C. Stephen Byrum
C. Stephen (“Steve”) Byrum became aware of the work of Robert Hartman in the late 1960s while an undergraduate student at Tennessee Wesleyan College. He remained intrigued about Hartman and read extensively from his available writings while doing a Masters of Divinity Degree at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Upon learning of Hartman’s teaching at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he turned down graduate fellowship opportunities at Princeton, the University of Chicago, and Florida State University, to come to Knoxville and study with Dr. Hartman, Rem B. Edwards, John W. Davis, and Rolf-Dieter Herrmann. He considers the decision to come to Knoxville one of the most important in his professional life. Both his Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation relate to Hartman’s work.
After teaching as a Graduate Assistant at UTK, he accepted a full time position as Dean of Humanities and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Chattanooga State. At that time, he began to use the HVP with students, hiring faculty members, and in business settings. He taught at the college for twenty-two years, operated a counseling practice, and increasingly gave attention to consulting work in business organizations where he developed applications and interpretations of the HVP.
Since 1996, he has given total attention to his work in business organizations, operating under the aegis of The Byrum Consulting Group. To date, he has written over thirty books and numerous periodical articles. He has served a tenure as President of The Hartman Institute.
Byrum is married, the father of two children, and he and his wife have two grandchildren. His daughter, Meredith, is active in his consulting business and is an outstanding Hartman scholar and presenter in her own right.