When he talks about his work today, you hear about the importance of a strong foundation, about attention to detail and all the diverse skills different people bring to create a strong structure.

He’s not talking about buildings any more, though. The structure he’s building today is a financial one. He’s the chief fund-raiser for a relatively new school, building a foundation for charitable giving at the nine-year-old Elon University School of Law in Greensboro.

His career change didn’t stem from any lack of passion for engineering. It rose from an eye for opportunity and natural skill in an entirely different field.

“Growing up, I always loved architecture,” he says. “I was all about architecture and buildings. I still love it today.”

At his high school in Chesapeake, Virginia, he took classes in drafting and design. Coming to A&T for architectural engineering “was a natural progression.”

Gatling started working part time with an engineering firm in Greensboro as an undergraduate and was hired full time when he graduated.

“Architectural engineering, building buildings – I got into it and loved it,” he says. “But I realized you have to be in a place where they’re building buildings.”

Greensboro was no boom town in the 1990s, and Gatling describes himself back then as “young, money motivated, wanted to take over the world.” The opportunities just weren’t there in Greensboro.

His experience outside the classroom at A&T opened a new door for him, though. As a student worker in the counseling center, Gatling had been recruited to tutor the son of an alumnus who was in the insurance business. After realizing he needed a new direction, Gatling contacted him again.

“We got to talking about it, and the next thing you know I started working part time for him, selling insurance,” he says.

Business was good, and Gatling was good at it. He sold life and health insurance, car insurance, property and casualty. Part-time insurance income started to equal his engineering income, and he had a rapidly rising new career.

Success in insurance led to working in stocks, bonds and other investments with Primerica Financial. A move to Merrill Lynch put him to work with high net-worth clients, managing $10 million in assets. Those clients showed him a new world of opportunity.

“They were interested in setting up structures where they could give back,” Gatling says. “This was all a learning experience for me because I never knew anything about charitable trusts and charitable giving.”

Merrill Lynch had a philanthropic group that served as a resource. Gatling learned from them and from the development offices of colleges and universities that were on the receiving end of some of his clients’ giving.

“I kind of fell in love with it,” he says. “I said if I ever had to switch gears again, I would want to be on the other side of the table and work with a university.”

One development office he knew well was A&T’s, for whom he had set up a charitable remainder trust. As the new century began, a new fund-raising campaign was beginning at the university. On Wall Street, the dot-com bubble burst.

“The market went belly up, and it got very stressful,” he says with a laugh. Gatling felt it might be the right time to go around to the other side of that table. He joined A&T as planned giving officer.

Again, opportunities were plentiful, and Gatling rose quickly. After five years at A&T, he went to Bennett College to head its development office, and then to Guilford College, where he served as senior director of philanthropy and associate vice president for philanthropy.

A rare opportunity drew him to Elon – a truly new school.

“Elon Law School is so new, there’s no history, there’s no established alumni base – 641 alumni, and most of them have just gotten out and started to practice,” he says.

To meet that challenge, Gatling draws on his long experience in Greensboro. He knows the business leaders and foundations. “I’ve already established those relationships, which makes it easier.”

Gatling has a natural affinity for the academic setting. His father was a high school principal, and other members of the family also were in education.

“I love it,” he says. “In doing what I do, there’s a sense of satisfaction because when a donor is interested in setting up a scholarship, I see what it does. I see it go to a student of needs who would not have been able to come to school and get a degree.

“To see them come in their first year and then see them graduate, it’s fulfilling.”

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