Popular teacher and respected administrator, Howard G. Wible rose from night professor in the Evening College to provost and acting chancellor during a 27-year career at TCU. He launched the Division of Special Courses and developed plans for the school’s first living-learning facility.

Wible, who died in December, was 95.

The former administrator and leader came to Fort Worth because of another institution — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Sensing a call to the ministry, Wible left his job as employment manager at General Electric Company in Maryland to join the staff of University Baptist Church in Baltimore as business manager. In 1956, he moved his family to Texas to pursue a divinity degree. At the seminary, he directed the student employment program.

Wible also began teaching business classes in TCU’s Evening College and eventually joined the faculty full time in the School of Business. In 1963, the Student Activities Council named him Professor of the Year.

Drawing students from Carswell Air Force Base and General Dynamics, the Evening College offered classes in wide-ranging subjects, such as accounting, computer science and the humanities. In 1964-65, Wible was appointed to start and direct a Division of Special Courses in the college, which offered non-credit classes and helped the Evening College maintain its enrollment numbers.

Wible graduated from Drexel College and earned a master’s degree in business from Harvard University. During his tenure at TCU, he added a master’s degree in divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate in education at the University of North Texas.

In 1965, TCU transitioned from Chancellor M.E. Sadler to Chancellor James M. Moudy, who appointed Wible as dean of students in a reorganization of the administration. During the mid-1960s, Moudy tapped Wible to serve on TCU’s Future Planning Commission as the chair of the intercollegiate athletics committee, which sketched plans for the Leo Potishman Tennis Center, ROTC rifle range and the Cyrus K. and Ann C. Rickel Building for physical education.

In 1968, Moudy appointed Wible as vice chancellor for student life. Wible worked with James Newcomer, vice chancellor for academic affairs, on plans for a living-learning facility, which became Brachman Hall in 1970. When Newcomer relinquished his position in 1972, Wible took over his academic affairs duties and added the role of provost.

Wible served as acting chancellor in spring 1974 during the absence of Moudy, who was on leave under a grant from the Danforth Foundation. Today, TCU houses its Extended Education program in the Secrest-Wible Building.