Michael Lindsay named president of Gordon College in Massachusetts
The Boston Globe
April 3, 2011
D. Michael Lindsay, an evangelical scholar at Rice University in Houston and a leading sociologist on the role of religion and public life, has been named the eighth president of Gordon College, a Christian liberal arts school in Wenham.
Lindsay, 39, is the youngest president ever appointed to lead Gordon, founded in 1889 in Boston as a missionary training school. He serves as the director of the Program for the Study of Leadership at Rice. Lindsay said he hopes to raise the profile of the 1,500-student college north of Boston.
“Boston is the nerve center of intellectual life in the US,’’ Lindsay said in a telephone interview from Gordon, where he spent yesterday meeting with faculty and students. “We need to raise the flag of Gordon higher, and in more places, around the globe.’’
Gordon ranked 131st on a list of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges published last year by US News and World Report. It has a long history of combining Christian values with academics. The college operates an urban studies program for juniors and seniors at a house in Dorchester.
“There is a rich legacy of Gordon serving the area, and I hope to build upon that,’’ Lindsay said. “There is practically no other institution like Gordon that brings academic inquiry and the Christian commitment together.’’
Lindsay, who will start on July 1, will succeed R. Judson Carlberg, who served as president for 19 years.