By Emily Silva
September 26, 2008
Tolley
“I always considered myself not the smartest person in the class, but surely not the least capable.” But capable is all Jerry Tolley is and ever was, both in school and out. A sports fanatic from the start and named MVP twice in high school, Tolley led his high school football team to the state championship, where they took the title, winning 13-0. But his lack of enthusiasm for schoolwork kept him worried and self-conscious. “I never gained confidence as a student until college,” Tolley said. “All my good buddies – I felt like they were much smarter than I was and I would sort of tag along.”
College, however, proved to be just the place for Tolley to become more confident. He attended Eastern Carolina University and, after spending his first semester being terrified of failing out, he realized if he went to class, paid attention, took notes and studied, things pay off. “If you do those things,” he said, “Then it’s easier to make a good grade. So for the first time, I was studying, taking notes, sitting on the front row and doing all my papers and I did just fine.” Tolley graduated with a degree in physical education and minors in social studies and biology.
In 1967, Tolley took a job at Elon University as assistant football coach to Shirley “Red” Wilson. “I was surprised he hired me,” Tolley said. “He could have hired anybody.” Both Tolley and Wilson started out as coaches at Fayetteville Senior High School in Fayetteville, N.C. and then transferred to Elon, to a team that was in desperate need of some help. “We had taken over a team that had only won three games in two years,” Tolley said. After Tolley and Wilson were there for a year, “We were playing for the conference title.” Two of his athletes went on to play football professionally. Joey Hackett played in a Super Bowl and Quinton Ballard played in the NFL, but suffered an injury to his knee.
Elon
Wilson left Elon after ten years of coaching, which opened up the position of head coach and Tolley accepted. “We had quite a bit of success,” Tolley said. “We won two national titles during my time as head coach.” His team also won four conference titles, three district titles and participated in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division-I National Playoffs three times. “Despite his marvelous and unparalleled coaching career,” Nan Perkins, vice president for university advancement, said, “I’ve never heard him second-guess another coach’s decisions, no matter how bad their team was. He was never criticizing.”
After winning the second national title, Tolley resigned from coaching in 1982. Fred Young, Elon’s then-president, put Tolley in fundraising for the university. Tolley stayed with the position for five years.
In 1986, he left the world of fundraising for a job at what is now known as LabCorp. Tolley was first named the company’s Associate Vice President for Training and then Vice President of Government/Community Affairs. After retiring from that position, Tolley came back to Elon University. “I wasn’t quite ready to give up everything,” he said. The university was in the process of building a new football stadium. Tolley took a job as the Major Gifts Officer for the project in 1999. “I’ve been doing some other fundraising – annual giving and things like that – since,” he said. Tolley started working with Perkins through fundraising when Perkins was the director of publications and public information. “[Tolley] was highly successful in fundraising,” Perkins said. “He managed to push the percentage into the 40s of people who give to the school,” which was the highest the university had ever seen.
Elon today knows Tolley as the director of the Elon Society, which, as Tolley put it, is the university’s primer giving level. “We try,” he said, “To attract around 900 to 1000 Elon Society members every year.” Members include alumni, parents, friends, corporations and foundations that give money for the advancement of the university. “[Tolley] has a knack for grooming his staff to take on bigger professional challenges as they develop their careers,” Sallie Hutton, director of alumni relations, said. Tolley was Hutton’s first supervisor at the university.
Along with his position at Elon University, Tolley has a very prominent position in the town of Elon. He has been mayor for three terms now. Before that, Tolley served on the town’s Appearance Commission and then on the Board of Aldermen. His political experience from those two positions qualified him to run for mayor in 1989. He served two four-year terms. “I’ll run again next November,” Tolley said, “If I decide to run and I don’t know if I will.”
Tolley’s primary job as mayor is to set the agenda for town meetings, along with town manager Mike Dula. “He is intense at times,” Dula said of Tolley, “[He is] quick to move from one subject to another.” Tolley is known by his coworkers as very goal-oriented and determined. “He’s very willing to stretch goals,” Perkins said. “He sets very measurable goals and then works very hard to meet them. He’s very methodical about developing a plan.”
Tolley has had 5 books published
Although Tolley holds the title of mayor, Dula, as town manager, “runs the town,” Tolley said. “
The state of North Carolina has a town manager form of government, then the Board [of Aldermen] and the mayor sort of set the policy, so we don’t get involved that much, with the day-to-day operations. I probably stop by Town Hall once a week.” Although Tolley is not in charge of day-to-day things, “the town has grown a lot while he’s been here,” Dula said.
Not only has the town and Elon University grown with Tolley, but Tolley himself has grown with the community of Elon. “Anyone who’s lived here that long and done this for so long has to be very dedicated,” Dula said. Tolley is a dedicated leader, as well as a “very good family man,” said Perkins. Tolley is married with two sons; Jerry “Jay” Jr., 34, lives in Tuscon, Az. and Justin, 31, lives just down the road from Tolley and his wife in Burlington, N.C. Justin frequently jokes with his father about never moving too far away from home.
In his spare time, Tolley enjoys playing tennis on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. He also enjoys writing. Five of his books have been published; they are all technical manuals for football. Just this year, he was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame; the highest award given by the organization. “Jerry is a people person,” Hutton said. “He is also a delegator. He combines those attributes in a way that enables him to be successful.”
Watch Tolley explain the best advice he’s ever been given by a mentor:
Twitter: Town of Elon Mayor Jerry Tolley shares his experiences through high school and college, playing football, and then coaching.
