William E. Pannell, professor emeritus at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, passed away on October 11. He was 95 years old.
In 1971, Pannell became the first African American to serve on Fuller Seminary’s board of trustees. Three years later, he joined the seminary’s faculty as an assistant professor of evangelism and director of the Black Pastors’ Program – now known as the William E. Pannell Center for Black Church Studies. During his nearly three-decades-long tenure, he served as the Arthur DeKruyter/Christ Church Oak Brook Professor of Preaching for eight years and as dean of the chapel for six years. He retired in 2000.
Pannell’s career was dedicated to bringing awareness to racism in America and within the Evangelical community. He was an advocate for Black leadership in churches and mentored other Black ministers throughout his time with Fuller Seminary and beyond. As an academic, his research interests included preaching and spirituality. He authored several publications including Evangelism From the Bottom Up (Zondervan, 1992) and The Coming Race Wars?: A Cry for Reconciliation (Zondervan, 1993). The latter was republished in 2021 with added commentary on the Black Lives Matter movement.
A native of Sturgis, Michigan, Pannell earned his bachelor’s degree from Fort Wayne Bible College in Indiana and his master’s degree in social ethics from the University of Southern California. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Malone College in Ohio, an honorary doctor of Christian service degree from Geneva College in Pennsylvania, and an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Taylor University in Indiana.
