George F. Barber III Named President of
Montreat Conference Center

MONTREAT, N.C., September 5 - George F. Barber, III, a Presbyterian elder from Memphis, has been named as the next president of Montreat Conference Center, one of three national conference centers of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Barber, who was elected by a vote of Montreat’s Board of Directors in a called telephone conference on Friday, September 5, assumes his new role effective September 22. Barber, a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin, began a business career in the mid 1970s. Responding to what he has identified as God’s call, Barber left a CPA firm in Memphis to develop an affordable retirement community in Blytheville, Ark., as the president and CEO of the Presbyterian Development Corporation. After serving in that capacity for eight years, in 2003 he became vice president of finance for Cooperative Retirement Services of America, Memphis, Tenn.

Barber succeeds Elder R. James “Jim” Henderson, who assumed duties as interim president of Montreat Conference Center on February 25, 2003, following the earlier resignation of former Montreat president, Emile H. Dieth, Jr.

“George impressed the search committee with his financial training and business experience, his long involvement with Montreat’s programs, and his passion for our conference center ministry,” said W. Brinkley Melvin of Chapin, S.C., chair of the search committee and vice chair of Montreat’s Board of Directors. “He is responding personally and unconditionally to God’s call to preserve and to uphold Montreat’s mission for the generations to come.”

Barber’s specific involvement with Montreat Youth Conferences began in 1990 and has included assignments as a planning team member in 1998 and a co-director in 2003.

An ordained elder and member of the Balmoral Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tenn., Barber has served both church and community in a number of appointed and elected capacities. He has served as president of the East Memphis Kiwanis Club for two consecutive years, receiving the “Distinguished President” award from Kiwanis International. The Rotary Club of Blytheville, Ark, also named Barber a Paul Harris Fellow. He and his wife, Wanda, who plan to make their home in Montreat, have one daughter, April Barber.