Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus III (March 20, 1953 – August 4, 2022) was an American academic administrator who was the president of

Concordia University, Irvine Concordia University Irvine is a private Lutheran university in Irvine, California, United States. It was established in 1976 to provide a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod college to serve the Pacific Southwest and provide training for pastors, ...

from 1998 to 2009. Previously, he was a professor at

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, Missionary, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Chur ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. On September 23, 2009, he resigned his position as the university president to become the executive vice president for Mission Advancement for Bethesda Lutheran Communities in

Watertown, Wisconsin Watertown is a city in Dodge and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Most of the city's population is in Jefferson County. Division Street, several blocks north of downtown, marks the county line. The population of Watertown was 2 ...

Education

Preus graduated from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in 1975. He received his Master of Divinity (1980),

Master of Sacred Theology The Master of Sacred Theology ( la, Sacrae Theologiae Magister; abbreviated STM) is a graduate-level, North American, academic degree in theology equivalent to ThM. The Roman Catholic equivalent is the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL). An ...

(1986), and Doctor of Theology (1986), from

in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

Career

Upon graduation from the seminary, he was ordained in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and served congregations in St. Louis and Rancho Palos Verdes, California. He also served as a chaplain in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 24th Regiment of the U.S. Marine Corps during the First Gulf War in 1990–91. Preus became a professor of

systematic theology Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topic ...

at Concordia Seminary and served in that position and as dean of the faculty until 1998, when he became president of Concordia University in Irvine, California. During his tenure at the university, the School of Theology was established in 1999, the School of Business in 2002, and the School of Adult Studies (later renamed the School of Professional Studies) in 2005. Robert Alan Grimm Hall and the Chi Rho, and Chi Sigma residence halls were constructed during his presidency. He retired from the university presidency in 2009 and went on to serve as the executive vice President for Mission Advancement at Bethesda Lutheran Communities until 2014. He subsequently served as North American Liaison for .

Personal life and death

Preus and his wife Sherry had three children. His father, J. A. O. Preus II, was the eighth president of the LCMS and drew fame for his role in the church schism of the 1970s known as

Seminex Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile (later Christ Seminary-Seminex), which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ong ...

. His grandfather, J. A. O. Preus, was a politician who served as Minnesota's eighth state auditor and 20th

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. His extended family has been prominent in American Lutheranism, especially within the LCMS. He died on August 4, 2022, at the age of 69.

References

External links

Concordia University

by Jacob A. O. Preus {{DEFAULTSORT:Preus, J. A. O., III 1953 births 2022 deaths American Lutherans American people of German descent American people of Norwegian descent Concordia University Irvine alumni University of Missouri alumni Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod people Concordia Seminary alumni

Education

Career

Personal life and death

See also

References

External links