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Seminary Announces New Endowed
Systematics Chair
The David P. Scaer Chair of Systematic and Biblical Theology
The David P. Scaer Chair of Systematic and Biblical Theology is the first chair to be established at Concordia Theological Seminary and is endowed by a bequest from the late Velma L. Nielsen at the request of her family. By establishing this chair, the late Velma L. Nielsen and her family desire to ensure the seminary's loyalty to the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions as their true exposition. This chair is named for Dr. David P. Scaer for his part in maintaining this heritage, especially during the theologically turbulent last decades of the twentieth century, and to recognize his contributions to dogmatic and biblical theology in the classroom and his many writings. Members of the late Velma L. Nielsen's family, including her sister, Corrine, and her brothers, Paul, Richard, and Larry, took part in the opening service in which the Chair was formally presented to the seminary. At the request of the Nielsen Family, the chair's first holder will be the professor whose name it bears. During the service, Dr. David P. Scaer was inaugurated as the chair's first recipient. Faculty, students, and friends of the seminary had an opportunity to greet members of the Nielsen after the service.
Endowed Chairs
Chairs at institutions of higher learning go back as far as the English Reformation when Henry VIII established the Regius Professorships at Oxford University in 1546. Rulers and bishops awarded chairs to certain professors whose income was derived from earnings from the endowments attached to these chairs. During Elizabethan times, when nearly all people sat on stools and benches, the gentry sat on chairs with cushions. Beautifully constructed chairs were presented to the recipients. In the 1700s, Thomas Hollis, a London merchant, established the first chairs in America at Harvard University. Today, endowed chairs exist at many colleges, universities, and seminaries. Chairs serve as living memorials to their donors and perpetually link them to the succession of scholars whose work they support. To chair holders, they are a recognition of personal achievement. For the seminary, an endowed chair provides a bedrock upon which to secure the seminary's academic excellence and commitment to its confessional heritage. The seminary's Board of Regents, through its president, Dr. Dean O. Wenthe, expresses its heartfelt gratitude to the Nielsen Family for their generosity.
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