Superintendent of VMI to Retire

LEXINGTON, Va. —  Maj. Gen. Josiah Bunting III, who oversaw the court-ordered integration of women into formerly all-male Virginia Military Institute, announced his retirement Saturday.

Bunting, 62, will relinquish day-to-day duties at the end of this academic year, then focus on VMI’s $175-million capital campaign until his contract expires in July 2003, he said in a written statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court declared VMI’s men-only admissions policy unconstitutional in 1996, a year after Bunting became superintendent. The state-supported military school enrolled its first female cadets in the fall of 1997.

Bunting’s announcement came two days after U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser said that VMI had successfully transformed into a coed institution. Kiser filed an order ending VMI’s court supervision.