NEW ORLEANS — J. Hardee Kennedy, retired academic vice president and professor emeritus of Old Testament and Hebrew at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS), died Dec. 28 in Meridian, Miss. He was 88.
Kennedy served 34 years on the NOBTS faculty during a career of nearly 40 years in education. Educated at Clarke College in Newton, Miss., Mississippi College and NOBTS, Kennedy was elected to the seminary faculty shortly after completing the doctor of theology degree in 1947. From 1959 to 1968, he served as dean of NOBTS’ school of theology. He was named vice president for academic affairs in 1972, serving in the position until his retirement in 1981.
He was born near Pachuta, Miss., and ordained to the ministry by Harmony Baptist Church in Clarke Country, Miss., in 1939.
Kennedy was active in church work for more than 60 years. In 1996, he was named pastor emeritus of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Clarke County, Miss., where he held his first pastorate during the 1930s and then returned as pastor in the 1980s. Funeral services for Kennedy were held there Dec. 31.
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