Louis B. Weeks, president of Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, has announced plans to retire from the seminary June 30, 2007.
Weeks was named the sixth president of Union in May 1994.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I express profound gratitude to Louis for his leadership since 1994,” said Art Ross, pastor of White Memorial Church in Raleigh, N.C., and chair of the seminary Board of Trustees. “During the time Louis has served as president, the seminary has experienced great change: the important federation with the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, establishment of the highly successful Charlotte campus, and a major capital campaign that now has surpassed the 85 percent mark and will surely exceed the $50 million goal prior to Louis’ actual retirement.”
John Kuykendall, a member of the Board of Trustees, will chair the search for the new president. Kuykendall is a retired president of Davidson College. A former chair of the Union-PSCE board, he also served an interim term as president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Weeks, 64, was born in Memphis, Tenn. He holds the Ph.D. degree from Duke University (1970), the B.D. degree from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (1967), and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University (1963). Prior to becoming president of Union Seminary, he was professor of church history at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He served as dean of the seminary there for 11 years.
He is an author and historian who, along with Milton J Coalter and John Mulder, published a seven-volume study of Presbyterianism and other mainline denominations in twentieth century America. His service to the church also includes work in missions as an instructor in the Republic of Zaire in the 1960s and as an interim pastor of Presbyterian churches in Kentucky and North Carolina.
