IT Director Larry Essary to retire from Campbell Law on Dec. 19

RALEIGH - Campbell Law School's longtime Director of Information Technology Larry Essary will retire on Dec. 19, 2025, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced.

Essary served the law school for more than a dozen years. He began leading the IT Department on Aug. 5, 2013.

"One of the first things I did when I became Dean of Campbell Law School was to hire Larry Essary to lead our IT Department," Leonard said at Essary's retirement celebration on Dec. 16. "We have been through it all together including upgrading all of the courtroom technology for our award-winning advocacy program."

An avid golfer, the law school presented Essary with an engraved golf club noting his years of service to the Campbell community.

Essary has more than four decades of experience in the information technology field, including capital budgeting and project management, strategic planning and risk management and continuous process improvement.

As Director of Information Technology, Essary and his staff oversaw and coordinated the law school's entire technological infrastructure, and address faculty, staff and students IT issues and concerns.

Essary joined Campbell Law following a three-year stint as the Chief Information Officer at William Peace University. At Peace, he directed all information technology resource planning, budgeting and operational initiatives for the growing university, including an operating budget of more than $1 million. In addition to rebuilding the entire campus-wide technological infrastructure, Essary and his staff were also responsible for more than 50 hardware and software systems located on campus, as well as nine host sites.

Prior to Peace, Essary handled special technology projects for Campbell University, including the law school, the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business. He also assisted in the management of major changes to the University's ERP system by consulting with department heads and acting as a liaison to the vendor.

From 1991-2006, Essary served as the Director of Information Technology for Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business in Waco, Texas, providing technology leadership for more than 150 faculty and staff, and more than 3,000 students. Before that he worked as a senior software engineer for E-Systems, Inc. in Garland, Texas.

Essary holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master's degree in information systems from Baylor University. He resides in Raleigh with his wife, Campbell Law Dean Emerita Melissa Essary, who retired from her law professor duties in May. They have two daughters, Amber and Rachel, and are expecting their first grandchild in early 2026.

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