre.
Stanton became the eighth president of ETSU on Jan. 1, 1997, following his selection by the Tennessee Board of Regents, which is the university’s governing board and the largest higher education system in the state as well as the sixth largest in the nation. He came to the presidency from his ETSU post as Dean of the James H. Quillen College of Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs, which he had held since 1988.
In 1985, Stanton, a vascular surgeon from Georgia, arrived in Johnson City to direct the Division of Peripheral Vascular Surgery for the then Veterans Administration Medical Center and ETSU’s College of Medicine (a position he held for six years) and also to serve as associate professor of surgery at the university. The following year, he was named professor and chair of the Department of Surgery in the College of Medicine.
Stanton indicated that – when his retirement becomes official – he will maintain strong ties with ETSU for years to come and hopes to serve the university in an emeritus status.

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