Reverend Joseph C. Hough, Jr. announced yesterday that he will retire from his current position as president of Union Theological Seminary in June 2008.

Leaders in the school said that Hough succeeded in strategic fundraising and increased collaboration with Columbia University while allowing UTS to maintain its individual identity during his eight years as its leader.

"While I intend to work hard this next year to make as much progress as possible toward the realization of Union's hopes for the future, I felt it was important for the search process for a new president to begin," Hough said in a press release. "My eight years at Union have been among the best in my life."

In 1999, after serving as dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and the first director of Vanderbilt's Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in Professors, UTS recruited Hough from his retirement plans to serve as its 15th president.

"The recruitment of Joe Hough at a time when Union's future seemed to be in jeopardy was prophetic," Anne Hale Johnson, UTS '56 and former UTS Board of Trustees chairperson, said in a press release.

According to the UTS Web site, Hough raised nearly $30 million in capital funds as part of a $39 million comprehensive campaign completed in 2004.

"Joe Hough has been president of Union Theological Seminary during a remarkable period when Union addressed and resolved long-standing financial problems and also experienced strong progress on all fronts," Trustees chairperson David J. Callard said in a press release.

In July 2004, UTS transferred the Burke Library Collection, the largest theological library in the western hemisphere, to Columbia's library system without physically moving the volumes from their historical home. "The collections are being cared for in a way they should be," Joann Anand, UTS communications director, said. She and Fraccaro both said that the acquisition bolstered UTS' relationship with the University.

"Having more Columbia students be aware that there's a library here clues them into the life that's going on here because when they come here, they pick up on our dynamic," Fraccaro said. "It [the acquisition] created better relationships between the institutions to look at forming more dual-degree programs in the future."

Beyond his practical accomplishments, Hough Jr. was praised throughout his tenure for his affability and liveliness. University Senate observer and UTS dual-degree student David Fraccaro, who lives below Hough's apartment, recounted the Dalai Lama's visit to the school last year. "Things were a lot more active in his [Hough's] apartment than what I had expected for a man of his age and experience," he said.