People

Christian Century, May 23, 2001

* Bangor Theological Seminary has chosen the pastor of Maine's largest Congregational church to become its next president. When William Imes, 58, of Brunswick, takes the reigns at Bangor in August, he will become the ninth president in the 187-year history of the United Church of Christ-related school. He succeeds Ansley Coe Throckmorton.

* Leon Sullivan, an American Baptist minister who developed a code of conduct for U.S. businesses dealing with apartheid in South Africa, died April 24 of leukemia in a hospital near Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 78. He developed what became known as the Sullivan Principles in the 1970s after he became the first African-American to sit on the board of a major corporation, General Motors. Sullivan used nonviolent boycotts of local businesses that did not hire blacks while he was a minister in Philadelphia. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Sullivan "was really a father figure in this whole movement for economic and social equality and justice," said Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP. Sullivan was pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia for 38 years. Before he retired from the pulpit in 1988, he oversaw membership growth from 600 to 6,000 people.

* E. Brandt Gustavson, 64, president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters since 1990, died May 14, less than two months after he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver and pancreas. Prior to working for the Manassas, Virginia-based NRB, he was chief executive for Trans World Radio and had directed the Moody Bible Institute's broadcasting network. Gustavson was credited with revitalizing the NRB after the 1980's televangelist scandals. The NRB, now at nearly 1,400 members, will soon move into a new headquarters building.