wfn.org | Annual banquet for Dempster scholars announced

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 21. 1998	Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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By Kathy Gilbert*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Six doctoral candidates have become the
latest recipients of Dempster Graduate Fellowships, adding their names
to a growing list of scholars who have made their mark on United
Methodist higher education.	
Since 1954, the Dempster Graduate Fellowships have helped graduate
students move toward careers in theological education, and many have
gone on to become seminary and university presidents, professors, and
pastors.	
Past and present Dempster Graduate Fellowship recipients will be honored
at the first banquet of Dempster fellows on Nov. 21. The event is being
held in conjunction with the American Academy of Religion and the
Society for Biblical Literature, which are meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Organizers plan on making the banquet an annual event.
"These recipients represent the best of United Methodist intellectual
thought and scholarship," said the Rev. John E. Harnish, a staff
executive over the Division of Ordained Ministry at the United Methodist
General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. The division administers
the awards, and money is made available through the Ministerial
Education Fund.

"The purpose of this gathering is to recognize the contributions these
recipients have made to United Methodist higher education and to create
an ongoing forum for Dempster fellows," said  Robert Feaster, chairman
of the Dempster Endowment Committee.	Thomas A. Langford, 1955-56
Dempster recipient and former provost of Duke University, will be the
keynote speaker for the Nov. 21 banquet.
"Receiving the Dempster award was a great turning point in my life, and
I am extremely grateful," said William Mallard Jr., one of the first to
receive the scholarship in 1954. "I had just reached the point where the
matter of resources was a great question mark. The award saved the day
for me."
Mallard went on to finish his degree and has been a professor of church
history at Candler School of Theology for 41 years.	

"The Dempster scholarship opened my eyes so I could see my work and my
future roles in the public sphere," said Sunja Choi-Chong, one of the
1998-99 recipients and a Ph.D. candidate at Chicago Theological
Seminary. "The Dempster scholarship reassured me of my calling and
responsibilities that I felt when I first made the decision to study
theology." 	
The Dempster fellowships have helped prepare a distinguished group of
people who are committed to both the church and the academy, Harnish
said.	
Former recipients include: Donald E. Messer, president of Iliff School
of Theology, 1996-68 recipient; Rebecca Chopp, provost at Emory
University, 1980-81 recipient; Karen Y. Collier, assistant professor at
Fisk University, 1975-76 recipient; F. Thomas Trotter, former president
of Alaska Pacific University, 1955-56 recipient; and John W. Z. Kurewa,
first vice chancellor of Africa University, 1972-73 recipient.	
As part of the annual gathering, a collection of dissertations from
Dempster fellows will be on permanent display at the Laskey Library in
the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville. A directory of Dempster
fellows is also being developed for the banquet.	
The awards are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century Methodist
preacher who helped found three seminaries related to the denomination.
The fellowships are "a significant commitment to future United Methodist
biblical and theological scholarship," Harnish said. There have been 190
recipients of the fellowships since 1954.	
Selection for the Dempster award is based on intellectual competence,
academic achievement, promise of usefulness in teaching careers,
personal qualities, and clarity of spiritual purpose and commitment.

# # #

*Gilbert is a staff member in the Office of Interpretation at the Board
of Higher Education and Ministry.

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