New President, New Century New President, New ... - Biola University

After 25 years of leadership from former president Clyde Cook, who
retired with fanfare in June, Corey is the youthful newcomer who has been
chosen to usher in the University’s second century of impacting the world
for the Lord Jesus Christ.
A Massachusetts native, he comes to Biola with big dreams for what
God has in store for the years ahead. But for now, he just wants to get to
know the place a bit more.
“My mantra, starting, is to hit the ground listening,” he told Biola
Magazine. “I’m trying to meet as many people as I can, to be out of this
office as much as I can. This first year, there will be decisions to make,
there will be lots of centennial activities that take place, but I am bound
and determined that I am going to listen like crazy during this first year to
get to know as much as I can.”
‘A Whole-Life Commitment’
At 45, Corey is a man of diverse interests and talents.
He’s a die-hard Red Sox fan who composes poetry in his free time.
He’s an academic and fundraising professional who once blasted the
trumpet in a ragtag church band. He’s a former pastor who has finished
the Boston Marathon twice in the past three years. (Most recently a year
ago, when he clocked in at an impressive 3:36:05.)
Affable and well spoken, Corey is brimming with energy. Like his
predecessor, he’s got a razor-sharp wit and the impeccable comedic
timing to match.
He’s also intensely organized – as his wife discovered when she first
peeked into his closet while the two were dating.
“His shirts were all two fingers apart,” Paula Corey told staff
members during a campus visit in May. “I truly thought he had done that
as a joke. I had never seen a young guy with a closet like that. Twenty years
later, it’s still a reality.”
Married for nearly 16 years, Corey is a family man who still puts
his three children – Anders, 14, Ella, 12, and Samuel, 8 – to bed each
night. One of the immediate perks of the Biola position, Corey said,
was the prospect of a cross-country summer road trip with his teenage
son, tailored to fit in as many major- and minor-league baseball
games as possible.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip — eight days, 3,800 miles,
baseball, local restaurants and quality time between a father and his
14-year-old son,” Corey said.
Yet for all the traits and activities that make Corey who he is, nothing
defines him more than his love for the Lord, friends and colleagues say.
Corey and his wife have made it their discipline to rise early to
dedicate each day to God in prayer. He journals extensively, chronicling
his spiritual journey and cataloging his praises and petitions. His Bible –
dog-eared and held together by tape – is a continual source of guidance
and the ultimate authority over his life, he says.
“I don’t cross my fingers, nuance or flinch when I say the Bible is
inerrant,” he wrote in his application packet. “I love the Bible. The
stuff about ‘a lamp unto my feet’ is real to me. What God has revealed
in Scripture cannot be trumped by any other revelation or experience,
word or wonder.”
FALL ’07 19