J. Gordon Kingsley

Dr. J. Gordon Kingsley is one of few persons privileged to lead colleges in both America and Britain, having served as the twelfth President of William Jewell College in Missouri and the sixth Principal of Harlaxton College in England. In between college gigs, he served as a Vice President for Health Midwest and Deputy Director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, both in Kansas City.

While he was leading William Jewell, an Exxon-funded study adjudged him to be among the top 5% of America’s “most effective collegiate leaders.” He subsequently received an appointment as Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University.

He holds four doctorates, earned and honorary, from universities in America and Japan; has served numerous civic, educational, and religious boards in America and Britain; has been an active public speaker “whose presentations combine stirring advocacy of fundamental values for our time with frequent touches of rather wretched humor”; and has written four previous books: A Time for Openness (1971); Frontiers: The Story of Missouri Baptists (1983); Conversations with Leaders for a New Millennium (1991); and A Place Called Grace (1992).

And all that, plus a fiver, might get him a Coffee Grande with hot milk and a blueberry muffin at Starbucks.