Henderson named acting president of Montreat Conference Center
The Layman Online, February 26, 2003
R. James Henderson, a former interim executive director (1997-99), has been named acting president of the Montreat Conference Center, officials announced February 26.
The announcement came following the February 18, 2003, resignation of Emile H. Dieth, Jr.
The executive committee of the board of directors of the Montreat Conference Center, in a statement, said Henderson, who will assume his new full-time duties February 25, also will replace the Rev. James L. Morgan Jr. of Laurinburg, N.C., who temporarily was appointed acting president. Morgan is a member of the board of directors.
“Jim has demonstrated firm and solid leadership skills in the past,” said the Rev. Lynn E. Shurley, Jr., chair of the board of directors. “He is a fine and dedicated servant of the church with the gifts Montreat needs in order to achieve its potential and fulfill its mission on behalf of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
Shurley, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Paducah, Ky., said Henderson’s name would be presented to the full board for its endorsement when it convenes in Montreat on March 14. Contingent upon the board’s approval, Henderson’s title will change from acting to interim president.
Henderson, a graduate of Kansas State University and Ohio University, holds a certificate from the Institute for Educational Management of Harvard Business School. He is the founding executive director of the Family Business Forum at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Earlier, he served as interim president for the Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation.
Previously, he served as vice president for finance and administration at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and associate vice president and business manager at Duke University, where he served for 11 years.
Henderson’s background in finance and business management also includes service to a number of other educational institutions, including Agnes Scott College, Newton (Mass.) College and Country Day School, and Ohio University.
An ordained elder and a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Asheville, N.C., Henderson has served both church and community in a number of appointed and elected capacities, including the Warren Wilson College board of trustees, on which he still serves.
He and his wife, Betty, live in Montreat.