Concordia President Plans to Leave by ’98

IRVINE — Concordia University President D. Ray Halm, who has overseen the Lutheran campus’ tenfold growth in 17 years, will leave by mid-1998 to finish a computer learning network for the church.

Since last year, Halm has split his time between his duties at the campus, run by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and his work developing a video and computer learning network linking the 10-campus nationwide Concordia University System with 60 Lutheran high schools, 35 administrative centers and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s headquarters in St. Louis.

The university has begun searching for a replacement. Halm has committed to staying until July 1998, but will step down earlier if a new president is named before then, university officials said.

Halm, 55, who announced his decision last week in advance of the beginning of the winter session Monday, was in St. Louis on church business and could not be reached for comment, a spokesman said.

“We will sorely miss Dr. Halm’s excellent leadership at the Irvine campus,” said Elmer Gooding, chairman of the Concordia University Board of Regents.

Executive Vice President Robert Baden said Halm will be remembered for convincing skeptics in the church that the fledgling Irvine campus, only 5 years old when Halm arrived in 1980, was viable.

Halm was credited with helping increase the student population from 150 in 1980 to 1,500 this school year. The faculty grew from 12 professors to 53, and the number of buildings on the 70-acre campus increased from four to 20.

The school offers bachelor’s degrees in a variety of disciplines and master’s degrees in education and religion. Although membership in the Lutheran Church is not a requirement for admission, the school considers preparing students for professional church careers an important part of its mission.

In a move to stretch the church’s limited resources and share its top teachers, Halm has overseen a four-year, $6.2-million project called CUENet, for Concordia University Education Network.

The interactive video and computer network, which is scheduled to begin transmitting courses this year by satellite and fiber optic cable, will beam classes to students at Lutheran high schools and Concordia’s 10 campuses nationwide. Ultimately, the network will be extended to numerous congregations and other church facilities.

Halm initially had planned to devote half his time to the project and half to the Irvine campus.

“He thought he could do 50-50, but knowing Dr. Halm, it was more like 70-70,” Baden said.

“Obviously, we hate to lose him,” Baden said, but “we recognize he was destined to be involved in CUENet, which is a very exciting position for him and the system.”