A $1.5 million endowment to establish a faculty chair in Bible will be named in honor of Thomas W. Currie III, dean of Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education at Charlotte, and the four generations of his family who have served as ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, it was announced recently.
The Thomas Currie Chair of Bible is a permanent endowment fund to support a professor of Bible at the Charlotte campus of Union-PSCE. It is being established by F. O’Neil Griffin of Kerrville, Texas, and his wife, Gena Griffin. The Griffins are members of First Church in Kerrville, the congregation where Thomas W. Currie III served as pastor before becoming Union-PSCE dean.
The four generations of Curries for whom the chair is named include:
- Thomas W. Currie, 1879 – 1943, a former professor and president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, supply pastor, and moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.);
- Thomas W. Currie, Jr., 1914 — 2005, pastor of several churches in Texas, organizing pastor of two new church developments and a one-time executive secretary for church extension in Brazos Presbytery;
- Thomas W. Currie III, born 1946, the dean of Union-PSCE at Charlotte and pastor of churches in Brenham and Kerrville, Texas;
- Thomas Christian Currie, born 1974, who serves as pastor of Calypso Church in Calypso, N.C.
