HIU Mourns Passing of Former President Barbara Brown Zikmund

The HIU community mourns the passing of Dr. Barbara Brown Zikmund, 86, known affectionately to colleagues and friends as "BBZ." Dr. Zikmund was a trailblazer in theological circles, beginning as the first woman to teach on the faculty of Chicago Theological Seminary.

She was also the first woman to serve as Dean of the Faculty at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, the first woman elected president of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, and the first woman to serve as president of then Hartford Seminary between 1990 and 2000.

"I met Barbara Brown Zikmund many years ago when I was a student in the Black Ministries Program and she was president," HIU President Sherry L. Turner said. "I admired her leadership in two spheres that relatively few women occupied — the pulpit and the presidency. I never imagined that I too might occupy those spaces. I am grateful for her legacy and am honored to follow in her footsteps. She will truly be missed. I offer my condolences to her family and loved ones.”

Dr. Zikmund's presidency also coincided with her continued national leadership on interfaith relations; she served on the Interfaith Relations Committee of the National Council of Churches from 1991 to 2007, chairing the committee for seven of those years.

In the April 2000 issue of the seminary’s Praxis magazine, Dr. Zikmund wrote an article titled “My Love Affair with Hartford Seminary,” in which she expressed pride in her work to promote understanding between Christians and Muslims. She was adamant that Muslim students at Hartford deserved instruction from within their own tradition, and early in her tenure she took the decisive step of hiring two Muslim scholars to teach Islamic courses, a move she later described as transformative, ensuring that the seminary's interfaith education was authentic and respectful rather than filtered solely through a Christian lens.

At the time, the seminary had become the only one in North America with two Muslims on its faculty. Dr. Zikmund strove to diversify its administrative and support staff as well as its Board of Trustees by inviting Jewish and Muslim members.

She also pointed with pride to new programs for women and Hispanic students that were launched during her tenure. Beyond the classroom, she watched with pride as the major professional organizations devoted to religion research and the sociological analysis of religious and congregational life turned to Hartford Seminary faculty for leadership. 

For the last six years of her presidency, she also team-taught the required Ministry Seminar alongside Worth Loomis, a long-time trustee of Hartford Seminary, a collaboration she cherished.

During her tenure, Hartford Seminary’s Center for Social and Religious Research, now the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, received a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to study the lived experience of ordained clergywomen in the '90s and to compare them with those of their male colleagues. The findings were published in a 1998 book by Dr. Zikmund, Adair Lummis, and Patricia Mei Yin Chang titled Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling. The book offers a detailed analysis of data on nearly 5,000 pastors, obtained through extensive questionnaires, significant telephone conversations, and in-depth interviews.

Dr. Zikmund remained closely connected to Hartford Seminary long after stepping down as president, returning to campus in 2016 to reconnect with faculty, staff, and students and to see the institution's continued progress. Colleagues who were on staff during her tenure recalled her fondly, and she spoke warmly of her decade leading the school.

President Emerita Heidi Hadsell, who succeeded Dr. Zikmund as president, said: “Barbara was a creative and energetic leader in American theological education. She was well known and highly regarded, not just for her scholarship but also for her commitment to helping expand and support the presence of women in leadership in theological education across the USA.

"Over the years I was president, Barbara kept an active interest in the school, and when we would see each other at meetings like the American Academy of Religion, we would always find a moment for me to bring her up to date. I am grateful for Barbara’s life and vision and leadership.”

Former President Mike Rion, who preceded Dr. Zikmund as president, said: “BBZ was a trailblazer in many ways, including becoming HIU’s first female President as well as the same for the Association of Theological Schools."  

Dr. Rion remembered her sense of humor. "Being the first woman, she quipped, meant you had to be twice as good as the men, but the good news is that it’s not that hard!” he wrote. “She provided strong leadership to then Hartford Seminary.”

President Emerita Joel N. Lohr called Dr. Zikmund a "legend."

"Most importantly, she was a brilliant scholar and leader, and a kind person who became my friend," he said. "I’m deeply sorry to hear of her passing, but the world is a better place because of her." 

Dr. Zikmund was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1964 and went on to become one of the denomination's most esteemed historians. She served as editor of the seven-volume Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ and of the two-volume Hidden Histories of the United Church of Christ, works that remain foundational to the study of Congregational and UCC history.

She earned her B.A. From Beloit College in 1961, her B.D. From Duke Divinity School in 1964, and her Ph.D. In American church history from Duke University in 1969, with a dissertation on Asa Mahan, the first president of Oberlin College. Subsequently, she received honorary doctorates from Doane University, Ursinus College, and the University of Hartford.

For additional details about her life and funeral services, please click here.