Names in the News

Jerry A. Johnson will be installed as the sixth president of Criswell College in Dallas on Sept. 14. The 40-year-old Texas native was the unanimous choice of trustees last December and began serving in February.

Johnson, a native of Malakoff, Texas, and a 1986 Criswell graduate, came to Criswell College from Southern Seminary, where he earned a Ph.D. in Christian ethics and most recently was dean of the seminary's Boyce College and a member of the seminary's executive cabinet. Johnson also has served as pastor of churches in Texas and Colorado. He earned a Master of Arts degree from Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary.

William Walter Finley Jr., a recent member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, died at his home in Free Union, Va., Aug. 25 after a battle with cancer. He was 76.

Finley served two terms on the Executive Committee, from 1996 to 2004. Before that, he spent 20 years in international work with the World Health Organization and the World Bank, serving in Nigeria, Brazil, Jamaica, India and Thailand to develop clean water systems in impoverished areas.

After his international work, Finley retired to his farm in Free Union to raise cattle and volunteer in the community and at Free Union Baptist Church, where he was a deacon. Finley served for eight years on the Albemarle County School Board and eight years on the Albemarle County Planning Commission.