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Note #7970 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Former Austin Seminary president Stitt dies
03432
October 8, 2003

Former Austin Seminary president Stitt dies

by Randal Whittington
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

AUSTIN, TX - The Rev. David Leander Stitt, president of Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary from 1945-1971, died on Friday, Oct. 3 at his home in
Black Mountain, NC.

Born Oct. 5, 1912, in Fort Worth, TX, Stitt studied at Texas Christian
University and graduated from Austin College in 1933. He earned the B.D. from
Austin Seminary in 1936 and was ordained as pastor to First Presbyterian
Church, Haskell, TX. In 1938, he became pastor of Westminster Presbyterian
Church in St. Louis, MO.

In 1945, the Austin Seminary Board of Trustees extended the call to Stitt to
become the institution's fourth president, a position he held for twenty-six
years.

Throughout his years as president of Austin Seminary, Stitt traveled
throughout the region winning friends and securing financial support for the
institution. This strategy produced remarkable results, and was the
foundation for the seminary's stature in the Synod and denomination. It is a
commonly held belief that David Stitt - ably assisted by James I. McCord and
C. Ellis Nelson - created Austin Seminary as it exists today.

The Seminary changed dramatically during Stitt's presidency. The campus
quadrupled in size, with Stitt responsible for the construction of the
seminary library, an edifice that was later named in his and his wife's
honor. Currie Hall, the McMillan Classroom Building, and the Trull
Administration Building were also built during his tenure.

Student enrollment grew from eighteen students in 1945 to 150 in 1971; it is
estimated that nearly one thousand seminarians knew him as their president.

The Austin Seminary faculty doubled under Stitt's care. A notable addition
was Rachel Henderlite, the Seminary's first female professor and the first
woman ordained in the former Presbyterian Church in the United States. The
Seminary's endowment increased tenfold.

In a move that surprised many, Stitt resigned the presidency in 1971 to
return to his first calling: the pastorate. He served as associate pastor of
First Presbyterian Church, Houston, and then as pastor of Bellaire
Presbyterian Church, Houston.

He retired in Houston and later moved permanently to Black Mountain, NC, near
the Montreat Conference Center.

Stitt served many of the governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church: as
moderator of the Synods of Missouri (1942) and Texas (1952), moderator of the
PCUS General Assembly (1980), and chairman of the Board of World Missions
(1966-1975). He was a representative to the World Council of Churches and
served on the boards of numerous ecclesiastical institutions.

Stitt was married to Jane Dupuy Stitt who died Dec. 26, 2001. He is survived
by their six children, David Stitt, John Stitt, Stephen Stitt, Daniel Stitt,
Sara Stitt, and Susan Driver, seventeen grandchildren, and two
great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held Oct. 10 in Gaither Chapel of
Montreat College. A memorial service is being planned for Austin at a later
date.

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