Greenfield Elected President of Divinity School
Episcopal News Service. August 21, 1980 [80278]
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- On August 12, Dr. Larry L. Greenfield was elected president of Colgate Rochester-Bexley Hall-Crozer Divinity School, the clustered professional graduate school which educates men and women for Christian ministry in more than a score of denominations.
Dr. Greenfield, who has been Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School since 1972, will take office on September 1.
At 38, Dr. Greenfield is the second youngest president in the 163-year history of the Divinity School, fourth oldest in the United States.
The Divinity School incorporates Colgate Rochester Divinity School, the Baptist Missionary Training School, and Crozer Theological Seminary, all officially related to the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., and Bexley Hall, a seminary of the Episcopal Church.
Dr. Greenfield is originally from Sioux Falls, S. D., and holds his undergraduate degree from Sioux Falls College, an American Baptist-related institution, in philosophy and history. He earned the Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, receiving his doctorate in theology in 1978. He is an ordained American Baptist minister.
In response to his election, Dr. Greenfield said: ". . .I would hope in the years ahead that the School will continue to be willing to pay the price of being a leader in the American Baptist and Episcopal traditions. The very existence of this cluster is one significant example of responsible leadership. Other prominent examples include the School's historic concern with the social dimensions of Christianity, its inauguration of the first and most comprehensive program of Black Church Studies at any predominantly white seminary, its emphasis upon the preparation of women for ministry, and its concern for serious theological education for lay leaders of the churches. "
The Divinity School traces its history to 1817 and the founding of the Colgate Theological Seminary in Hamilton, N. Y. Colgate and the Rochester Theological Seminary, founded in 1850, merged into Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1928. The Baptist Missionary Training School, founded in Chicago in 1881 to prepare women to serve in Baptist missions throughout the world, merged with Colgate Rochester in 1962. Bexley Hall, founded in 1824 in Gambler, Ohio, moved to Rochester and into affiliation with Colgate Rochester in 1968. Crozer Theological Seminary was founded in Upland, Pa., in 1868, and moved into affiliation with Colgate Rochester and Bexley Hall in 1970.
The Divinity School is affiliated with the University of Rochester and, through the Rochester Center for Theological Studies, with St. Bernard's Seminary, the Roman Catholic diocesan seminary.
The Divinity School graduate student body includes Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, members of the United Church of Christ, and representatives of more than 20 other Protestant denominations, and the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths.