George McGonigle first publicity
Sep 08, 2009
George McGonigle - An Exemplary Servant Leader
George McGonigle - whose service to the Episcopal Church ranges from parish and seminary to being senior executive officer in the Office of the Presiding Bishop - will receive the inaugural Charles J. Cook Award in Servant Leadership at Seminary of the Southwest September 8.
A long-time parishioner of St. David's Church, Austin, McGonigle will receive the award during Southwest's matriculation service beginning at 6 pm in Christ Chapel the evening after Labor Day. Seminary faculty created the award to honor the Rev. Charles James Cook, who taught pastoral theology at Southwest for almost a quarter century and retired at the end of last year.
The award will be given annually to a person whose life and ministry exemplifies the qualities of a servant leader. Cook, professor-emeritus of pastoral theology, emphasized and modeled the importance of servant leadership to generations of seminarians.
A native Texan and graduate of the University of Texas, McGonigle worked in Houston for what is now ExxonMobil Corporation for 31 years and retired as vice president of operations and project executive. He moved to Austin in 1982 to be provost of the Seminary of the Southwest when then Dean Gordon Charlton was elected a bishop. McGonigle was responsible for most seminary leadership for two years until Dean-emeritus Durstan McDonald came to Austin. McGonigle received the doctor of divinity degree honoris causa when he left Southwest in 1984.
McGonigle then served as senior executive officer in the Presiding Bishop's office for 18 months. He worked actively to help the Church of England secure the release of Terry Waite from captivity in Lebanon during that time. An eight-time deputy to the church's General Convention, McGonigle also served on the executive council and represented the church on the Board of the National Council of Churches and the Council's World Assembly.
A former senior warden of St. David's in Austin, McGonigle continues to teach classes on church-related topics at the downtown church.
"I am a mainstream Episcopalian and nothing and no one - inside or outside the Church - can take my church away from me. This church with all its ‘warts' is a true branch of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and I shall not be moved," McGonigle states.
Text of Faculty Citation establishing the Charles J. Cook Award in Servant Leadership
