A nationally respected scholar, Dr. Hatch began his tenure as Wake Forest University’s thirteenth president on July 1, 2005.
Dr. Hatch joined the history faculty at Notre Dame in 1975 and had been Provost, the University’s second-highest ranking position, since 1996, the first Protestant to hold that position. He was also the Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History. He is regularly cited as one of the most influential scholars in the study of the history of religion in America and won national acclaim for his 1989 book, The Democratization of American Christianity. He is also the author, editor, or co-editor of seven other books on religion.
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Dr. Hatch is the son of a Presbyterian minister. He received his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College in 1968 and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. He was awarded postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities before joining the history department at Notre Dame. During the early part of his teaching career, he received the college’s Paul Fenion Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Beginning in the 1980’s Dr. Hatch held a number of leadership positions in the history department and the academic administration. As vice president for graduate studies and research from 1989 until being named provost in 1996, he oversaw Notre Dame’s master’s degree and doctoral programs.
Dr. Hatch has been a leader in a wide range of community and academic leadership roles. He was appointed in 2000 by President Clinton to the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-person advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He also serves on the board of Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a former president of the American Society of Church History and a former member of the National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army.
He and his wife, Julie, a former public school teacher, have three children: Gregg, a 1997 graduate of Notre Dame who is a health care administrator in South Bend, Indiana; David, a 2000 Notre Dame graduate who has worked in finance and is pursuing an MBA at the Fuqua School at Duke University; and Beth, a junior at Notre Dame majoring in American Studies and theology.
(For more information go tohttp://www.wfu.edu/administration/president/office.php)