Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent counsel whose work led to the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton, was named president of Baylor University this morning, sources said.
The 63-year-old Starr, who has been dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Law in Malibu, Calif. since April, 2004 will become Baylor’s 14th president.
Starr’s appointment as president of Baylor brings a nationally known, but highly controversial figure to the Waco campus at a time of prolonged and occasionally tumultuous transition from a teaching school to one focused on research and the pursuit of a top-tier ranking among colleges nationally. It ends a nearly 20-month-long search that began when former Baylor President John M. Lilley was fired in July of 2008.
Starr will always be recognized as the dogged independent prosecutor who relentlessly pursued Clinton’s role in a land deal called Whitewater and the president’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But he brings to Baylor a deep resume filled with roles in public service that go back three decades, as well as a Rolodex filled with national contacts that may serve him well in the key areas of academia and fund-raising.
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