Baylor Names Rev. Milton Cunningham As University Chaplain

WACO, Texas - Baylor University President Robert B. Sloan Jr. today named the Rev. Milton Cunningham as University Chaplain, effective immediately.
Cunningham, who had been serving as acting chaplain, will continue to serve as director of Denominational Ministries.
He replaces Dr. Bill Austin, who had served as chaplain since January of 1990.
As University Chaplain, Cunningham will counsel, advise and console Baylor students, faculty and staff. There are more than 12,200 students on the Waco campus and approximately 1,300 faculty and staff.
"I'm a preacher - that's where my heart is," said Cunningham, a 1950 Baylor graduate.
"I want to be a friend of the people of this campus, and that includes everyone. I think the greatest Christian witness we can have is our relationships with each other. I want to be a Christian friend to everyone."
As University Chaplain, Cunningham oversees Chapel-Forum, a program featuring speakers and events set in a Christian context. All students are required to have two semesters of Chapel-Forum before receiving an undergraduate degree.
"My desire is for Chapel-Forum to relate to the students," he believes.
"I want to use students, faculty and staff in the programming as much as possible. Chapel-Forum has the best potential of anything at Baylor to provide a sense of community at this university."
Cunningham received a bachelor's degree in divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and was president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas from 1977-79.

He has pastored churches in California and Texas and previously served as director of the Baptist Student Union at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, where he was also dean of students and assistant to the president. He earned the doctorate of divinity degree from the University of Corpus Christi in 1962.
Cunningham was a missionary to Rhodesia and Zambia from 1957-67 and was a mass media consultant for the Foreign Mission Board in Africa from 1967-72.
He was organizer and chairman of the board of Trustees of Lusaka International School in Zambia. Cunningham served as chairman of the Baylor Board of Trustees from 1985-86. He also has received the James Huckins Award for meritorious service to Baylor and in 1989 was named a Distinguished Alumnus.
Cunningham and his wife Barbara, a 1954 Baylor graduate, have two sons, Miller, a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University who is minister of music at The Chapel in Akron, Ohio, and Milton III, a Baylor graduate who teaches English in Boston, Mass., where he is involved in church work.