Currie, Thomas White

Thomas White Currie, Jr. (1914-2004), a Presbyterian pastor, historian, and writer, was born in Austin, Texas in 1914 to Thomas White Currie, the third President of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He grew up on the campus of the seminary, and though he first earned degrees from the University of Texas and Union Theological Seminary, New York, Currie later returned to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for his Th.M., which he earned in 1952. While earning his Th.D. at Union Seminary in Virginia, Currie made the history of APTS through the end of his father’s presidency in 1943 the topic of his thesis. Currie married in 1939 and had five children including Thomas White Currie III and James Stuart Currie, both pastors.

Currie was ordained and installed at Eliasville, Texas, in 1941, and served at churches in Dallas and Houston, including a long pastorate at Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church in Dallas. In 1963 Currie was elected Moderator of the Synod of Texas, and from 1963 to 1967 served as Executive Secretary for Church Extension for the Presbytery of Brazos, during which time he played a role in the founding of several churches. A great lover of history, Currie helped found the Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest and served as its executive secretary for the Synod of the Sun. He revised, updated, and published his thesis at the urging of then-APTS President Prescott Williams, Jr. with the financial sponsorship of Thomas F. Williams, Jr., as Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary: A Seventy-Fifth Anniversary History in 1978. Currie was the author of several other books and articles, including Great Protestant Leaders, which he co-authored with his wife, Anne Alison Harrison, in 1952, and Our Cities for Christ (1954), as well as informal church histories, pamphlets, and newspaper articles. Thomas White Currie, Jr. retired in 1983, and passed away in 2004 at the age of 90.

From the guide to the Thomas White Currie, Jr. papers 1996-011; 2007-005., 1936-2001, (Austin Seminary Archives, Stitt Library, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.)