{"id":173,"date":"2021-10-01T09:18:18","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berea.edu\/rel\/?page_id=173"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:04:13","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T14:04:13","slug":"francis-alexander-mcgaw-professorship-in-religion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/legacy.berea.edu\/rel\/endowed-professorships\/francis-alexander-mcgaw-professorship-in-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Jeff B. Pool<br \/>\nEli Lilly Chair in Religion and Culture<br \/>\nProfessor of Religion<\/em><\/p>\n<p>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.<strong><sup>1<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 Their gift established the Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion to memorialize and to honor Foster McGaw\u2019s father: <a href=\"https:\/\/legacy.berea.edu\/rel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2021\/10\/16.4d\u2020.-Webpages-Dept.-for-Studies-of-Religions-and-Spirituality-McGaw-Biography.pdf\"><strong><em>Francis Alexander McGaw<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Francis Alexander McGaw (1855\u20131942) had served as a Presbyterian Christian minister to congregations in the Appalachian mountains.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He served there until his death in Africa at 87 years of age in 1942.<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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\u201378.\u00a0 Since that time, to date, only three faculty-members have held this particular academic chair: <em>James Y. Holloway<\/em>; <em>Robert W. Suder<\/em>; and <em>Jeffrey L. Richey<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>James Y. Holloway (1977\u201392)<\/h2>\n<p>On the basis of a national search, the College hired its first incumbent for this named chair: <em>The Rev. Dr. James Y. Holloway<\/em>.\u00a0 Professor Holloway had taught at Berea College since 1965, when he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion.<strong><sup>3<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 Professor Holloway occupied the McGaw chair in religion from 1977 until his retirement in 1992.\u00a0 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).<strong><sup>4<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Robert W. Suder (2001\u20132014)<\/h2>\n<p>The Francis Alexander McGaw Chair in Religion remained vacant from 1992, following the retirement of Professor James Y. Holloway, until 2001.\u00a0 In 2001, the College appointed Robert W. Suder as the Francis Alexander McGaw Professor of Religion.<strong><sup>5<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 Robert Suder had accepted a teaching position at Berea College in 1985 as Assistant Professor of Religion.\u00a0 Professor Suder occupied the McGaw chair until his retirement in 2014.<strong><sup>6<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 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).<strong><sup>7<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Jeffrey L. Richey (2015\u201318)<\/h2>\n<p>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.).\u00a0 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).<strong><sup>8<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 Following the retirement of Robert W. Suder, the McGaw Chair in Religion remained vacant during the academic year of 2014\u201315.<strong><sup>9<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 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.<strong><sup>10<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 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.<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0 The Chair has remained vacant to date.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/legacy.berea.edu\/rel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2021\/10\/16.4b\u2020.-Webpages-Dept.-for-Studies-of-Religions-and-Spirituality-McGaw-Endowed-Professorship-ENDNOTES.pdf\"><strong>Endnotes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00a0 Their gift established the Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":165,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-173","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion - Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Francis Alexander McGaw Professorship in Religion - Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jeff B. 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