Houston Christian University President Robert B. Sloan dies suddenly at 77

Houston Christian University President Robert B. Sloan, Jr. died unexpectedly on Saturday. He was 77. HCU Board Chairman Ramiro Peña issued a statement Saturday announcing Sloan’s death, characterizing it as sudden. He went on to request prayers for Sloan’s family, including his wife, their children, and grandchildren. Peña did not disclose a cause of death.

Who was Robert Sloan? Sloan graduated from Waco, Texas, based Baylor University in 1970 with a double major in psychology and religion. During a 2011 interview with WORLD’s then-editor-in-chief, Marvin Olasky, Sloan said he experienced a crisis of faith during his graduate studies at Princeton University, and credited books like C.S. Lewis' Miracles, as well as the works of F.F. Bruce, for helping him to overcome doubts about the reliability of the New Testament. He eventually returned to become a professor at Baylor University, and later became the university’s president from 1995 to 2005.

What else was he known for? While serving as president of Baylor University, he founded the Polanyi Center for the Study of Intelligent Design. The center was ultimately shut down over criticism from evolutionists and others hostile to the concept of intelligent design. Sloan ultimately left the school in 2005.

What about his time at HCU? In his statement, Peña said Sloan led HCU through her most monumental and glorious years, beginning in 2006 when he became the university’s president. God used Sloan to bring about unprecedented growth in student population and degree programs, campus construction and expansion, national visibility, and incomparable spiritual awakening, according to Peña. He added that Sloan would be dearly missed.