OBU President Rex Horne To Replace Rex Nelson At Independent Colleges And Universities Post

They’re trading one Rex for another.

Dr. Rex Horne, the 15th president of Ouachita Baptist University since 2006, is resigning his position effective this summer to become president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges & Universities.

Horne, a Camden native, will replace Rex Nelson, who has been named director of corporate communications for Pine Bluff-based Simmons First National Corp., a financial holding company.

“I have known the presidents of our private colleges and universities as friends,” Horne said in a press release from the school. “I now have the opportunity to assist them personally and represent them corporately before the public and our Legislature. The schools share a foundation of faith. I pray this time will prove beneficial for these friends and their institutions.”

Horne previously served as senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church at Little Rock for 16 years, and earlier was a pastor in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. He served as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention from 1995-97.

The announcement was made Tuesday by Dr. Don Weatherman, the president of Lyon College and AICU executive committee chairman.

AICU represents the state’s 11 accredited private institutions: OBU, Arkansas Baptist College at Little Rock, Central Baptist College at Conway, Crowley’s Ridge College at Paragould, Harding University at Searcy, Hendrix College at Conway, John Brown University at Siloam Springs, Lyon College at Batesville, Philander Smith College at Little Rock, the University of the Ozarks at Clarksville, and Williams Baptist College at Walnut Ridge.

As president, Horne led the school in launching its “Defining the Difference” capital campaign. Improvements to the campus included Student Village residence halls dedicated in 2009, and the renovated Cliff Harris Stadium, which was dedicated in 2014. He also presided over Ouachita’s 125th anniversary celebration in 2011.