TJ's Brief Bio - Thanksgiving 2007



This is my 11th and last year working at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. I have had a variety of roles: interim president (97-98), dean of the seminary (97-01), professor of biblical theology (97-present), and a teacher in several departments (graduate and undergraduate): seminary, business, religion, and education. I am a generalist and someone who likes change and challenge.

By Myers-Briggs type (a tool I have found very helpful) I am an INFJ. The N (intuitive) and the J (need for closure and decision) are quite strong. The I (introversion) and the F (feeling as a way to make decisions) less so, as I sometimes test as a T (thinking as a dominant decision-making style), and my E (extraversion) has been getting stronger over the years.

A few years ago I did the Gallup organization's StrengthsFinder, which tests, out of 34 areas of possible personality strength, the five you are highest in. My top five are: Activator, Maximizer, Strategic, Relator, and Learner. You can find out more about this test and its usefulness and validity at www.strengthsquest.com/.

I am married to Michele (CPA and MBA) who retired last year from teaching accounting at GFU and before that at the University of Sioux Falls (SD). We have three grown and married children in their 30's, all involved in research, and two grandchildren. We currently live in Dundee, Oregon, but we are moving next summer to Coupeville, WA on Whidbey Island.

We have lived in Michigan (where we met, went to Wayne State University, and were married), California (where I went to Fuller Seminary), New Jersey (where I went to Princeton Seminary), Pennsylvania and Michigan [again](where we were in pastoral ministry and teaching), North Carolina (where I did my Ph.D. at Duke, and Michele taught special education), and South Dakota for 19 years, where we raised our family, taught college and seminary, did college administration, church work, and enjoyed the wide-open Dakota prairies and their hard-working, friendly people. I am thankful, since moving to the Northwest, not to own a snow shovel; there were winters in SD when even the neighbor’s full-size John Deere had a tough time plowing us out!

I love baseball and am a lifelong Detroit Tiger fan. Duke basketball takes care of the colder season of the year.

The best novel I’ve read in the past few years is Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow. I found it immensely satisfying.

While I am a fan of folk music, blue grass, and oldtime rock and roll, I could listen to Mozart all day.

I am also interested in Christian theology and spirituality and recommend Robert Mulholland’s Invitation to a Journey as an introduction.

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