Dr. Robert B. Sloan, Jr. – Baylor President 1995-2005

Robert B. Sloan, Jr. passed away July 4 in Houston.

As Baylor’s president from 1995 to 2005 and Houston Christian University’s president during the past 20 years, Sloan left a lasting legacy at the two institutions and more broadly across the landscape of Christian higher education in America.

“A proud Baylor alumnus, Robert Sloan faithfully served Baylor University as a member of our religion faculty, founding dean of George W. Truett Theological Seminary and as Baylor president for nearly a decade,” Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., said upon the news of his death. “His greatest contribution was the adoption of Baylor 2012, a 10-year vision that placed Baylor on the path to become a top-tier university while remaining committed to our historic Christian mission. And that is where Baylor stands today.”

The Texas native first set foot on Baylor’s campus as a student in the late 1960s. There he met and married his wife, the former Sue Collier, B.A. ’70, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1970.

He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity in 1973. After conducting post-baccalaureate research in church history at the University of Bristol, England, he earned a Doktor der Theologie from the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1978.

Sloan returned to Baylor in 1983 as a faculty member in the Department of Religion. In 1990, he became the first holder of the George W. Truett Chair in Evangelism at Baylor, and in 1993 he was appointed dean of Truett Seminary. Baylor regents in February 1995 named Sloan to succeed Dr. Herbert H. Reynolds as the 12th president of the University.

In November 2006, Sloan began serving as the third president of Houston Baptist University, which changed its name to Houston Christian University (HCU) in 2022.

According to the university, the institution’s enrollment and campus experienced unprecedented growth during his two decades in office. One of his signature initiatives was “The Ten Pillars: Faith and Reason in a Great City,” a 12-year vision to fulfill HCU’s responsibility for the renewal of Christian higher education. Sloan also had led HCU through the creation of its first doctoral program in executive education leadership and the founding of the Houston Theological Seminary.

Dr. Barry Hankins, BA ’78, MA ’83, a longtime professor of history at Baylor, is currently writing a book about Baylor’s rise as a top-tier Christian research university. Sloan figures as a prominent presence in the work.

“When Robert Sloan became president of Baylor, his main concern was maintaining and strengthening Baylor’s Christian identity. Over the first two years of his presidency, however, while working with his provost Don Schmeltekopf, he caught a vision of Baylor as a Christian research university,” Hankins said. “The result was Baylor 2012, the 10-year vision that launched the University toward the R1 status achieved under President Linda A. Livingstone. Sloan was a visionary and a determined leader. After Baylor, he went on to do good things at Houston Christian University, but his historical legacy will always be what he started at Baylor.”