Stuart Baskin
Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Tyler

Stuart Baskin has been Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Tyler, Texas, since 2006. A native of San Antonio, Baskin attended public schools there and then attended Davidson College in North Carolina, where he graduated with a B.A. in international studies in 1981. After graduation, he was called into full time church work, first serving as Youth Director of a large, suburban Presbyterian Church in Houston. He then enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, where he received both his Master of Divinity and Master of Theology. He also met his wife, Amy, while he was there.  After seminary, they moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where Stuart served as Associate Pastor of a large, urban church. During his time there, he also served as adjunct faculty in Humanities at Rhodes College. Returning to Richmond in 1992, he entered the Ph.D. program at Union Seminary in Theological Ethics, a field that studies the church’s witness in society. In 1998, he returned to full-time ministry, this time as Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, Mississippi. While there, he completed work on his doctoral dissertation and received his Ph.D. in 2002. His dissertation examined theological perspectives on economic systems. The Baskins moved to Tyler in 2006, where Stuart became Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, a position he has held for 16 years. While in Tyler, he has served on the boards of several local non-profits, including PATH, Smith County Habitat for Humanity, the Cancer Foundation for Life, and the Mosaic Counseling Center. Stuart’s wife Amy, a graduate of the University of Richmond (B.A.) and Vanderbilt University (M.Ed.)is currently completing work on her Ph.D. at the Soules College of Business at UT Tyler in the field of organizational development and change. She anticipates graduating this December. The Baskins have two daughters and a new son-in-law. Their older daughter, Whitney, a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, is the Director of Development at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston. Her husband Andrew is a CPA with Ernst and Young, also in Houston. Their younger daughter, Sarah, is an Events Account Manager for Media West, a company in DFW area that primarily organizes and manages events at AT&T Stadium and the Star, the Cowboys training facility in Frisco. She is completing work on a master’s degree in media industry studies at the University of North Texas, where she also received her bachelor’s degree.