Leonard steps down as Wake Forest divinity dean

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The founding dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity is stepping down next year, school officials announced March 5.

Bill Leonard will retire from that post June 30, 2010. He will continue to teach full time as professor of church history and Baptist studies in the divinity school and professor of religion in the university’s religion department.

Leonard, who turns 63 on March 20, said the university has established a standard tenure of 10 years for deans. He came to Wake Forest in 1996, and the divinity school held its first classes in the fall of 1999.