Wilson Named Chief Development Officer at Hartford Seminary
Lawrence E. Wilson III, an experienced fundraiser and business executive, has been named Hartford Seminary’s new Director of Institutional Advancement. He started January 23.
President Heidi Hadsell announced the appointment. Wilson, who has been director of major and leadership gifts at the University of Hartford, replaces The Rev. Scott Sheldon. Wilson currently is a special student at Hartford Seminary.
“I am so pleased that Larry will join Hartford Seminary, providing a seamless transition in Institutional Advancement,” Hadsell said. “Larry brings a rich background in development, working with diverse organizations. His interest in theological education, as evidenced by his studies at Hartford Seminary, makes him an ideal person to lead the Seminary in our Institutional Advancement efforts. He can speak from the heart about our educational excellence.”
At the University of Hartford, Wilson created and put into action cultivation, solicitation and stewardship strategies to build the university’s donor base of alumni/ae, parents and friends with the capacity for major gifts.
Asked why he decided to come to Hartford Seminary, Wilson said, “My thirty-year career journey has been an eclectic one – from corporate management to entrepreneurship to academe to multicultural advancement to non-profit development. Yet through it all, I like to think my decisions and actions have reflected the everyday ethics that emanate from my Christian faith and deep love for my God. I made a conscious decision to make business my career and ministry my a vocation when I was in college, with the prayer that someday I might recognize and yield to God’s patient calling, and reverse the two.”
“Working with the Institutional Advancement team and other staff, I look forward to bringing greater effectiveness to fundraising initiatives at the Seminary,” Wilson said. “With God’s help, as we advance our important mission, I am certain that we will broaden our donor base, and strengthen our traditional sources of funding as we simultaneously identify and capitalize on new ones.”
Previously, Wilson was vice president for development at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles; director for marketing and development for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum; chief executive officer for the Eastern Pequot Indians (of which he is a member); director of admissions for the School of Visual Arts in New York City; and helped minority business management at General Motors Corporation.
Wilson has a B.A. in economics and music from Drew University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
He is director emeritus of music ministries at the United Congregational Church, Pawcatuck, CT.
Wilson said he is joining Hartford Seminary because “I deeply sense that my having the privilege to bring my business acumen and experience to the Seminary is an important part of God’s calling me to ministry. To be able to be helpful to the funding, growth and reach of the school while at the same time being nourished and fueled in its classrooms is truly God’s gift to me.”
He said of his studies at the Seminary, “I am excited to have the freedom to study at Hartford Seminary. It is a renowned and highly respected institution positioned on the cutting edge of social change. It is willing to risk bringing together the divergent views of people of various faiths in an effort to find the common ground that will serve as a foundation for understanding, tolerance and peace in a world yearning – indeed, desperate – for them.”
Wilson, in his leisure time, enjoys music and theater. A church musician, he plays the pipe organ and jazz piano and enjoys singing Sinatra tunes. He acts in community theater, most recently in a production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at Nutmeg Players in Clinton, CT.
Wilson attends Union Baptist Church in Mystic, CT, where he lives. He is married to Janice A. Wilson, a research librarian at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, CT. The Wilson’s have two children, Jillian Gloria Wilson and Lawrence E. Wilson IV.
For further information or questions, please contact David Barrett, Director of Public and Institutional Affairs, at (860) 509-9519 or dbarrett@hartsem.edu.
