1925
Leo is born in Waco, Texas, the only child of James Leo Garett, Sr., an accounting professor at Baylor University, and his wife, Grace Hasseltine Jenkins Garrett.
1935
He professes faith in Jesus Christ and is baptized at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.
1945
He receives a Bachelor of Arts in English from Baylor University, where he is president of the centennial class, and is ordained to Baptist ministry at Waco’s First Baptist Church.
1948
He receives a Bachelor of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is elected to teach there, and marries fellow Southwestern graduate, Myrta Ann Latimer.
1949
He receives a Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary and returns to Fort Worth, Texas to teach at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
1950
He attends his first Baptist World Alliance meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning a 50-year association with the world’s largest organization of Baptist churches.
1954
He receives a Doctor of Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he writes his dissertation on the theology of Baptist scholar Walter Thomas Conner.
1959
He becomes a professor of Christian theology at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
1965
He attends the fourth and final session of the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, Italy as a guest of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.
1966
He receives a Doctor of Philosophy in church history from Harvard University, where he writes his dissertation on American Protestants’ writings on Roman Catholicism between the two Vatican Councils.
1967
He serves as coordinator of the first Conference on the Concept of the Believers’ Church, an international gathering in Louisville, Kentucky.
1968
He studies postgraduate courses at the University of Oxford (Regent’s Park College) in England and is appointed chairman of the Study Commission on Cooperative Christianity for Baptist World Alliance.
1973
He becomes the director of J.M. Dawson Studies in Church-State and a professor of religion at Baylor University, later becoming Simon M. and Ethel Bunn professor of church-state studies.
1974
He authors “Baptist Relations with Other Christians,” reflecting on deeply held Baptist beliefs and ecumenical dialogues with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christians.
1983
He co-authors “Are Southern Baptists ‘Evangelicals?’” a public literary debate between him and his former colleague, E. Glenn Hinson.
1988
He serves as a visiting professor at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary.
1990
He authors the first volume of “Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical,” his two-volume magnum opus.
1997
He becomes Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
2008
He receives an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Baylor University.
2009
He authors “Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study,” which covers decades of interest in the question of Baptist identity.