Dr. Harold Wayland Tribble was born on November 18, 1899, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was the third of six children born to Henry Wise Tribble and Estelle Carlton Rawlings Tribble. In Charlottesville, his father, a Baptist minister, was president of the Rawlings Institute, a women's college. The Tribble family relocated to Lake City, Florida, in 1909 when his father became president of Columbia College. Tribble enrolled at Columbia College in 1915 and in 1917 transferred to Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), where he played varsity basketball and served as editor-in-chief of the Collegian student newspaper as a senior. He was also in the Student Army Training Corps. Tribble graduated in 1919 with an A.B. degree; that year he also was ordained as a Baptist minister and enrolled at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, KY, where he taught and studied. In 1922, he earned a master's degree in theology and taught at SBTS while earning his doctorate in theology in 1925.

Tribble continued to further his education at the University of Louisville, where he earned a M.A. in philosophy in 1927. In 1929, Tribble returned to SBTS as a full professor. During his teaching tenure, he wrote three books: Our Doctrines (1929),  From Adam to Moses (1934), and  Salvation (1940). He revised E. Y. Mullins's  The Baptist Faith (1935) and published articles in theological journals. After a year at Southern Baptist, he studied abroad extensively. Tribble enrolled at the University of Bonn, Germany, in 1931 and the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1936. In 1937 he earned another doctorate, this time from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In 1947, Tribble moved in administration when he was appointed president of Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Center, Massachusetts. On May 4, 1950, he was elected as president of Wake Forest College. As part of his selection, Tribble agreed to the College's move from Wake County to Winston-Salem, N.C., in conjunction with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Tribble's administration suffered several disputes. Some alumni were unhappy with the move to Winston-Salem; others accused Tribble of not supporting the athletic program fully. Also, some members of the Baptist State Convention that felt that Wake Forest was not following Baptist traditions. Tribble's aggressive personality and sharp temper put a strain on his relationships with many of the people he worked with, including College trustees. On November 16, 1955, the president of the Board of Trustees selected a nine-man committee to study "serious matters involving the College and its administration." Though conflicts continued with various groups through a seven-month period, in May the Trustees defeated a resolution to impeach Tribble in a 20-13 vote.

Tribble, the Board of Trustees, and the Baptist State Convention continued to disagree while the college continued to thrive. It raised enough money to open its new $19.5 million Winston-Salem campus on June 18, 1956. The College's equity grew exponentially from $10,454,000 to $91,267,900. The student body, which racially integrated in 1962, expanded from 1,750 to more than 3,000 students; faculty numbers increased proportionally. In January 1967, as a result of these developments, the Board of Trustees voted to rename the College "Wake Forest University." Tribble retired in June 1967 after 17 years as president.

In his personal life, Tribble was a Rotarian, a Mason, and member of many fraternities including Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Kappa Sigma, and Tau Kappa Alpha. He attended Wake Forest Baptist Church and the Old Town Club; his favorite pastime was golf. Tribble married Nelle Louise Futch on June 10, 1925, and together they had three children: Harold Wayland, Jr., Betty May, and Barbara Ann. After retiring, he lived the remaining 19 years of his life in Blowing Rock, N.C., Port St. Lucie, Florida, and the Moravian Home in Winston-Salem. He died on June 17, 1986.

Source: Stroupe, Henry S. "Tribble, Harold Wayland." From Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, William S. Powell, ed. 1996. As of 2018, available at http://ncpedia.org/biography/tribble-harold-wayland