Two strong influences on Ken Kovacs' Presbyterian faith were his Scottish-born grandmother and Princeton Theological Seminary. As a youngster, Ken met many PTS Seminarians - his home church in Northern New Jersey was a PTS field education site. Ken earned his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University and then nearly missed PTS - he enrolled at Yale Divinity School. But he switched to PTS after just the first semester because he desired "a strong commitment to parish ministry." At PTS, faculty member Professor James Loder had a huge influence on Ken. "He was the most demanding professor," Ken says. He took every class that Professor Loder offered. Jim Loder's theology ended up being the subject of Ken's doctoral thesis at the University of St. Andrews, which in 2011 he turned into a book: The Relational Theology of James E. Loder: Encounter and Conviction. This book won Ken an award.

Ken's interests today are in both psychology and theology - he believes that Carl Jung has a lot to offer to the present day church, and so he is immersed in a study program through the C.S. Jung Institute in Zurich. In his recently published book, Out of the Depths: Sermons and Essays, published in 2016, he explores these themes. Ken is presently pastor of Catonsville Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD, where he has been for the last 18 years.

In thanks for the PTS influence in his life and career, Ken is giving back. A strong, steady supporter of the Annual Fund since he graduated, Ken is now also a member of the Martha Banyar Le Roy Legacy Society - he has written in his will that PTS is to receive a proportion of his estate. He is also bequeathing to the Seminary a special clock that he found in 1992 in an antique clock shop in Mendham, NJ, when he was serving at the First Presbyterian Church, Mendham. The clock is an 1840 Seth Thomas Empire clock that has Alexander Hall painted on the glass front!