Bill Rainer planned to enter Harvard Divinity School in the fall of 1999 as a full-time student. At age 53, the successful finance industry executive had discovered a passion for the study of religion and looked forward to immersing himself in the Divinity School's curriculum.... Read more about Distinguished Gentleman

Renowned scholars of American religious history R. Marie Griffith and Leigh Eric Schmidt have been appointed to the HDS faculty, effective July 1, 2009. Griffith will be the John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, and Schmidt will be the Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America.

"Leigh Schmidt and Marie Griffith are, in their own ways and areas of interest, two of the very best mid-career historians of American religion active in the academy today," said Dean William A. Graham. "They join a very strong set of colleagues in this and...