In his resignation letter to the board, Mulder wrote, “As you know, I have had a number of health problems in recent years and recently learned that I have suffered some mild strokes. I have so much more I want to accomplish in service to God, and I want to devote more time to my dear family.”
Mulder told board members he came to the seminary because of a profound sense of call, and added, “I leave with an equally profound sense of God’s call to do something which does not involve the daily demands of the presidency.”
Dorothy Ridings, chair of the board, announced the board’s decision and said, “John’s leadership of the seminary and indeed of theological education generally, has been remarkable. He will be remembered for his years of outstanding leadership.”
She added that the seminary’s Administrative Cabinet, under the leadership of Dean Dianne Reistroffer, will continue to oversee the day-to-day activities of the seminary until an interim president is named.
A Presidential Search Committee will be chaired by Dr. Robert Reed, a Cincinnati physician and immediate past chair of the board. The committee will be representative of the seminary community. The search will be denomination-wide, and it could take at least a year before a new president is in place.
When Mulder arrived on the Louisville Seminary campus as its seventh president; he was only 35 years old. Though he claimed to have little experience in administration, he quickly demonstrated an innate gift for leadership and a vision for directing the mission of a nationally recognized institution.
Mulder focused on strengthening Louisville Seminary’s faculty, programs and infrastructure. Since 1981, he added 13 merit scholarships, managed the overall growth of the Seminary’s endowment from $11.5 million in 1981 to $73.8 million in 2000 and increased the number of faculty endowed chairs from one to ten.
“I was asked how I wanted to be remembered as president,” Mulder stated once. “I replied, Œthat I helped to build a faculty.’ That is the most important contribution I think I have made to Louisville Seminary and to the church of Jesus Christ.”
Milton J Coalter, vice president for library and information technology and Mulder’s colleague and friend, recalled that nearly all the faculty were due to retire in the president’s first decade in office. “He set in motion the collaborative effort of faculty, students and alumni/ae to attract a group of men and women who shared his love of teaching, his commitment to rigorous scholarship, and his devotion to Jesus Christ and the church. Working with that faculty, John has brought national attention to the Seminary by fostering fruitful research and reflection on the challenges facing Christian communions today,” Coalter said.
His comprehensive vision has embodied the basic objective of equipping people for ministry, for leadership, for faith development, for the future. This is evident in initiatives such as the Lilly Endowment funded Louisville Institute, the Lay Institute of Theology, the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, a degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy that is rated one of the top in the nation, and the Center for Congregations and Family Ministries.
“John has done all this,” remarked Coalter, “while remaining vitally active as a respected scholar of American religion and Presbyterianism.” Ten years ago, with Coalter and Louis B. Weeks, Mulder published the groundbreaking, award-winning Presbyterian Presence series funded by the Lilly Endowment. Published by Westminster John Knox Press, it was a comprehensive study of the Presbyterian Church in the 20th century. No other American denomination attempted such a task. Their book Vital Signs has been revised and will be released by Faith Walk Publishing in November.
In the Presbyterian denomination, Mulder is perhaps best known for his efforts to provide a central location for the national headquarters and the creation of a new logo for the newly re-united Presbyterian Church. He has continued to serve the denomination in behalf of the education of ministers and other church leaders.
In his letter to the board of trustees, Mulder said, “In my inaugural sermon in September 1981, I said I felt called to be president of this Seminary. It’s been a wonderful experience these 21 years and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead this exceptional Seminary during that time I came here because of a profound sense of call, and I leave with an equally profound sense of God’s call to continue to serve the church through preaching, writing, and teaching.”
