PSR Historical Timeline

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  • 1866 – Congregational Church leaders meet in Sacramento to form the board of the California Theological Seminary Association; Joseph A. Benton is appointed first professor of Biblical literature.
  • 1887 – First Japanese student graduates from the seminary; first women students admitted 1895.
  • 1894 – PSR appoints first president, John Knox McClean.
  • 1901 – The seminary opens at its first Berkeley campus at 2223 Atherton Street, where it remains until 1926.
  • 1911 – Theodore Roosevelt delivers the Earl Lectures — PSR’s most prestigious annual event, a gift of Oakland businessman E.T. Earl — to a packed Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley. (Also in 1911, Charles Sumner Nash chosen as second president of PSR.)
  • 1916 – Pacific Theological Seminary changes its name to Pacific School of Religion.
  • 1922 – Herman Frank Swartz becomes third president of PSR.
  • 1926 – Pacific School of Religion moves to current location on Holy Hill, north of the UC Berkeley campus, with breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate.
  • 1939 – Arthur C. McGiffert becomes fourth president of PSR.
  • 1942/43 – Five PSR students imprisoned in Japanese internment camps, despite protests of President McGiffert. PSR students George Akai and Mas Wakai graduated and ordained in absentia while imprisoned at the Tanforan Concentration Camp in California. Above: wedding of George and Mesahi Aki, just prior to deportation.
  • 1945 – Ronald Bridges becomes fifth president of PSR.
  • 1950 – Georgia Harkness hired as professor of theology, first tenured female faculty member. Also, Stuart LeRoy Anderson becomes sixth president of PSR, and oversees a period of unprecedented growth in the 1950’s.
  • 1968 – PSR founds Alternative Futures in Ministry Center in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. After mounting student pressure, CAPSR (PSR student government) is given new powers of voice and vote on the faculty council.
  • 1972 – B. Dave Napier becomes seventh president of PSR.
  • 1970’s – Faculty from this era include Archie Smith, PSR’s first African American faculty member; Roy Sano, first Asian American professor; Karen Lebacqz, and Robert McAfee Brown.
  • 1979 – Neely McCarter becomes eighth president of PSR.
  • 1987 – Professor Doug Adams forms the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education (CARE) at GTU.
  • 1991 – Eleanor Scott Meyers chosen as first woman president of PSR.
  • 1996 – William McKinney becomes tenth president of PSR.
  • 2007 – Boyung Lee becomes first tenured woman of color at PSR and GTU; PSR launches Dismantling Racism Program.