Presbyterian educator James H. Costen, 71, who was a moderator when the Presbyterian Church was formed in 1982, died on April 11 in an Atlanta hospital

Christian Century, May 3, 2003

* Presbyterian educator James H. Costen, 71, who was a moderator when the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was formed in 1982, died on April 11 in an Atlanta hospital. Active as a volunteer development officer for a Presbyterian school in Nairobi, Kenya, he had his suitcase packed for a trip to East Africa when he returned to the hospital upon contracting pneumonia during his recovery from surgery.

He was president emeritus of Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center, the five-seminary consortium that grew from 175 students to 400 in the 15 years before his 1998 retirement. He was moderator of the northern-based United Presbyterian Church in the USA in 1982 when it merged with the southern-concentrated Presbyterian Church in the United States.