Joseph C. Hough Jr.

Dr. Joseph C. Hough, Jr. is the fifteenth president of New York’s Union Theological Seminary, where he is also William E. Dodge Professor of Social Ethics.  Prior to assuming the post at Union in 1999, Hough served as dean and professor of Ethics of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, for nine years. He also directed the Cal Turner Program in Moral Leadership, a program for the divinity, law, medical, and business schools of Vanderbilt. A highly proficient fund-raiser, Hough has succeeded in raising nearly $30 million in capital funds for Union Theological Seminary since his arrival. On his watch, Union has developed a strategic plan to make the Seminary fiscally viable while invigorating its academic programs and strengthening the historic ties with neighboring institutions. He also played a major role in establishing an important new endowed chair in Reformation Church History and in securing full funding for two existing chairs, The Reinhold Niebuhr Chair in Social Ethics and The Paul Tillich Chair of Theology, World Religions, and Culture. A native of North Carolina, Hough did his undergraduate studies at Wake Forest and earned the B.D. from Yale Divinity School.  Hough began his career as an associate minister at the First Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1959.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, September 2005