By Jeff B. Pool
Eli Lilly Chair in Religion and Culture
Professor of Religion
In 1972, Mr. and Mrs. Foster G. McGaw of Evanston, Illinois donated funds for an endowment to support a named chair for studies of religions and spirituality at Berea College.1 Their gift established the Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion to memorialize and to honor Foster McGaw’s father: Francis Alexander McGaw. Francis Alexander McGaw (1855–1942) had served as a Presbyterian Christian minister to congregations in the Appalachian mountains. He had concluded his career, however, by fulfilling his lifelong dream to serve as a foreign missionary: thus, in 1937, at 82 years of age, he established a mission in Nairobe, then a city in the Kenya Colony of British East Africa. He served there until his death in Africa at 87 years of age in 1942.2
Although the College received the gift for McGaw endowment in 1972, the first appointment to this endowed academic chair in the study of religions and spirituality did not occur until the academic year of 1977–78. Since that time, to date, only three faculty-members have held this particular academic chair: James Y. Holloway; Robert W. Suder; and Jeffrey L. Richey.
James Y. Holloway (1977–92)
On the basis of a national search, the College hired its first incumbent for this named chair: The Rev. Dr. James Y. Holloway. Professor Holloway had taught at Berea College since 1965, when he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion.3 Professor Holloway occupied the McGaw chair in religion from 1977 until his retirement in 1992. He held the following academic degrees: B.A., Vanderbilt University (1951); B.D., Vanderbilt University Divinity School (1954); M.A., Vanderbilt University (1954); and Ph.D., Yale University (1961).4
Robert W. Suder (2001–2014)
The Francis Alexander McGaw Chair in Religion remained vacant from 1992, following the retirement of Professor James Y. Holloway, until 2001. In 2001, the College appointed Robert W. Suder as the Francis Alexander McGaw Professor of Religion.5 Robert Suder had accepted a teaching position at Berea College in 1985 as Assistant Professor of Religion. Professor Suder occupied the McGaw chair until his retirement in 2014.6 He held the following academic degrees: B.S., Allegheney College (1965); M.Div., Lutheran Theological Seminary (now United Lutheran Seminary) (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) (1969); M.A., University of Wisconsin (1971); and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (1973).7
Jeffrey L. Richey (2015–18)
Jeffrey L. Richey accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Religion at Berea College in 2002 to teach religions of Asia (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, etc.). He held three academic degrees: B.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1994); M.T.S, Harvard University (1997); and Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union (2000).8 Following the retirement of Robert W. Suder, the McGaw Chair in Religion remained vacant during the academic year of 2014–15.9 On the basis of his direct request to the Dean of the Faculty, Richey received appointment to the Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion in 2015.10 In 2018, however, Jeffrey Richey moved from the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality (the current designation for the Department) to an exclusive appointment in the Department of Asian Studies to focus more broadly on cultural studies of East Asia, a change that required him to vacate this academic chair in more specific studies of religions and spirituality.11 The Chair has remained vacant to date.