ETSSW Elects Dean
Diocesan Press Service. February 16, 1973 [73042]
HOUSTON, Tex. -- The Rev. Gordon T. Charlton, Jr., professor of field education at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia for the past six years, has accepted his election as dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.
Dean-elect Charlton is expected to take office in June, 1973, upon the retirement of the present dean, the Very Rev. Lawrence L. Brown.
A native of Texas, the dean-elect was born in San Antonio, received his early schooling in the Alamo city and his BA from the University of Texas in 1944. He served in the Navy in World War II as an ensign attached to a subchaser in the Pacific theater.
He received his M. Div. degree from Virginia Seminary in 1949.
He was ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop Quin in 1950 at St. James Church, Houston. His first church service was to St. James, Houston from 1949 to 1951 working with the Rev. Thomas Bagby, then rector of St. James, now rector of St. Martin's, Houston.
Dean-elect Charlton was rector of St. Matthew's, Fairbanks, Alaska, from 1951 to 1954; personnel secretary of the Overseas Department of the Executive Council in New York City from 1954 to 1958, and rector of Christ Church, Mexico City from 1958 to 1963. Immediately before joining the teaching staff of Virginia Seminary, he was rector of St. Andrew's, Wilmington, Delaware.
His task for the past five and a half years has been to design and make operative a program of professional training for the ministry to complement the academic curriculum of Virginia Seminary.
He is married to the former Cutler Crump of Hopewell, Virginia and they have three children, one of whom, Virginia, is a graduate student in Vermont. The other two, David and Duncan, are students at William & Mary.
Episcopal Theological Seminary in the Southwest began its 21st year this September. It has students from the Episcopal Dioceses of Arkansas, New Mexico and Southwest Texas, Texas, West Texas, Wyoming and Montana. It is one of twelve accredited Episcopal seminaries in the country; one of only two located west of the Mississippi. Representatives on the Board of Trustees include one each from the dioceses of Arkansas, West Texas, Northwest Texas, New Mexico and Southwest Texas, and Oklahoma, as well as ten from the Diocese of Texas and one representing the alumni. The Rt. Rev. J. Milton Richardson, Bishop of the Diocese of Texas, is president of the Seminary Board.