School Notes: Yale Divinity School
May/June 2024

Leander E. Keck, 1928–2024

Internationally recognized New Testament scholar and former Divinity School dean Leander E. Keck ’57PhD died in January at age 95. During his decade as dean (1979–89) Keck, among other accomplishments, established the school’s first formal fundraising program, raising money for vitally needed endowed scholarships and professorships. As a scholar and educator, he greatly influenced New Testament studies and touched a generation of students. As his former student Krista Tippett ’94MDiv said in a 2012 Yale Alumni Magazine article, Keck was “one of the great minds of twentieth-century Biblical studies. . . . He wove a lifetime of scholarship with a life steeped in the practical, human, and societal implications of [the] texts.” A full text of Dean Greg Sterling’s tribute is available in the news area of the YDS website.

Celebrating 55 years of advocacy for ‘freedom to be beautiful and Black’

Founded at the Divinity School in 1969, Yale Black Seminarians is observing its 55th anniversary over the course of the academic year via a series of celebrations and other events. At Fall Convocation, current members and numerous alums gathered for a brunch and panel on “The Evolving Black Church: Innovative Practices for the Future”; a special anniversary reception and dinner for students and graduates are planned for April 26. The Reverend Andre Gilford ’24MDiv, this year’s YBS president, said in a recent interview with YDS news that while the particulars have changed over the group’s 55-year history, the overarching objective remains the same: to press for change to make the Divinity School a place where Black students can experience “the freedom of being beautiful and Black.” The interview with Gilford, along with more on the group’s history and the school’s Black Church Studies program, can be found in the news area of the YDS website.