William J. Carl III, president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, will retire in mid-2015, after a decade of service, the seminary has announced.
Serving as president since 2005, Carl has led the seminary’s largest capital campaign, raising more than $20 million for student scholarships. During his tenure, the seminary also added programs and sites where students can study, including a Doctor of Ministry program with a focus on science and theology; a Master of Divinity program with an emphasis in church planting; and study programs in Phoenix; Charleston, South Carolina; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Scotland.
Before coming to the seminary, Carl, who is 65, served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dallas for 22 years and was an associate professor of homiletics and worship at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1973.
A committee has been selected to search for Carl’s successor, who will become Pittsburgh seminary’s sixth president since its founding in 1794.
