Gene R. Nichol

Twenty-Sixth President, William & Mary

Gene R. Nichol became the 26th president of William & Mary on July 1, 2005.

Before returning to Williamsburg, where he taught two decades ago, Nichol was Burton Craige Professor and Dean of the law school at the University of North Carolina. He served as Law Dean at the University of Colorado from 1988 to 1995, and as James Gould Cutler Professor and Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at William & Mary from 1985 to 1988. Nichol was also a faculty member at the University of Florida and West Virginia University. He founded the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado (1990) and the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina (2001).

 

Nichol attended Oklahoma State University, where he received a degree in philosophy and played varsity football. He obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas, graduating Order of the Coif in 1976. He is married to Glenn George, a scholar of employment and labor law and a former member of the faculty at the William & Mary Law School. They have three daughters: Jesse, Jenny and Soren.