Louisville Seminary Names
Dean K. Thompson
as Its Eighth President

The Board of Trustees of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary today named Rev. Dr. Dean K. Thompson as its eighth president. Thompson is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, West Virginia, a 1,600-member congregation he has served since 1995.

Of the many applicants and candidates we reviewed, Dean Thompson most admirably fulfills the qualifications of our Presidential Profile,” said Robert Reed, MD, a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Presidential Search Committee. The committee began its search more than 18 months ago, following the resignation of John M. Mulder.

“Dean Thompson shares a Christian commitment that is exemplified by the context of his life and the way he directs his church in Charleston. He brings to the leadership of Louisville Seminary a wealth of pastoral and theological experience, serving churches from Pasadena, California, to Austin, Texas, to West Virginia and three seminaries. He has worked beside many of the outstanding people in the theological community and Presbyterian Church over the past two decades,” said Reed.

Born in Ironton, Ohio, in 1943, Thompson grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, and graduated from Marshall University with a degree in history. He earned the Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he also received a Masters of Theology in church history and the Doctor of Philosophy in American religious studies and intellectual history beginning with the period of the Industrial Revolution.

“The faculty representatives on the search committee are enthusiastic in our support of Dr. Thompson as our new president,” said Professor of Pastoral Theology Nancy J. Ramsay who served on the committee with colleague Dr. Scott Williamson, professor of theological ethics. “He brings a careerlong involvement in theological education that will make it easy for him to step into our ongoing work knowledgeably and skillfully. His passion for theological education is contagious. His vision for the role of theological education is a good fit with the trajectory of our current institutional conversations.”

Many on the presidential search committee, which also included members of the Board of Trustees and alum, student, and employee representatives, suggested that Thompson “has spent thirty years preparing to be a seminary president. His time has come.”

In accepting the call to serve as the Seminary’s president, beginning June 28, 2004, Thompson will lead the only Presbyterian seminary that was supported by both the northern and southern Presbyterian Churches prior to Reunion in 1983.

Thompson is married to Rebecca Azile McDaniel, a gifted musician and conductor who specializes in choral work with children and youth and is the founding director of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. She teaches elementary music and is a director with the Appalachian Children’s Chorus. They have a son, Nathan, production director for National Public Radio in Los Angeles, California, and a daughter, Genevieve Apelian, a teacher of high school English and drama, who lives in Irvine, California.