The University of Oklahoma's Dr. Chris Howard recently was named president of Hampden-Sydney College, a private liberal-arts college for men.

He will complete the school year at OU and begin his new position July 1.

"My time at Oklahoma has been amazing," Howard said Thursday in a phone interview.

Howard came to OU in September 2005 and is the vice president for Strategic and Leadership Initiatives as well as serving as the director of the Honors College Leadership Center, associate professor and a President's Associates presidential professor.

Howard will take the helm at the liberal arts school in Hampden-Sydney, Va., with 1,200 students and a high faculty-student ratio. Howard got his undergraduate degree in 1991 from the U.S. Air Force Academy. It was there he learned to appreciate the educational emphasis on the whole person instead of just one aspect of that person, he said.

"I've loved working at this one research university, but it's the parts of it like the Honors College where I'm a professor that I've appreciated the most," Howard said.

The position at Hampden-Sydney attracted Howard because of the college's emphasis on training leaders through an emphasis on the whole person, he said.

Howard will be the first African American president of the university, which was founded in 1775.

"The significance of this opportunity is not lost on me," he said, adding that he looks forward to serving the entire Hampden-Sydney community.

Howard said he and his family, wife Barbara and sons Cohen and Joshua, have enjoyed living in Norman over the past three years.

"We like Norman a great deal and are not going to cut our ties," he said.

Howard said he will continue to sit on the board of visitors of the International Programs Center at OU as well as the board of the Southwest Center for Human Relations at OU. The details of his position with the Impact Young Lives Foundation at OU are still being worked out, he said.

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com