Jon R. Wallace, DBA
Sixteenth President
Azusa Pacific University
Inaugural Address
Delivered April 4, 2001
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
One hundred and one years ago this university was planted with trust in God and with hope and confidence that the Training School for Christian Workers would produce Kingdom fruit. The next 100 years brought unprecedented seasons of faithfulness and fruitfulness to the students, faculty, and staff that would reside under the spread of its growing branches. Like the old sycamore that sits adjacent to the Warren Music Building, APU has grown into a healthy and vital Christian university. However, unlike that great old tree, we have, by God’s grace, our best and most significant growth and development yet ahead of us.
Sitting on the platform with me today are seven friends who represent presidential leadership at Azusa Pacific University since 1939. Ruth Privett you represent the 36 years of your father, Dr. Cornelius Haggard’s leadership: 36 years that saw a small seedling move from a training school through four name changes and two mergers to an accredited, liberal arts college. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Adams, together you led Azusa Pacific College through one of our most important and tenuous transitions. Your many years on the administration clearly prepared you for that pivotal year you both served on the Presidential Team. Dr. Brad Sago you represent the 13 years of your father, Dr. Paul Sago’s leadership. Dr. Sago led us through some essential structural pruning, brought financial stability, and successfully led us into a university model. Dr. Engstrom, the year you served as interim president was your fifth career change and third presidency. Today, with the title board chair emeritus, you are the only person in our history to hold that lifetime appointment, and you continue as a valuable member of our trustee leadership team. And Dr. Richard Felix, what can we say except that you led us through what many consider to be the most significant decade in the history of the university. Your decade of excellence embraced physical and programmatic growth. You instituted new models of leadership and lived out your personal spiritual journey with transparency and honesty. I am deeply humbled and greatly honored to stand with these today on this occasion marking my inauguration as this institution’s 16th president.
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