LEWISBURG — Dr. Richard Rafes, currently the president of East Central University in Oklahoma, has been selected by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine Board of Governors to succeed outgoing president Dr. Olen E. Jones.

In a brief, emergency meeting held Thursday, board members unanimously voted in favor of Rafes to become the award-winning medical school’s fifth president since its inception in 1974.

Rafes (pronounced Ray-fess) holds a B.A. in government from Lamar University and two doctoral degrees, a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of North Texas.

“I am greatly honored to be named to this position and I feel like I have some large shoes to fill with the current president, Dr. Olen Jones,” Rafes said from his ECU office in Ada, Okla., on Thursday. “The WVSOM faculty, staff and students are marvelous and I will do my best to enhance this institution.”

Rafes, 57, said he learned about the position after a colleague nominated him as a possible candidate.

“I was then contacted by the search consultants and applied for the position,” he said.

Rafes said his wife Tommye is originally from Williamsburg, Va. The couple has three daughters. One daughter is a second-year osteopathic medical student at Texas College of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth, another is a Texas Tech graduate working as an intern for Lucent Technologies, and their youngest daughter is a junior at Texas A&M; studying physical therapy.

“My wife Tommye and I look forward to becoming active members of the Lewisburg community and are most appreciative to the board of governors for affording us this wonderful opportunity,” Rafes said.

The state’s Higher Education Policy Commission will meet today to consider Rafes’ appointment, Chancellor Brian Noland said. Rafes’ benefit and salary package is expected to be about $230,000 per year, Noland said, and details of his contract will be made available after the commission’s meeting.

“We are taking up the appointment recommendation made by the WVSOM board for consideration and ultimate approval,” Noland said Thursday. “The terms of the contract will be finalized and they are very close to the overall level of compensation that the current president receives.”

The search for the medical school’s new president began after Jones announced his retirement plans more than 11 months ago. In October, school officials pared the applicants to eight candidates, and three of those candidates were asked to visit the campus for interviews last week. In an interview prior to the school’s announcement, Jones stressed the importance of a smooth transition for the incoming president.

“It’s imperative that our faculty and staff get behind the new president and support him,” Jones said.

Rafes takes over a medical school that’s both physically and fiscally healthy. During Jones’ tenure, the school’s campus has increased from one building to 12 facilities and the school has spent more than $37 million on campus construction and renovation projects. Enrollment at the debt-free school has also increased from 200 to 600 students and is projected to reach 800 students by 2010.

U.S. News and World Report has ranked the school as one of the best primary care and rural medicine schools in the nation for 10 consecutive years.

“We had three wonderful candidates, but Dr. Rafes had the experience necessary and we believed that in reaching a consensus that he is the right man at the right time to lead this institution,” WVSOM board president Sharon Rowe said.

Rafes will become president on Feb. 1 after a transition period that begins Jan. 10.

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com