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LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dean K. Thompson, a West Virginia pastor, has been named the eighth president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Thompson has been pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV, since 1995.
“Of the many applicants and candidates we reviewed, Dean Thompson most admirably fulfills the qualifications of our presidential profile,” said Robert Reed, a member of the LPTS board of trustees who served as chair of its Presidential Search Committee.
The search began more than 18 months ago after the resignation of the Rev. John M. Mulder.
Thompson was born in Ironton, OH, in 1943, and grew up in Huntington, WV. He has a bachelors degree in history from Marshall University and three degrees from Union Theological Seminary and Persbyterian School of Christian Education (Union-PSCE) in Virginia: a bachelors in divinity, a masters in theology and a doctorate in American religious studies and intellectual history since the Industrial Revolution.
He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He served at Montgomery Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, WV, from 1973 to 1979; at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, from 1979 to 1984; and at Pasadena Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, CA, from 1984 to 1995, when he moved to Charleston.
As pastor of the First Church there, Thompson has led the 1,600-member congregation in community outreach. First Church has built five Habitat Houses, and in its ecumenical hunger ministry feeds more than 21,000 families in a typical year.
The Charleston church has historical ties to LPTS. Eleven students from the congregation have studied at the Louisville school, and all have gone into ministerial service. They are believed to be the largest contingent of students from any congregation outside Louisville. Ten LPTS graduates have served on the church’s staff.
Thompson has served as a member of the board of trustees and an adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary and Union-PSCE, and as an instructor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He has also served on the PC(USA)’s Committee on Theological Education (COTE).
Thompson is a co-author of Go Therefore: 150 Years of Presbyterians in Global Mission (Presbyterian Publishing House, 1987) and Virginia Presbyterians in American Life: Hanover Presbytery (1755-1980). He is a co-editor of Essays on the History of the Household of Faith, a collection published in Honor of James Hutchinson Smylie.
“The faculty representatives on the search committee are enthusiastic in our support of Dr. Thompson as our new president,” said Nancy Ramsay, a professor of pastoral theology. “He brings a career-long involvement in theological education that will make it easy for him to step into our ongoing work knowledgeably and skillfully. His passion for theological education is contagious. His vision for the role of theological education is a good fit.”
Thompson, who will assume his new role on June 28, is married to Rebecca Azile McDaniel, a musician and conductor who is the founding director of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. Their son, Nathan, works as a production director for National Public Radio in Los Angeles; their daughter, Genevieve Apelian of Irvine, CA, is a high school English and drama teacher. |
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