Richard Helldobler recognizes John Stealey III as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History. Stealey is retiring after 42 years of service at Shepherd. (Submitted photo)

The Shepherd University Board of Governors appointed new officers at the June 9 meeting: Gat Caperton, chair; W. Mark Rudolph, vice chair; and Marcia Brand, secretary.

Caperton, of Berkeley Springs, is the president and CEO of Caperton Furnitureworks, a West Virginia manufacturer of hand-made, solid-wood home furniture that he acquired from its founder in 1996. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. In 1990, Caperton received a bachelors in Economics from Davidson College. He currently serves on the boards of the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, the Natural Capital Investment Fund and the West Virginia Nature Conservancy.

Rudolph, of Winchester, Va., is a 1984 graduate of Shepherd and the president and CEO of Yount, Hyde & Barbour CPAs, Winchester. He joined the firm in 1984, became a principal in 1994, and has served as president and CEO since 2005. He has been an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. He has served on the board of trustees of Winchester’s Handley High School, is a past president of the Lions Club and is an elder of the Presbyterian Church.

Since March 2009, Brand, of Martinsburg, is the deputy administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Brand earned a doctoral degree in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania and master and bachelor of science degrees in dental hygiene from Old Dominion University in Virginia.

Emeritus status was granted to retiring faculty members John Stealey III and J. Michael Jacobs. Stealey, retiring after 42 years of service at Shepherd, received the title Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History. Jacobs, retiring after 40 years of service at Shepherd, received the title Professor Emeritus of Physical Education. To be eligible for appointment to emeritus status, retiring faculty must have completed at least 10 years of service at Shepherd.

Also approved at the meeting were four new minors in entrepreneurship, consumer economics, communications and new media and computer and information technology.

The next meeting of the Shepherd University Board of Governors will be held Sept. 22.