James T. Laney

James T. Laney (born 1927) was dean at the Candler School of Theology, president of Emory University and United States Ambassador to South Korea.

Early life and education

Laney was born in the American south and grew up in Arkansas and Memphis. He earned his B.A. degree in economics at Yale though his studies were interrupted by service in the United States Army in the late 1940s in Korea, working in military intelligence. "He would say later in life that the experience in Korea so changed his thinking about the world, that by the time he returned to Yale to finish his degree, in 1950, he had determined to enter the ministry," his Emory biography said. He attended Yale Divinity School, became a Methodist minister, and served as chaplain at Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) while completing his seminary degree.^[1]

Career

"For five years following his seminary graduation, Laney served as a church minister in Cincinnati, Ohio. But in 1959, drawn by what he had seen in Korea, Laney returned [there] ... to serve as a Methodist missionary teaching at Yonsei University in Seoul. In 1964, seeing higher education as another facet of his vocation, he entered Yale Graduate School, where he completed his Ph.D. degree in Christian ethics in just two years. In 1969, only three years after becoming an assistant professor at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Laney was called by Emory to be dean of the Candler School of Theology."^[1]

Laney was dean at the Emory's Candler School from 1969 to 1977.^[1]

He served as the 17th president^[2] of Emory from 1977 to 1993.^[1]

Laney was appointed Ambassador to South Korea by President Bill Clinton^[3] on October 15, 1993; presented credentials November 2, 1993.^[4] He was involved in defusing the 1994 nuclear crisis during his tenure.^[5] He left his post on February 5, 1996.^[4]

Other involvements

Laney served on Harvard Board of Overseers committee for the Divinity School and has served on the Executive Committee of the Yale University Council. He is a trustee of the Henry Luce Foundation in New York; co-chair, with Andrew Young, of Faith and the City in Atlanta;^[3] and board member of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.^[5] He is a past director of The Coca-Cola Company and SunTrust Georgia. From 1997-2003 he co-chaired the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Korea.^[3]

His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post and numerous other publications. He is the recipient of 22 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in the US, Great Britain, Japan, Korea, and Africa. He has received medals for distinguished service from the United States and Korea, the Wilbur L. Cross Medal from Yale, the Emory medal, and the General James Van Fleet award from the Korea Society.^[3]

The Emory graduate school, founded in 1919, was named after Laney in 2009.^[2]

Personal

Laney is married to Berta Radford and they have five children and sixteen grandchildren. They live in Atlanta.^[3] The youngest two children were born in Seoul, Korea when the family lived there from 1959 to 1964 during Laney's missionary work.^[1] Three out of his five children graduated from Emory College and two received advanced degrees. Nine out of the sixteen grandchildren have attended Emory, and five have graduated as of August 2012.^[5]

References

External links

• Justice, Elaine, "Laney’s Legacy: Graduate School named for President Emeritus James Laney", Emory Magazine, Autumn 2009.
• Laney, James T. and Jason T. Shaplen, "How to Deal With North Korea, The New York Times March 11, 2003. From the March/April 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs.
• "Remarks of James T. Laney ... at the inauguration of Rebecca Chopp as the 15th president of Colgate University", September 29, 2002.
• Stuart, Reginald, "Education; Atlanta", New York Times, December 8, 1981. A $105 million gift to Emory from Emily and Ernest Woodruff during Laney's presidency.