Ace! NewsFlash

Kenneth Starr, Clinton Prosecutor, Is Picked to Lead Baylor

Baylor University named Kenneth W. Starr its new president on Monday, saying his Christian ideals and experience heading a law school made him the ideal candidate.

Mr. Starr, whose investigation of the Whitewater land deal and theMonica Lewinsky scandal led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998, has been dean of the law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., since 2004. He will be the 14th president of Baylor, following John M. Lilley, who was fired in 2008.

Pepperdine officials said he would begin his new job in Texas on June 1.

Baylor issued a statement on the appointment, which was first reported by The Waco Tribune-Herald.

In it, R. Dary Stone, who leads the board of regents at Baylor, said, “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.”

Mr. Starr was born in Vernon, Tex., near the Oklahoma border, and grew up in San Antonio. He has taught at New York University School of Law, George Mason University School of Law in Fairfax, Va., and Chapman Law School in Orange, Calif. He served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for six years, was the solicitor general for four and conducted five investigations as independent counsel, according to Baylor.

His office spent millions of dollars in the 1990s investigating Mr. Clinton’s affair with Ms. Lewinsky, a White House intern, and efforts to cover it up. The House approved two articles of impeachment against Mr. Clinton, but the Senate did not convict him.

Mr. Lilley, the former Baylor president, was fired less than three years after he was hired. Regents said he failed to unite students, faculty members and alumni, but they declined to elaborate.

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