“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues” (I Corinthians 12:27-28).
Austin Seminary has always understood its primary mission to be to educate men and women to serve as pastors of churches in the Southwest. Over the years many have served faithfully and with distinction in large and small congregations. With the approach of the seminary’s Mid-Winter Lectures (January 27-29) it seems appropriate to take note of some of those graduates who not only served congregations as pastors, but many who also went on to serve the Church in administrative ways – presidents of seminaries, presbytery and synod executives, moderators of General Assemblies, editors of national publications, stated clerks of General Assembly, members of National and World Council of Churches, to name only a few.
The third president of Austin Seminary was Thomas White Currie who served in that capacity until his death in 1943 (full disclosure – my grandfather). He also was elected moderator of the PCUS General Assembly in 1930. He was succeeded as APTS president by one of the Seminary’s own 1936 graduates, David Leander Stitt in 1945. Stitt had served congregations in Texas and Missouri before returning to Austin. He served as president until 1971 when he returned to the pastorate in the Houston area.
During Stitt’s tenure as APTS president, several of the school’s alumni distinguished themselves, academically and professionally. C. Ellis Nelson, a 1940 alumnus, taught Christian education at the seminary, became an authority in that field, and in 1974 became president of Louisville Theological Seminary where he served until he “retired.” He and his wife, Nancy, returned to Austin where with the departure of Jack Maxwell he served as interim president of the seminary. With the arrival of Jack Stotts as president, Nelson returned to the classroom to teach courses in Christian education.
James I. McCord, a native of Rusk, Texas and a graduate of Austin College,, graduated from Austin Seminary in 1942. For two years he served as acting pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1944 he returned to Austin where he served as interim pastor at University Presbyterian Church for two years and on the seminary faculty for 15 years, first as professor and later as academic dean. In 1959 McCord left Austin Seminary for Princeton, New Jersey where he served as president of Princeton Seminary until his retirement in 1983. As president of Princeton Seminary, McCord also served on various committees of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC).
While most of his ministry was as a pastor, David Currie (B.D., 1943) served for four years at the Presbyterian School for Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia (full disclosure – my uncle).
Most of Thomas W. Currie, Jr.’s ministry (Th.M., 1952) was also as a pastor, but from 1963-1967 he served as executive presbyter for church extension for Brazos Presbytery (now New Covenant Presbytery). His chief responsibility was to help start new churches in that presbytery (full disclosure – my father).
John Anderson (Th.M., 1953), a graduate of Austin College, served pastorates in Tyler, Texas, Orlando, Florida, and Dallas, Texas. From 1965-1973 he served on the Board of National Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1982 he was elected the last moderator of the PCUS before reunion with the United Presbyterian Church occurred in 1983.
William Fogleman (B.D., 1953) was also a graduate of Austin College (1950). He
served churches in Arkansas (Lonoke and Little Rock). In 1967 he became general presbyter of Brazos Presbytery (now New Covenant) where he remained until 1972 when he became executive of the Synod of Red River (now Synod of the Sun).
James “Jim” Andrews was in the Austin Seminary class of 1956. After serving as associate pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Houston, he went to Geneva, Switzerland where he worked for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches for two years. In 1960 he returned to the U.S. where he served as assistant to the president of Princeton Seminary until 1971 when he became the assistant stated clerk of the PCUS General Assembly. Two years later he became the stated clerk of the PCUS General Assembly and with the reunion of the two major Presbyterian denominations in 1983 he served as stated clerk of the reunited church. He stayed in that position until he retired in 1996.
A native of Mexico and a graduate of Tex.-Mex, (now Presbyterian Pan American School) in 1950 and Austin College in 1954, Jorge Lara-Braud graduated from Austin Seminary in 1959. He then entered the Ph.D. program at Princeton Seminary where he stayed for three years. Although he never completed his dissertation, he was offered the position of dean and professor of theology at the Presbyterian seminary in Mexico City. After two years he was brought up on charges of heresy (teaching that Roman Catholics were Christian; demeaning the clergy by highlighting the quality of laypersons; and taking students to movies that depicted biblical characters). Upon his resignation in 1966 he was offered a position on the faculty of Austin Seminary. At the Seminary he established the Hispanic American Institute. In 1973 he went to work for the National Council of Churches as well as for the World Council of Churches’ Office of Faith and Unity. He died in June of 2008. In 2023 his widow, Gretchen Lara-Shartle, published Dare to Adventure: The Life of Jorge Lara-Braud.
In 1967 Patricia “Pat” McClurg became the first woman Austin Seminary graduate to become ordained to the gospel ministry (two years earlier Dr. Rachel Henderlite became the first woman to be ordained in the PCUS; in that year she came to Austin to serve on the seminary faculty). After serving churches in Pasadena, Texas and Beaumont, Texas, McClurg worked for the Synod of Red River, and in 1975 she moved to Atlanta where she served on the General Assembly Mission Board for nine years, eventually chairing it. Between 1982 and 1991 she served on the National Council of Churches and was elected president in 1988-1989. Later she served on the staff of different presbyteries. She died in 2019.
Robert H. Bullock (M.Div., 1971), himself the son of a Presbyterian minister, served churches in Austin, Texas, Lynchburg, Virginia, and Allen, Texas before becoming the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook in 1988. He remained there until retiring in 2003. For his service as editor of The Outlook Bullock was honored at the 215th General Assembly meeting in Denver, Colorado. Bullock had succeeded Aubrey Brown and George Laird Hunt as editor of The Outlook.
Judy Record Fletcher (M.Div., 1969) served churches with her husband, David (M.Div., 1969), in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wynne, Arkansas, Houston, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. From 1997-2011 she served as the executive of the Synod of the Sun. Her service as a pastor and as an administrator raised the level of awareness of women in ministry in a most effective way.
After receiving his doctorate in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas W. Currie III (M.Div., 1973) served as pastor of churches in Brenham, Texas and Kerrville, Texas. In 2001 he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where he oversaw the establishment of a degree-granting, branch campus of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond. He served there until his retirement in 2014 (full disclosure – my brother).
Laura Mendenhall (D.Min., 1997), a 1969 graduate of Austin College, received her M.Div. from San Francisco Seminary in 1980. kAfter serving churches in Florida, Texas, and California, in 1991 she became the first woman pastor as head of staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Austin. She remained there for nine years. In 2000 she was named the president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia , the first woman to hold that position at that school. She stayed there until 2009. She is married to Rev. Chuck Mendenhall who has served, among other positions, as president of Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services.
After serving churches as pastor, Michael Jinkins (D.Min.) joined the faculty of Austin Seminary. In 2010 he became president of Louisville Theological Seminary where he stayed until his retirement in 2018.
Other more recent Austin Seminary graduates who either have served or are currently serving the church in administrative positions include Scott Campbell (general presbyter of Palo Duro Presbytery) and Sallie Watson (general presbyter of Mission Presbytery, and Lynn Hargrove (general presbyter, New Covenant Presbytery). Also, Edward Dixon Junkin (B.D., 1962), after serving on the faculty of Austin Seminary and as academic dean there, went to Costa Rica serving as the Presbyterian Peacemaking representative.
If there are some who have been omitted from this list, the author offers his apologies.
Note: The 2025 annual meeting of the PHSSW will be held March 21-22 in Memphis, Tennessee. The Friday evening event will be held at Idlewild Presbyterian Church, while the Saturday morning papers will be presented at Memphis Theological Seminary. All are invited. There is no charge. Copies of papers from that meeting will be sent to those who are members of the Society.
