Bangor seminary leader leaves move-sale legacy

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BANGOR – The Rev. William Imes knows that the headline over the story of his tenure at Bangor Theological Seminary will include the words “move” and “sale” in big bold type.

Imes, 64, is retiring this summer after seven years as president of the 194-year-old institution. He oversaw the move in 2005 from the seminary’s historic campus on a hill overlooking Bangor to the modern Husson College campus off Broadway.

He also facilitated the sale of the Bangor campus properties last year that included the home of Hannibal Hamlin, President Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president, to a Bangor development firm. In addition, Imes helped decide what pieces of the school’s history would be auctioned off and what would be kept or shared with other institutions.

The changes at the Bangor campus did not affect the seminary’s Portland campus, located at the State Street Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.

Administrator may have been Imes’ public persona, but teaching is what he will most miss.

“My most rewarding moments are when students thank me for teaching them, listening to them and guiding their schooling,” he said in an e-mail response to questions. “Equally rewarding are times when alums thank me for helping BTS to find a future.”

The Rev. Carl Schreiber, senior pastor of East Orrington Congregational Church, graduated last week from BTS. He took several courses from Imes, including one on preaching. Schreiber said Friday that Imes’ ability to meet students’ needs and styles individually was his greatest strength as a teacher.

“He told us not to worry about what the experts said,” Schreiber said, “but taught us how to become strong in our own talents and how to grow into our ministry. Instead of saying, ‘Do it my way or no way,’ he said, ‘Here is my way. Now do it your way and become comfortable with that.'”

The Rev. Kent Ulery, the minister for the Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ in East Lansing, Mich., will take over the nearly 200-year-old institution on July 1.

His appointment as the 10th president to lead the seminary was announced last month by the board of trustees. He is expected to begin working on Aug. 1.

Imes’ advice to his successor includes, “Be patient and pray frequently and fervently.” He also urged Ulery to work closely with Husson College President William Beardsley.

“[He] has important ideas for future collaborative courses and degree offerings,” Imes said of Beardsley.

Jane Bragg of Bangor described Imes’ leadership style as “collaborative.” The owner of the Thomas School of Dance has been on the BTS board of trustees for eight years, which included all of Imes’ presidency.

“He arrived here at a very crucial time in the history of the seminary and showed great leadership,” she said Friday. “He leaves the seminary with a very promising future and on much firmer financial ground. He was right person for the job at a very difficult time.”

The linchpin in Imes’ financial strategy, Bragg said, was the move because the physical property that bordered Union, Hammond and Pond streets was too great a financial drain on the institution and its endowment.

“He’s brought the institution through a major transition from a residential school to a new partnership,” Marvin Ellison, professor of Christian ethics, said at a barbecue held earlier this month in Bangor to honor seniors. “We’re more able – literally – to think outside the box. It’s like a gift he’s left us.”

Imes also is leaving BTS better able to respond to the way technological advances are affecting higher education, according to the Rev. Susan E. Davies, professor of Christian education. She began teaching at the seminary in 1986.

“Bill’s leadership has allowed us to be a lot lighter on our feet,” she said. “We can respond to changes in theological education more quickly.”

Imes also has left the seminary in good shape for this fall’s accreditation visit by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, according to Davies.

In the sermon at his inauguration in November 2001, Imes asked, “What does a seminary without walls look like?”

Part of his legacy was setting the seminary on a path in that direction, according to Ellison. The seminary does not yet offer courses online, but a closed-circuit television system allows students in Portland to attend classes in Bangor and vice versa.

Imes believes his successor should pursue the idea of a seminary without walls.

“One needs to work with other seminaries, especially Andover-Newton, in Newton, Mass., to explore ways to bring theological education to people rather than only expecting people to come to you. Technology will be a key part of future instruction as costs soar for commuters.”

He also said that in the face of American society’s increasing secularity, the institution “needs to help future ministers grasp the nature of the society in which they will serve. Sometimes, Christians lament that they are discriminated and put down.”

“My thought,” he said in the e-mail, “is that we should not see ourselves as victims, but rather as servants who can bring secular society the hope, strength and vision it needs. I’m especially interested in persons who are spiritual, but disenchanted with organized religion. We have much to learn from, and, I believe, much to offer them.”

Imes and his wife, Judy, will move next month to Easthampton, Mass., a town that is equidistant from their two children and five grandchildren.

“We intend to spend a great deal of time with them,” he said.

But not before the couple sets off on an August camping trip in pursuit of Bill Imes’ hobby – collecting decals from the country’s national parks.

“There are 394 sites and we’ve been to 270,” he said. “We hope to pick up about 50 on this trip that will take us to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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