George David Gearhart (G. David Gearhart) was born on June 9, 1952 of George Anthony Gearhart—who worked for the Northwest Arkansas Times—and Joan Gearhart. He graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1970 before attending Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

After receiving his Bachelor’s at Westminster College in 1974 in Political Science and Speech, Gearhart was hired as an administrative assistant intern to the President of Westminster College. In 1977, Gearhart became the Director of Development at Westminster College. That same year, Gearhart received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas and later appointed to the Arkansas Bar Association Youth Education Committee.

In 1978, Gearhart took a position as Director of Development at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. During the 1979-1980 school year, Gearhart and his team raised $171,286 of their projected $130,000 campaign goal for the university. In 1978, Gearhart was appointed to the steering committee in preparation of the 1984 Hendrix centennial. In 1980, Gearhart was promoted to Vice President of Development. During this time, he was elected as a trustee to the Southwest District of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

In 1982, Gearhart took a position as Director of Development for the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The biggest contribution during this time was the Campaign for Books, raising $2.5 million to add 110,000 volumes to the University of Arkansas Libraries from 1982 to 1984.

David Gearhart left the University of Arkansas for a time to work at Pennsylvania State University from 1985 to 1995. In 1985, Gearhart became Vice President for Development and University Relations. He was a lead supporter for the Division of Development and University Relations for the Campaign for Penn State, a fundraising campaign to collect $200 million in five years. The project ended in 1990 as a six-year project with over $350 million collected. In 1988, he became Sr. Vice President over twenty-three campuses. During his tenure at Penn State, $950 million in private gifts were collected. He had received three gold medals from the Council for Advancement and Support of education (CASE) Affiliate Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State from 1989 to 1995. In the 1991, Gearhart was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at Oxford. This included an Oxford University’s Merton College session to devise a post-campaign fundraising plan to addresses the relationship between Merton College and Oxford University. In 1995, Gearhart’s book, The Capital Campaign in Higher Education: A Practical Guide for College and University Advancement was published by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

In 1995, David Gearhart took a position as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Grenzebach Glier & Associates, Inc. located in Chicago, Illinois. During his time there, Gearhart offered consulting services in development and fundraising to various organizations like Grinnell, UCLA, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and others. During this time, Gearhart received a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas in 1996.

In 1998, David Gearhart was selected to Vice Chancellor of University Advancement at the University of Arkansas. As Vice Chancellor, he worked with a steering committee led fundraiser called the “Campaign for the Twenty-first Century.” It raised $1.046 billion for academic programs, including a $300 million gift to found an honors college and a $50 million gift to endow the Sam M. Walton College of Business. In his tenure, endowments went from $119 million to $920.6 million. He oversaw 1.5 million square feet on campus space for renovation and additions. In 2005, Gearhart was inducted into the Fayetteville Schools Hall of Honor. In 2006, Gearhart completed another book titled The Capital Campaign in Higher education and Philanthropy. Gearhart continued as Vice Chancellor up to 2008.

In 2008, Gearhart was selected as the Chancellor of the University of Arkansas Fayetteville campus. During his tenure, he established an annual report of Providing Transparency and Accountability to the People of Arkansas, created the first commission of women for the campus, implemented a tuition freeze for the 2009-2010 academic year, created a climate action plan, and oversaw over $400 million and 1.5 million square feet of building expansions and renovations. In 2015, retired as chancellor but returned to the University of Arkansas as a Professor of Higher Education and Chancellor Emeritus. He currently works for various research endeavors including the National Lab for the Study of the College President’s published Journal of Research on the College President. Ozark Hall was renamed Gearhart Hall in his honor in 2015.

Jane Brockmann-Gearhart was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952 of Kathryn Ann McKennon and Robert Gilbert Brockmann. Seven years later, the Brockmann family moved to Arkansas. Jane Brockmann graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1970. Jane Brockmann graduated in 1974 with a Journalism and English degree at the University of Arkansas. She married David Gearhart in Fayetteville on December 1974. She then taught journalism at Springdale High School for two years. In 2000, Jane co-chaired a successful “Citizens for a New Library” campaign to pass a sales tax that led to the construction of a new Fayetteville Public Library building in 2004. She also co-chaired a successful “Citizens for Clean Water” campaign in 2001. In 2011, Jane Gearhart worked with the University of Arkansas Volunteer Action Center and students with the newly established Full Circle Campus Food Pantry. In 2015, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees voted to rename it the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Campus Food Pantry.