Dartmouth appoints new Chaplain

Posted 08/07/02

Stuart Lord, the Virginia Rice Kelsey '61S Dean of the Tucker Foundation and Associate Provost, has announced the appointment of Richard Crocker as the new College Chaplain and Associate Dean of the Tucker Foundation. Crocker brings to the position over twenty years of higher education ministry, teaching and administration.

Crocker, who grew up in Alabama, currently serves as Senior Pastor and Head of Staff at the Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, N.J. He has also served as Dean of Student Life and Associate Professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he was the College Chaplain and a Lecturer in Religion at Bates College in Maine.

"I believe that the primary task of ministry, especially in an educational setting, is to equip people to be thoughtful and contributing members of the community," says Crocker. "I look forward to this responsibility at Dartmouth, which is a community that embraces diverse backgrounds and traditions."

Crocker, as College Chaplain, will lead the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life within the Tucker Foundation. He will also direct the United Campus Ministry (UCM), which currently has twenty-seven Campus Minister and Advisor members, as well as work with students, faculty, administrators and the UCM to nurture religious communities on campus and to develop opportunities for multi-faith dialogue, programs and initiatives. In his role as Associate Dean of the Tucker Foundation, Crocker will support that organization's mission to further the moral and spiritual work of the College by promoting social justice and civic responsibility while considering and discussing issues of activism and conscience.

"One of Crocker's responsibilities will be to support and strengthen all forms and traditions of religious and spiritual life on our campus and in our community," says Lord. "His strong background in this arena will benefit all of us."

Crocker earned his undergraduate and master's degrees at Brown University. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and went on to receive both his M.Div. (in Pastoral Theology and Counseling) and his Ph.D. (in Psychology and Religion) at Vanderbilt University.

Crocker will start his new job on January 1, 2003.