Asbury Theological Seminary - Seminarian Yearbook (Wilmore, KY)

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The beginnings of the Seminary can be traced to the year 1910 when Dr. Henry Clay Morrison became President of Asbury College. During that year special courses in theology and Bible other than those oftered in the college of liberal arts ap- peared on the curriculum. Early in 1923 several of the teachers who had been training ministerial stu- dents for many years met with Dr. Morrison to dis- cuss the results of their labors. With dismay this group noted how many promising Asburians en- tered other schools after graduation from Asbury College and returned from their seminary training with little or none of the dynamic impetus and pas- .. AFTER Picture at Left: DR. AND MRS. H. C. MORRISON Dr. Morrison, the founder and only president of Asbury Theological Seminary up to the time of his death, March 24, 1942, was the guiding spirit of the entire movement. Until her death on November 8, 1945, ‘Aunt Bettie heroically carried her husband's vision forward. sion for the redemption of the lost which had char- acterized their ambitions as undergraduate aspi- rants toward the ministry. Asbury Theological Sem- inary grew out of this discussion, and Morrison Hall was erected in 1923 on the College campus to meet the growing need for a Seminary which would stand fearlessly and without apology for the Evan- gelical Faith and the Wesleyan emphasis on Scrip- tural Holiness. Dr. H. C. Morrison, the founder of Asbury Theo- logical Seminary, became her first President and continued in that capacity until the day of his death, March 24, 1942, at which time Dr. Julian OPPOSITE PAGE: The building which housed the Seminary when she moved off of the campus of Asbury College. Upon comple- tion of the new admin- istration building, this annex was officially named Larabee - Morris Hall in honor of two pioneers in the Semi- nary's history. LEFT: Morrison. Hall, the original building which housed Asbury Theolog- ical Seminary. This building is now used by Asbury College.

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS C. McPheeters, pastor of the Glide Memorial Meth- odist Church, San Francisco, assumed the presi- dency. Dr. Frank P. Morris served as the first Dean of the Seminary for a little over a year until he was succeeded by Dr. Fred H. Larabee in 1926. Dr. Larabee had been connected with Asbury for eleven years and continued to serve as the Dean of the Seminary until June, 1946, when he retired as Dean Emeritus. Dr. William D. Turkington be- came the third Dean in the history of the institution in 1946, after having served on the faculties of both Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary since 1927. | In less than a year after the Seminary was es- tablished there were more than two hundred young people studying theology. Most of these students were undergraduates, however. One person was graduated in 1924, two in 1925, one in 1926. By 1927 there were six in the graduating class, and there has never been less than that number of graduates since that time. The class of nineteen forty-eight climaxes twenty-five years of growth with the largest number of graduates in the history of the institution—62 B.D. seniors and 8 M.R.E. graduates. The Seminary remained an integral part of As- bury College until 1931 when Articles of Incorpora- tion were drawn and the institution became legally independent. During the summer of 1939, the Col- lege erected a hotel directly across the street from its campus. That fall the Seminary leased this hotel building and the two institutions became completely separate in curriculum operation. In 1941 the Semi- nary assumed full control of her own operation when