ENS reports:
The Very Rev. Ward Burleson Ewing, dean and president of the General Theological Seminary (GTS), has told the school he plans to retire.
…In explaining his plans, Ewing, 67, cited three recent developments that he said were milestones in the seminary’s effort to achieve financial stability.
In August GTS successfully refinanced all of its debt. Last month, it received the necessary approvals from the city to operate its Desmond Tutu Center as a hotel and to rent guest rooms to the public when they are not being used for Seminary conferences. The income from those rentals “are a critical component for future operating expenses and debt service,” the release said.
And the school recently received what the release called two major gifts from Polly Keller Winter (widow of Arkansas Bishop Christoph Keller) and their son, the Rev. Canon Christoph Keller III, together with a sizable grant from the William Wood Foundation, will enable General to complete a new library and to fund a new professorship in Christian education.
See also, the EDS news release, General Seminary Will Begin Search for 13th Dean and President