Francis Pendleton Gaines was born on April 21, 1892. He became president of Wake Forest College in 1927. Reputed as a skilled teacher and orator, although he had not seen the campus, Gaines was selected by the College Board of Trustees as president by unanimous vote. In his inaugural address on April 25, 1928, Gaines addressed three goals he held in regard to Wake Forest College: "1. Wake Forest must be a small college; 2. It must be a cultural college; 3. It must be a Christian college." Gaines' insistence of restricting the college's attendance was a major point of contention between himself and other Wake Forest officials, and even though the Wake Forest officials rejected his plan to adopt "a definite policy of limitation and selection of students," his administration saw a decline in both freshman enrollment and overall attendance. In spite of this, Gaines maintained a positive and respectable relationship with the Wake Forest community and others, using his oratory experience to speak on different subjects. By the 1940s, he was making over forty addresses a year in a variety of states.

Gaines resigned from his position as Wake Forest president in 1930 on amicable terms to accept a position as president of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He remained there until his retirement in 1959. Gaines died on December 31, 1963.