Thomas D. Hay was installed as the General Presbyter for Shenandoah
Presbytery in July 2000. He is a third generation Presbyterian minister,
and was born when his father (Edward C. Hay) was a pastor in Franklin, Tennessee.
Growing up he also lived in Jacksonville, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama.
After graduation from St. Andrews Presbyterian College
in 1975, Tom received the D. Min degree from Union Theological Seminary (now
Union-PSCE) in Richmond in 1979. He was ordained by Highlands Presbytery
to serve the Buchanan Presbyterian Church (Buchanan, Virginia). In
1984 he moved to be pastor of the Wallace Presbyterian Church (Wallace, NC)
and from 1990 until his move to Shenandoah Presbytery, was the pastor of
the Central Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Virginia.
Presbytery has been a part of his life as long as he can
remember. Tom’s first job was washing dishes at the Presbytery camp
in Birmingham Presbytery. He celebrated his 20th birthday while serving
as Birmingham Presbytery’s Youth Advisory Delegate at the General Assembly
(PCUS) and his 40th birthday while serving as Abingdon Presbytery’s Commissioner
at a later General Assembly. He has chaired Presbytery committees on
Camping, Budget and Finance and Associate and Executive Presbyter Search
Committees. For six years he was chairman of Abingdon Presbytery’s
Committee on Ministry.
In 1977 Tom and Betsy (Neff) Hay were married, having
met at St. Andrews Presbyterian College. A daughter, Rebekah, was born
in 1983 and a son Douglass in 1986. Both children have followed their
father as Youth Advisory Delegates to the General Assembly – Rebekah from
Abingdon Presbytery and Douglass from Shenandoah Presbytery.
Betsy earned her Master’s in Social Work degree from VCU
and is the organizing Executive Director for Generations Crossing, a Harrisonburg
United Way agency offering day-care for adults and children in Harrisonburg
and Rockingham County.
