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OAK RIDGE — Roy W. Berwick, the president of the financially troubled Oak Ridge Military Academy since 2005, has stepped down, effective July 10.

The academy’s new board of trustees officially accepted Berwick’s resignation Friday and asked him to remain at the private school at least through the end of July, but not as president.

Until an interim or full-time president can be found, Reginald W. Ponder, the former president of Louisburg College, will lead the academy.

Ponder, a Raleigh resident who left Louisburg in 2007 as president emeritus, said he is not a candidate for either position. “I’ve done my time,” he said.

Both Ponder and new board chairman Mike Mebane, a Winston-Salem resident and 1975 Oak Ridge graduate, say they’re confident the academy will open Aug. 24 despite its recent financial problems.

Both declined to talk about why the previous, 12-member board had resigned.

“I think that is really a question for the former board,” Ponder said. “We’re looking forward.”

Efforts to reach former board chair Bobbie Gardner have been unsuccessful.

Berwick, the school’s 24th president, declined to say why he quit, why the board quit or what he plans to do next.

A lawyer, Berwick has served two prior stints at Oak Ridge. He had worked at the academy as senior army instructor in 1993 and director of cadet development in 1994.

Prior to his return in 2005, Berwick worked as vice president and academic dean at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va.

Berwick submitted his resignation the same day the previous board quit, but it could not be formally accepted until a new board had been seated.

It remains unclear why Berwick could not have submitted his resignation to the former board before it stepped down. Before the former board members quit, they did elect their replacements, most of whom didn’t know they had been selected.

Ponder has spent this week trying to convince them to serve. The board met Monday but did not have a quorum.

The departures of Berwick and the previous board came days after the academy failed to pay off a note due July 1. School officials have not disclosed the amount of the payment or to whom it was due.

Ponder said:

* he is confident that the academy can find the money it needs to operate next year;

* e-mails are being sent out to the parents of prospective students letting them know about the change in leadership and the commitment of the new board; and

* a committee has been formed to find a replacement for Berwick.

Questions about Berwick’s job status arose earlier this week when a group called The Friends of Oak Ridge Military Academy sent out an e-mail saying Ponder would serve as a managing consultant until an interim administrator could be found. But the e-mail did not mention Berwick.

That left people like Irvin Angel, the head of the Oak Ridge Society Foundation, a support group for the school, scratching his head about who was running the academy.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” Angel said this week. “I have no idea who is calling the shots.”

For now, it will be Ponder.
 

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com.