Carnegie Samuel Calian, arguably among the most successful seminary presidents in the nation, will retire in January 2006 after 25 years at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Carnegie Samuel Calian is retiring after serving as president of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary since 1981. He is congratulated by trustee Thomas F. Nelson (not pictured) and Susan Nelson. Click photo for larger image.

"I really feel that God has another chapter for me, but I don't know what it is yet."

He is the longest-serving president of any seminary in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and one of the two or three longest-serving of any accredited U.S. seminary. During his tenure, Pittsburgh Theological has metamorphosed from a struggling institution with a liberal reputation into a thriving dynamo whose diverse faculty includes some of the most prominent evangelical scholars in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

When he arrived in 1981, the school had an endowment of $9 million, which Calian set out to double. It is now $139 million.

When he was plucked from the faculty of Dubuque Theological Seminary, he didn't realize that the job involved fund raising, he said.

"If they had told me at the time, it would have scared me off, as it would most clergy. But if you have ideas, ideas cost money. And I'm not married to the status quo," he said.

"I don't have genius, but I have energy."

Whatever he has worked, said Daniel Aleshire, president of the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits 251 seminaries.

"PTS has done as well as any and better than almost all of them in terms of the growth of assets that theological education requires," Aleshire said.

During the same time, enrollment in degree programs expanded from 210 to 380 students. Another 3,000 pastors and other professionals participate yearly in continuing education programs that Calian encouraged.

The school's roots go back to 1794, but it was reborn in a 1959 merger of Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary and Western Theological Seminary. Friction between the theological outlooks of the two schools still lingered in 1981.

Calian said he initially found a faculty with a poor self-image and a campus so run down that he called off classes for a day so students, faculty, staff and trustees could clean and paint.

"They had gone through downsizing, and there was terrific tension from past battles -- theologically, financially and so on. So one of my first tasks was to affirm those who had survived this whole process," Calian said.

He oversaw the creation of 20 endowed chairs, and the renovation and construction of buildings. Institutes were created to promote missions, serve black congregations, interest top high school students in ministry and advance the intersection of business and religion.

In an era when mainline Protestant congregations complained that seminary turned out graduates more suited to the ivory tower than the pastorate, 85 percent of Pittsburgh's graduates went into ministry.

And under his leadership the theological stance of the faculty has moved toward the right.

Charles Partee, a professor of church history and the only faculty member hired before Calian arrived, said the seminary "dramatically improved" over the years.

"There are wonderful colleagues. There is a spirit of cooperation. As the oldest faculty member, I would really like to have another 20 years here because I think the future is going to be great," he said.