Bruce McLarty

McLarty was born on May 3, 1957 in Nashville, Tennessee. The son of Durley and Sue (née Birdwell) McLarty, he has two younger siblings, a set of twins. McLarty's parents also had a set of triplets, all of whom died in infancy. Durley and Sue McLarty both graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1960, subsequently moving the family to Oklahoma where Durley worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers.[3]

McLarty never attended kindergarten; he enrolled at Wilson Elementary for first grade after his family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents were members of the Pulaski Heights Church of Christ. McLarty lived in Memphis, Tennessee for a year before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1968. He attended public high schools until his senior year, graduating from Harding Academy in Memphis in 1975.[3]

McLarty began attending Harding College (later Harding University) in Searcy, Arkansas in 1975, graduating early in 1978. A Bible major and biblical languages minor, McLarty lived in Armstrong Hall as a freshman and Keller Hall as a sophomore and junior. He met Harding nursing student Ann Hutson in 1977, and the pair eventually married on May 31, 1980 in Ohio.[3]

Bruce and Ann McLarty relocated to Marks, Mississippi in 1980, where Ann worked at a county hospital until they moved to Memphis. In 1984, the couple participated in a mission trip to Kenya. McLarty has described the trip as "traumatic" and "a great difficulty"; the couple returned to the United States after fourteen months.[3]

McLarty served as the preacher of College Side Church of Christ in Cookeville, Tennessee from 1985 to 1991. In July 1991, he was hired as the preacher for College Church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas. After serving College Church of Christ for fourteen years, then-President of Harding University David Burks invited McLarty to become the school's "vice president for spiritual life" in January 2005. At some point, he also became Dean of the College of Bible and Ministry.[3]

In 2010, McLarty received a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio.[1] His dissertation discussed how "faith-based schools tend almost inevitably to walk away from their faith, given enough time and, ironically, often become an enemy of the faith that founded them."[3]

On October 28, 2011, David Burks announced that he would retire as President of Harding University after the 2012–13 school year. John Simmons, chairman of the Board of Trustees, led the committee to find Burks' successor.[5] After three rounds of interviews, McLarty was announced as Burks' replacement on November 1, 2012. He officially started the role on June 1, 2013, and was inaugurated on September 20.[1]