Interim deans, directors named for three of Southwestern’s schools

Jack Terry has been named interim dean for the Terry School of Church and Family Ministries and Mark Taylor has been named interim senior associate dean for the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition, following the retirement of Denny Autrey as dean of the Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston, Hudson Hanks and Benjamin Phillips have been named directors of the Sagemont and Darrington campuses, respectively. 

Jack Terry, for whom the Terry School of Church and Family Ministries is named, returns to the deanship after having served as dean of Southwestern’s school of religious education from 1974-1995. More recently, he served as vice president for Institutional Advancement, becoming vice president emeritus in 2005. 

Terry first came to Southwestern in 1956, earning his Master of Religious Education (1962), Doctor of Education (1967), and later his Ph.D. (1994). His book Christian Education on the Plains of Texas, a history of the first 100 years of Southwestern’s school of religious education, was released by Seminary Hill Press this summer (see here).

Mark Taylor has assumed the position of interim senior associate dean during the interim presidency of D. Jeffrey Bingham. Bingham will retain the title of dean, but Taylor will be responsible for faculty meetings of the School of Theology and the daily administrative and personnel matters that are routinely handled by the dean’s office. Taylor will also attend to faculty and student needs and oversee assessment in the school. 

In addition to the deanship, Taylor serves as professor of New Testament at Southwestern. Before coming to the seminary, Taylor served various churches in the Southeast, including the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Osceola, Ark. 

Denny Autrey, the founding dean of the Havard School in Houston, retired on July 31. He will continue, however, to teach preaching and evangelism at Southwestern’s Houston campuses. As Craig Blaising, executive vice president and provost, said, “We intend to keep you close, Dr. Autrey, because there are many more students who need to be impacted by the ministry that you’ve had over the years and still need to have.”

During Autrey’s retirement reception, July 31, Ed Thompson, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, spoke of Autrey’s significance within the state of Texas as a seminary dean and prolific preacher. Thompson concluded by speaking a “blessing” over Autrey: “May God remember you today like Noah, protect you like Daniel, heal you like Naman, prosper you like Isaac, anoint you like David, answer you like Elijah, use you like Paul, intervene for you like Esther, and fight for you as He did for the Israelites. Brother Autrey, thank you.”

In Autrey’s place, Hudson Hanks has been named director of the Havard School’s Sagemont campus and Benjamin Phillips has been named director of the Havard School’s Darrington campus. Hanks previously served as director of business and student services at the Havard School, working to provide academic and administrative support for the students preparing for ministry there. Phillips, meanwhile, continues to serve as associate professor of systematic theology and oversees the four-year bachelor’s program for inmates in the Darrington Prison Unit.