The End of an Era.

He was here 27 years. He outlasted eight governors and added 19 new degree programs. He was responsible for the construction of 37 buildings on campus. And yet, it took a mere 20 minutes for Ronald Carrier's presidency to end gracefully on the steps of Wilson Hall yesterday before more than 500 students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni and prominent local leaders. Dressed in a charcoal suit and fighting back tears with his wife, Edith, by his side, JMU's fourth president retired. Carrier will remain president until his successor is hired, but will not stay as president beyond Dec. 31. "Everything changes. Even the things that are most precious to you will change," Carrier said. "1 have served as president of James Madison University for 27 years. That's a long period of time by any stretch of measurement." Carrier's retirement comes at the closing of another session of the Virginia General Assembly but in the middle of a semester, which is an extremely busy time for the JMU Board of Visitors and administration. "I wanted to do this today rather than at the Board meeting on Friday — go ahead and announce it," Carrier said. "But I wanted to announce it today so that we could get this out of the way. The Board has a great deal of things underway now ... I wanted to get this out of the way so it didn't cre-