wfn.org | Former Montreat President Named Interim Head of Foundation

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4-March-1999 
99091 
 
    Former Montreat President 
    Named Interim Head of Foundation 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A former interim president of Montreat Conference Center 
has been named  temporary president and CEO of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) Foundation. 
 
    R. James Henderson, a retired education executive, will assume the post 
on May 1, succeeding  Larry Carr, who announced last month that he would 
step down to be with his wife in Boston, Mass. 
 
    "I'm excited about it," Henderson said from his Montreat, N.C. home, 
which overlooks the conference center. "I've been so busy with volunteer 
(work) and other activities that it probably will not be as big a change as 
if I had been playing golf everyday." 
 
    Henderson, a Foundation trustee since 1995, was serving as the board's 
vice chair when asked to take over as interim president. He will take a 
temporary leave from the board until at least October, when a  proposal for 
a permanent president is expected to be brought before the trustees. 
 
    Henderson and his wife, Betty, will reside in the Louisville area. 
 
    Board chair John Evans expressed delight with Henderson's appointment: 
"How blessed we are to have ... a proven, experienced and committed servant 
of the church to build on the foundation's previously laid (plans) and to 
manage our operations." 
 
    Henderson, 60, came out of retirement to serve as Montreat's interim 
president from mid-1997 through early last year. He had a long career as an 
administrator at colleges and universities. 
 
    He served in a number of administrative positions at Ohio University in 
Athens, Ohio, and was vice president for business of the 
Presbyterian-affiliated Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga. At Duke 
University in Durham, N.C., he served as associate vice president for 
business and finance. He retired in 1995 as vice president for finance and 
administration at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
    Henderson said he expects key tasks during his stay to include 
improving the Foundation's relationships with other Presbyterian entities, 
such as the General Assembly, and building upon the success of recently 
established programs such as the New Covenant Trust Co., a for-profit 
venture that manages charitable trusts for churches and other religious 
bodies. 
 
    "Certainly we want to keep the forward momentum there," Henderson said, 
adding: "One of the responsibilities of the president, at any time in 
history, is to cultivate those relationships." 
 
    Henderson is a trustee at Presbyterian-related Warren Wilson College in 
Swannanoa, N.C., and a board member of the Mountain Area Child and Family 
Center, which is due to open next year in Swannanoa. He remains active with 
the Montreat Conference Center and is chairman of the governing committee 
of Jarvie Commonweal Service, a Presbyterian ministry for senior citizens 
in New York. 
 
    He has been an interim president of University Circle Inc., a 
Cleveland, Ohio, planning and service agency that represents 43 
not-for-profit institutions. He is a former elder at Trinity Avenue 
Presbyterian Church in Durham, N.C., and at Fairmount Presbyterian Church 
in Cleveland. 
 
    A native of Arkansas City, Kan., Henderson earned a bachelor's degree 
in political science and history from Kansas State University in Manhattan, 
Kan. After a stint in the United States Navy (1961-'65), he received a 
master's degree in higher education administration from Ohio University. 
 
    Since 1799, the Foundation has been serving the church and its mission 
through the cultivation and management of gifts and endowments. In the past 
five years, the Foundation, which manages assets exceeding $1.8 billion, 
has distributed more than $350 million in support of Presbyterian mission 
and ministries. 

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