Claude Lilly

CLEMSON Claude Lilly says his next four weeks at Clemson University will be just about the toughest time he's spent there.

The dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science was elected unanimously last week to become Presbyterian College's 17th president.

He leaves Clemson next month.

"It's a bittersweet thing," said Lilly. "I have thoroughly enjoyed my job. It's been fantastic. But this was an opportunity I felt I should take. I can truly say I will miss Clemson."

Lilly has presided over a period of steady growth at the college, Clemson's largest, that has included moving its master's degree programs to downtown Greenville and launching an innovative program in entrepreneurial leadership.

He has served since 2007 as one of five deans who oversee the five colleges at Clemson. With new deans and an interim dean heading up three other colleges at the school, he was also second highest in seniority next to Larry Allen, dean of the College of Health, Education and Human Development for 11 years.

Lilly, an Atlanta native, was trained in finance and insurance at Georgia State University. He said college president is a role he had never envisioned early in his career. That career included 25 years spent as a finance and risk management professor at Florida State, Southern Cal and Texas Tech before becoming dean of the UNC Charlotte business school in 1998.

Still, reached by phone Monday, Lilly said the move to one of South Carolina's top private liberal arts schools makes sense.

An active member of Fort Hill Presbyterian in Clemson, Lilly also recently completed a four-year appointment to the church's national board of pensions.

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Clemson biz dean preps for Presbyterian's top post