William Atchley served eight years as president, with a brief interruption in his leadership due to illness, during which Executive Vice President Horace Fleming took on the role.
Atchley recognized the need for new leadership and diversified the Board of Regents by recruiting the first African American and Latino board members. Atchley also emphasized sweeping financial changes alongside efforts to expand Pacific’s endowment. Later in his presidency, Atchley began the argument that Pacific’s football team was an untenable drain on university resources.
By moving the president’s office from Burns Tower to Anderson Hall, Atchley embodied the connection to the campus and open communication with students and the larger university community that he valued. He established the “Most Valuable Pacifican” award to recognize these community members.
While widely criticized for his opposition to sabbatical policies and the implementation of salary freezes, Atchley is credited with the expansion of faculty research.
Atchley also tried to ensure students could afford a Pacific education. He established a scholarship for Southeast Asian students in the wake of a shooting at Stockton’s Cleveland Elementary School in 1989, a nearby school in a majority Cambodian area. He later worked with the Bishops Scholarship program for Methodist students in 1990.
Atchley died on Feb. 18, 2000.
