People

Christian Century, May 24, 2000

* James Hudnut-Beumler, an American religious historian, has been named dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Hudnut-Beumler, who has expertise in the areas of ethics and philanthropy, will assume his post August 1. He succeeds Joseph Hough, who resigned last summer to become president of Union Theological Seminary in New York.

* G. Thomas Halbrooks, dean of the faculty at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, has been named president of Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozer, a divinity school in Rochester, New York, related to the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. Halbrooks, who succeeds James Evans Jr., will take office on July 1.

* Leo J. O'Donovan, president of Georgetown University since 1989, announced March 20 that he will step down next year after leading the nation's oldest Catholic university for 12 years. O'Donovan, a 65-year-old Jesuit, said he will serve another year to oversee the transition to a new president for the school and to finalize the details of the sale of the university's financially troubled hospital to MedStar Health Inc.

* Eberhard Bethge died on March 18 at his home near Bonn, Germany. He was 90 years old. He is survived by his widow, Renate Schleicher Bethge, who was a niece of Dietrich Bonhoeffer A former student and close friend of Bonhoeffer, Bethge devoted most of his life to the publication and interpretation of Bonhoeffer's complete works and wrote the definitive biography of the martyred theologian. Bethge directed the Institute for Continuing Education for Clergy in Rengsdorf, Rhineland, from 1961 to 1975. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, Chicago Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in New York.