Bible Institute to be Named after Former Union College Professor

The Bible college co-founded by Union graduate Dr. Harry Yates will be renamed in honor of Professor Emeritus Warren Robbins. The Barbourville resident will be honored during a ceremony at Conway Boatman Chapel on Saturday, March 24, beginning at 2 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

"We all agreed to rename our college Warren Robbins University because of the vast number of students who have been impacted by the love and dedication of Dr. Robbins," said Yates, who currently serves as president of Bible Way Institute International in Azle, Texas.

Dr. Robbins joined the faculty at Union in 1957, having previously served as a teacher, principal and a supervisor in the Bell County school system. From 1954 to 1957, he was a supervisor in a Ford Foundation pilot program at Berea College designed to improve rural education in Kentucky.

At Union, Dr. Robbins began as associate professor of education and supervisor of student teaching. Later, he became chair of the department, and in 1978, he was named dean of faculty and director of graduate studies. From 1979 until his retirement in 1990, Robbins served a dean of graduate academic affairs.

A native of Pineville, Ky., Dr. Robbins attended Union College, received his bachelor’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University, his master’s degree from George Peabody College, and his doctorate from the University of Tennessee. He has also pursued graduate study at the University of Kentucky, the University of Virginia, and Indiana University.

Bible Way Institute International was co-founded in 1993 by Yates, a 1966 graduate of Union College, and Dr. G. Calvin Cearley. Beginning in a church building with 10 students, its present campus has expanded and has an extensive Distance Education Program, as well as over 15 Extension Centers throughout the United States and foreign countries.

Beginning early in 1999, Bible Way Institute began the transformation into what is now Warren Robbins University, an accredited theological distance-learning university.

"Warren Robbins University is everything that Bible Way Institute was struggling to become," Yates said. "People were, and are, looking for an accredited theological university that they can attend without leaving home and without paying unreasonable tuition prices."

March 1, 2001

[Top]