wfn.org | Montreat President Resigns

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

30-June-1997 
97260 
 
                    Montreat President Resigns 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Rev. William S. Dunifon, embattled president of the 
Mountain Retreat Association (Montreat) in Black Mountain, N.C., has 
submitted his resignation to the association's board of directors, 
effective immediately. 
 
     Dunifon had come under increasing criticism since he took the 
Presbyterian conference center's top post in January 1996.  Objections to 
his management style were compounded by mounting financial difficulties. 
The General Assembly Council, which had already loaned Montreat $1.5 
million, rejected a request for an additional $1 million at its June 
meeting in Syracuse, saying it saw insufficient signs that a sound 
long-range business plan was in place. 
 
     In accepting Dunifon's resignation, Robert Edington, chair of the 
Montreat board of directors, praised Dunifon for upgrading the conference 
center and for strengthening relations between Montreat and Montreat 
College and the town of Montreat. 
 
     Edington also announced the appointment of the Rev. R. David Steele as 
acting president, effective July 1.  Steele, a renowned Presbyterian poet, 
essayist and retired pastor, served as 1996 theologian-in-residence at 
Montreat. 

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