Retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. named VMI superintendent

Members of Virginia Military Institute‘s board have appointed retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David Furness, a member of the Class of 1987, as the Institute’s 16th superintendent, succeeding retired Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, the school’s first Black leader, who left in June after the board elected not to renew his contract.

A history major at VMI, Furness served in the Marine Corps for 36 years before retiring in 2023. Sometimes referred to as the “West Point of the South,” VMI is the nation’s oldest state military college.

“Lt. Gen. Furness distinguished himself among a strong field of candidates,” VMI Board of Visitors President Jamie Inman said in a statement. “His impeccable military record, passion for the VMI experience and proven record advancing the mission of complex organizations make him the right person to lead the institute in this next chapter of its history.”

VMI’s board announced Wins’ ouster in February, weeks after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who made abolishing DEI efforts a central part of his presidential campaign. Since July 2024, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointees have made up a majority of the members on the boards of visitors at every state university, including VMI. In 2023, Youngkin’s chief diversity officer, Martin D. Brown, notably declared, “DEI is dead,” during a speech at VMI.

Wins joined the school as an interim superintendent in November 2020, a role that was made permanent in April 2021, just a couple months before before the findings of a state-funded independent investigation into VMI were released, reporting that institutional racism and sexism had been tolerated at VMI. During his tenure, Wins launched DEI initiatives that were not well received by some students and alumni.

“This decision was not based on my performance or the tangible progress we achieved,” Wins said in a statement issued in March. “It is the result of a partisan choice that abandons the values of honor, integrity, and excellence upon which VMI was built.”

Currently residing in Florida, Furness will move to Lexington with his wife, Lynda, and a daughter, according to a Friday news release.

“My selection as the 16th superintendent of the VMI is the highest professional honor of my lifetime,” Furness said in a statement.

A three-star general, Furness has one master’s degree in military studies from the Marine Corps University at Quantico and another in national security and strategic studies from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

As legislative assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corps from 2013 to 2017, Furness served as liaison between the Marine Corps and Congress. From 2017 to 2018, he was the senior U.S. military officer on the African continent for Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa. Next, Furness was commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division, leading a combined organization of 17,000 that supported operations in the Indo-Pacific, European, African, Middle Eastern and South American regions.

From 2020 until his retirement, Furness served as deputy commandant for plans, policy and operations at the Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon. Since then, Furness has been an executive vice president of defense programs for J.A. Green & Co., a Washington, D.C.-based government relations firm.

VMI’s newest cadets, known as rats, matriculated Saturday. This year’s “rat mass” totals 469, with 75 female cadets.