Kenneth Starr, the prosecutor whose investigations into the administration and behavior of former President Bill Clinton made him a lightning rod for partisan politics, has been named president of Baylor University.

The announcement ended an 18-month search that began after regents fired former president John M. Lilley in 2008, saying they had lost confidence in his ability to serve Baylor's many constituencies.

Starr, 63, has been dean of Pepperdine University's law school since 2004. He is scheduled to be introduced on the Baylor campus Tuesday afternoon and starts work June 1. Baylor is the nation's largest Baptist university.

Monday, he was praised for his academic and administrative credentials — the Pepperdine law school vaulted up more than 150 spots in the U.S. News and World Report rankings during his tenure — and for his potential to pull together the sometimes-fractious Baylor community.

“There's been a lot of disagreement within the Baylor community about how to reflect and affirm Baylor's religious heritage within the context of providing a world-class education,” said Tom Phillips, former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and a Baylor alumnus. “I think Ken's thought deeply about that.”

Phillips was one of 10 members of an advisory committee that worked with the presidential search committee to find a new leader for the Baptist school.

“I am enthusiastically thrilled,” said Kenneth Hall, president and CEO of Buckner International in Dallas, who represented Texas Baptists on the advisory committee. “I endorse it 100 percent.”

‘Great match for Baylor'

So did one of Starr's predecessors, Robert B. Sloan Jr., who left as president of Baylor in 2005 and was named president at Houston Baptist University the following year.

“His resume looks like a great match for Baylor,” Sloan said. “There are a lot of issues in higher education that make having a very brilliant attorney as president a real advantage.”

The friction of the past few years has been painful but has helped the school to focus on its identity as a Christian institution, Sloan said.

“I think it was taken for granted before,” he said. “Baylor had a successful history as a Christian university, but anyone who is a fair observer would say Baylor had experienced some drift in that regard.”

Regents “have made a clear decision” to address the drift, Sloan suggested.

Starr, a native Texan, is best known as special prosecutor from 1994 to 1999. During that time, he considered a variety of Clinton activities, including the Whitewater land deal and Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached for lying about his relationship with Lewinsky, but not convicted.

Wide range of experience

But Starr also has a wide academic and professional resume, including stints as a law professor and six years as an appellate judge for the District of Columbia. He served as solicitor general under President George H. W. Bush, representing the government before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“There are folks that, when they hear the name Ken Starr, they think of Whitewater and don't know much more about him,” said Jaime Diaz-Granados, chairman of Baylor's department of psychology and neuroscience. “But that was a very small part of his history, and there is much more to the man than that.”

Starr's work as special prosecutor remains controversial in the legal community, but the dean of the Baylor law school said that should have no bearing on his role as university president.

“This is not an institution that is characterized as R(epublican) or D(emocrat),” said Brad Toben. “We are here to educate our students. ... Whatever has gone forth in the political partisan scheme of things does not bear upon the academic.”

Houston lawyer Mark Lanier, a friend of Starr's, noted that Baylor may be a natural fit.

“Baylor's not (the University of California at) Berkeley,” Lanier said. “These are his people.”

Even critics don't dispute Starr's intellectual star power.

“He's not my kind of guy, but it still seems like a good thing to me,” said Houston lawyer Lynne Liberato.

Some at Baylor may be more concerned with Starr's religious affiliation. He was raised in the Church of Christ, the denomination with which Pepperdine University is affiliated.

Pepperdine spokesman Jerry Derloshon said Starr and his wife, Alice, attended services in a Church of Christ on campus.

But Hall said Starr was a member of McLean Bible Church when he lived in McLean, Va., and will join a Baptist church in Waco.

“That was one thing we spent a lot of time vetting the candidate on,” he said. “We want someone who believes as a Baptist.”

Chronicle reporter Mary Flood contributed to this report.

jeannie.kever@chron.com