Tom Graves will be remembered as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, mischievous brother and faithful son — as a thoughtful professor, a powerful orator, a good pastor and a strong leader. I personally remember him as the founding president of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and my boss.
I remember the day he came to our home in the spring of 1990 and asked, “Linda, do you want to help me start a new seminary?” And then he said, “This is the vision. … Tom Halbrooks has already said yes, please come join us. Now, Linda, do you think the name should be Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond or in Richmond?”
Always thinking ahead, always dreaming ahead of all of us. And we tried to keep up.
Linda McKinnish Bridges
I watched him begin to build a new school — a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us. “This will be different, Linda. Different than Southeastern, different than Louisville,” he said. “In this one, the congregation is going to be the center; the study of spirituality our foundation; and a wider, more inclusive view of missiology our practice. And, by the way, women will have a place.”
Of course, I said, “Yes.”
With Halbrooks, in the car on the way to a speaking engagement, over lunch at the local diner, in retreat centers, we conducted our first, pioneering faculty meetings the spring and summer of 1991. Tom’s energy was contagious.
Soon after Graves’ appointment by the trustees of the Alliance of Baptists in late 1989, before the school officially began, Randall and Lou Lolley had privately commissioned him for this tremendous task. They prayed over him and then presented him with a dish towel, purchased quickly from some hardware store off the interstate. Lou quickly scribbled Tom’s name on the towel with a magic marker.
“They prayed over him and then presented him with a dish towel, purchased quickly from some hardware store off the interstate.”
This was his inauguration gift — a simple dish towel with his name handwritten in marker at the bottom. I remember the day we decided this very towel would be the central image of this new school.
We were preparing for the first convocation service to be held in Northminister Church in the early fall of 1991. We planned the processional order, first the president, then the faculty and staff, followed by the new students. What would the founding president carry in his hand as he walked down that long aisle? A heavy, institutional silver mace? Maybe a gold necklace around the neck of a new velvet gown to signify his presidential authority? Tom Graves, wearing his simple academic robe, quietly draped the towel Randall had given him over his left arm and began a seminary that would impact the lives of more than 1,200 graduates and countless congregations across the world — a seminary that would give us all hope we could see some light in the Baptist darkness of that moment.
Thomas Graves
And the seminary began, with a simple dish towel and lots of dreams and hope. Of course, every student who ever graduated from BTSR over the 30 years of its institutional life has a BTSR diploma given at commencement. The most precious commencement symbol, however, so the students say over and over again, is the towel with their own name embroidered at the bottom — a reminder of their calling in this world, and now a reminder of the first President of BTSR, Tom Graves.
Students would hear his polished, public speaking voice, which had been shaped by years of collegiate debate, at the beginning of every fall term, when he welcomed the new and old students to campus. The cadence and timbre of his voice still rings in my ears to this day. He would pause from the traditional presidential welcome speech, stand on his heels and lean into the pulpit, and then boldly and loudly ask, “WHY are YOU here?”
The inquiry was not condescending judgment but an honest invitation to engage in self-reflection, to begin an open dialogue about commitment to ministry, to the challenges of the rigors of advanced theological study and the simple but daunting command of Christ to serve others.
For Tom, being the executive leader of this new school meant speaking wherever an invitation appeared, writing whenever an opportunity came, fundraising from all people near and afar.
“Tom practiced what he preached.”
For Tom, being the president also meant putting a fresh coat of paint on the dingy classroom walls, high on a ladder holding a wet paintbrush until late in the evening; unloading tons and tons of books from huge U-Hauls driven by new faculty arrivals from Louisville in the middle of the hot summer; spending time with students in his office; talking and laughing on the front porch of Palmyra Hall; serving grand dinners with Wendy in their home; and dreaming, yes dreaming, always dreaming of how theological education could be different, how this new seminary could offer a fresh way of teaching a new generation to be servant leaders for the church. And it worked.
Tom practiced what he preached. He built a seminary that encoded his own personal way of being in the world — thorough, focused, innovative, engaged and filled with crazy humor. His laughter was a holy, piercing cackle that made even the most heavy and serious conversation just a little more bearable.
For all of these and more, we give thanks for Tom Graves, for the way he lived and the way he led the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
Tom Graves, founding president of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, is remembered with great respect and admiration by faith leaders around the world, leaders in both church and the world who were first introduced to the primary task of being a good leader, which is to serve, to take up the towel and wash one another’s feet.
May his sacred memory bless us all for the living of our days. May remembering his life help us to answer his own penetrating question, “WHY are YOU here?” with the simple response that Tom Graves showed us: We are here to serve others.
Linda McKinnish Bridges was among the founding faculty at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. She is a former Southern Baptist missionary to Taiwan, where she preached on weekends in Mandarin Chinese. She also was instrumental in founding Baptist Women in Ministry. She is a graduate of Meredith College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she earned master of divinity and Ph.D. degrees. She has been a faculty member and administrator at Wake Forest University and currently serves as director of corporate and foundation relations at Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, N.C.