Lawrence C. Wolken
Dr.Wolken received his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Missouri and both his M.S. in Economics and Ph.D. in Econometrics from Texas A&M University. After graduation he spent four years teaching math, economics, and astronomy and coaching baseball at a high school in a suburb of Houston. He then taught economics and finance for two years at Houston Baptist University.
Since coming to Texas A&M University in 1978, Dr. Wolken has served the university in a variety of teaching and administrative positions. Initially he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise. He has been in the Department of Finance since the fall of 1984 and was the James W. Aston/Republic Bank Professor of Finance from 1991 through 1993. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award in the College of Business Administration for the 1990-91 academic year. He has published a wide variety of articles and is the author or co-author of numerous textbooks. He has served as the Assistant Department Head and the advisor for the Master of Science in Finance program and for the Professional Program in Financial Management. Currently he is the Director of the Scholastic Assistance in Global Education project for the Center for International Studies. His teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses in international finance and corporate finance.
Personal Story
I grew up in a typical middle-class suburb of St. Louis. I was the oldest of three children. As a child, my family would attend churchfairly regularly on Sunday mornings. My brother, sister and I would attend classes for children while our parents went to the regular church service. I did not realize it at the time, but my mother was the reason we went to church. I was interested in learning about Jesus and what it meant to be a follower of Christ. I realize now that my understanding of what this meant was very superficial. During this time, I felt that I knew God and Jesus existed, I tried to live my life properly, and I prayed on a fairly regular basis. At the time, my concept of God was that He was the creator and supreme being, but I doubted that He had much involvement with a person’s everyday life. He was more an observer than a participant in our lives. As I now look back on this, I think I felt this way because I had never really studied the Bible. I was aware of the story of God talking to Moses through a burning bush and God using angels to send a message to someone. Since I had not experienced something as dramatic as this and did not know anyone who claimed they had had a “burning bush” experience, I concluded that God takes an active role in human history only on rare occasions. I now realize that is not the case. I also now realize that a person can go to church and have a casual understanding of the Bible but know very little about God and the world He created. That still sounds strange to me, but I know it happened in my life. And I know others who have experienced the same thing.
As a teenager in high school, I continued to attend Sunday school classes even though the rest of my family seldom went to church anymore. While I was away at college, I seemed to have little time for church but I kept praying on a fairly regular basis. My prayers focused on asking God to help other people. I guess I was unconsciously afraid that if I asked for something in my own life and that thing did not happen, my faith in Him might be weakened or lost completely. I realize now that at this point in my life I knew that God existed but I hadnot developed any kind of relationship with Him.
When I started college at Brown University in 1963, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. Since my parents had gone to college, I had assumed the natural thing for me to do after high school was to go to college. But I had no idea of what I wanted to do after college. During the spring semester of my freshman year, over a relatively short period of time the idea of being a high school mathematics teacher and coach grew stronger and stronger in my mind. I had no idea why I suddenly had this idea, but I realized it was a very strong feeling and I thought this would be an enjoyable occupation. Looking back now, I am convinced that this was God working in my life without my realizing it. In order to follow this direction in my education, I had to transfer to the University of Missouri so I could take the education courses needed to qualify for a certificate to teach. After completing my B.A. Degree in Mathematics, I went to Texas A&M University in 1967 to begin work on my M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics. During my graduate work, I began to rely more and more on my own intellectual abilities to deal with the problems of life. I hadn’t turned against God. I was still of the opinion that God only acted in dramatic ways and only did that on rare occasions. So I felt I had to figure things out on my own. Besides, things were going well in my life, I had not experienced any major crises or problems. So I didn’t think I needed God’s help.
The first year I was at Texas A&M I met a young woman by the name of Gay Hart. A year and a half later we were married. Gay had much more faith than I did and she was the first person in my life to tell me that she had a personal relationship with Jesus. That was a very surprising idea to me. None of my friends, my parents, or even anyone in the church I attended growing up had ever suggested that a person could have a close personal relationship with Jesus. My unwillingness to accept this new idea was a source of misunderstandings between Gay and me. I kept relying on my intellectual training to deal with life and she couldn’t understand why I didn’t have as much faith in God as she did.
In 1985 I was invited to teach for a year in Beijing, China. Over a period of two months, God made it clear to both Gay and me that He wanted us to go there with our three children. This had a great impact on be because it was the first time in my life that I recognized that God was acting in my life and my “intellectual abilities” could not explain what was happening. There was no talking bush or angelic visit involved. While both Gay and I were certain that God wanted us to go to China, we didn’t know why. Perhaps He wanted us to help some Chinese people. While we were there we realized that He wanted us to learn to trust in Him rather than ourselves and learn that He would take care of us. Since returning from China, I have learned a great deal about life and myself by studying the Bible and have grown a great deal in my relationship with God. I now know what Gay meant about having a personal relationship with the Lord.
Articles I Have Written ( Off-site Links)
The Secret to Becoming Wealthy
My Understanding of the Christian View of the World We Live In
