WACO, Texas — Baylor University named former Clinton White House nemesis Kenneth Starr its president Monday, saying his Christian ideals and experience heading a law school made him the ideal candidate to lead the world’s largest Baptist university.
Starr, whose investigation of the Whitewater land deal and Monica Lewinsky scandal led to Clinton’s impeachment, has been dean of the law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., since 2004. He becomes the 14th president of Baylor and follows John M. Lilley, who was fired from the post in 2008.
Pepperdine officials said he would begin his new job in Texas on June 1. R. Dary Stone, who leads the board of regents at Baylor, called Starr an “ideal” choice to lead the school.
“His depth of experience and exceptional record as a university dean and legal scholar, his dedication to the highest ideals of the Christian faith, and his profound commitment to public service and visionary leadership make him the ideal person to lead Baylor at this remarkable time in the university’s history,” Stone said, according to a news release.
Starr’s office spent millions of dollars in the 1990s investigating Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky, a White House intern, and efforts to cover it up. The House approved two articles of impeachment against Clinton, but the Senate fell short of the votes necessary to convict him.
