A music composition major originally in college, I ultimately graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Houston, then attended graduate school in religious studies at Rice University for two years before finally moving on to law school at the University of Texas. I practiced trial law for several years in Austin, Texas before joining the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1989, where my research and teaching focused on law and religion and legal ethics. Eventually, I became an academic administrator at the University of Mississippi, working for five years as an associate provost. In 2007 my family and I moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where I became the ninth president of Austin Peay State University. My wife, Lee, and I are high school sweethearts and have been married more than thirty years.