Alumni News
10/01/08 – 02/28/09
Bob Nash (class of 1956) and Janet Carpenter Nash (class of 1955) have retired—again! In their words, “We have decided it is time to slow down and smell the roses. As doors of ministry may open for us, we will walk through them with great joy. In the meantime, we are enjoying the slower pace.” Bob and Jan live in Athens. They have two sons, Rob and David; two daughters-in-law, Guyeth and Vicki; and five grandchildren—Lindsay, a senior at Tulane University; Douglas, a freshman at Temple University in Philadelphia; Brittany, a graduate student in the Medical College of Georgia; Courtney, a junior at Clemson University; and Stephanie, a ninth grader.
Bill Dixon (class of 1957) sent the TMC Alumni Office a Christmas greeting in which he gave the following information: He and his wife Snookie have been married for almost 45 years and are the parents of two sons, David and Chris. They have four granddaughters and two recently adopted sons—
two brothers from Uzbekistan who are students at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR. Bill served Ouachita many years as the Vice President for Student Services and officially retired, although he continues to lead the school’s extensive travel program. In January 2008 he took a group to Israel and Jordan; in March, a group to Egypt; in July, a medical mission team to the interior jungles of the Amazon River in South America; and in August, a group to Costa Rica. He writes that in 2009 they are planning trips to Israel and Greece in March, to Alaska in May and to India in October, and, in addition, they may try to work in a tour of Ireland also. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it!
Beth Underwood Brown (class of 1959) of McDonough underwent exploratory surgery on October 31, resulting in the discovery of stomach cancer and the removal of her entire stomach. The esophagus was connected directly to the small intestine, enabling her to eat. She is taking treatments with a fairly new drug and is feeling considerably stronger and better than before she began her treatments in early January. She can be contacted at 78 Stone Road, McDonough, GA 30253.
Bob Hatfield (class of 1969) recently celebrated 30 years as minister of music at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. The Alabama Baptist newspaper, The Alabama Baptist, published a very nice article on him with a photo to mark the anniversary. He was Truett-McConnell College’s 2000-01 Outstanding Alumnus. In his career in church music, he has served churches in Texas and Arkansas before coming to Dawson Memorial. He has also served as president of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference, church music chairman of the Alabama Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and adjunct instructor at Samford University and Samford’s Beeson School of Divinity.
Charles M. (Mickey) Moore (class of 1969) is owner and CEO of LuMic Digital Studios, as well as production director and keyboardist for Harmony Baptist Church in Monroe, GA.
Don L. Ansley (class of 1975) is an account executive for Ansley Communications Group, Inc., in Cornelia, GA.
Dr. Wesley Harris (class of 1978) and his wife, TMC alum Teresa (Terri) Burns Harris, have relocated from their former home in Ringgold, GA, to Royston, GA. Wes is a medical doctor, and they have a ministry called World Evangelism Foundation, PO Box 327, Royston, GA 30662. The Harrises have three adult sons: Tim, Travis and Daniel. They have two grandchildren. During 2008 Wes and Terri served in mission projects in Ethiopia (twice), Honduras and Peru. The group of doctors, nurses and dentists participating in the projects are able to serve many sick and needy people, who often wait in long lines to see a doctor or a dentist. Wes reports that, besides using food and medicine, God worked healing in many lives through His Word and through prayer as people came through the clinics.
Lisa Reeves Spivey (class of 1980) and Cathy Van Brackle (class of 1980) visited the Truett-McConnell Alumni Services Office, along with former TMC Director of Admissions Rodney Fitzgerald and former TMC Dean of Students Claude Smith, on November 21, 2008. Dr. Cathy Van Brackle is a clinical psychologist who works as a consultant in Daytona Beach, FL. Lisa Spivey works for State of Georgia Child Protective Services, where she is administrator of the Clayton County, GA, office. She and her husband Mike live in Hampton, GA.
Christen Brown, daughter of William E. (Billy) Brown (class of 1981) and Kaye Bramlett Brown (class of 1982), graduated this past spring from Wake Forest University, where she played basketball, earning four letters and an education degree at the university in Winston-Salem, NC. The 22-year-old returned home to Dalton, GA, in the fall of 2008 to teach second grade at Roan Elementary School and serve as an assistant coach of the women’s basketball program at Dalton State College. She grew up in a home where there was little doubt that she would probably end up on a basketball court, for her parents met during their own college basketball careers at Truett-McConnell College.
Tim Smith (class of 1982) received the Doctor of Ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, in December 2008. Dr. Smith received his Associate in Arts from TMC, his Bachelor of Science from West Georgia College in Carrollton, GA, and his Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. He serves as a consultant in the Sunday School Ministries division of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Tim and his wife, Cathy, and their two children live in White, GA.
Charles Huyck (class of 1983) lives in Mount Pleasant, SC, where he is Branch Chief for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) of the US Department of Homeland Security in Charleston, SC. The focus of training is primarily maritime and seaport security with heavy emphasis on anti-terrorism training and security. Charles is also a US Coast Guard Special Agent with the Coast Guard Investigative Service as a reservist member of the US Armed Forces. The FLETC trains all federal agents including the US Secret Service, US Marshal Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others, with the exception of the FBI/DEA, who train out of Quantico, VA. The focus of FLETC is training and preparing agents to protect our homeland.
Bruce Poss (class of 1983) has been tapped by the North American Mission Board to serve as its Coordinator for National Disaster Relief. He has been associate pastor for students at Marshall Baptist Church in Thomson for 21 years. He and his wife, Sandra, have two children: Carol, a senior in high school, who plans to study musical theatre at Shorter College next fall, and Cameron, a freshman in high school, who loves playing drums. Sandra is a ninth grade biology teacher at Thomson-McDuffie Junior High School. Poss has also served for the past 16 years as director of Feeding Unit 2F of the Georgia Disaster Relief organization, so working in disaster relief is a project near to his heart. He began his new position with NAMB on February 2, 2009.
Brenda Neal Sapp (class of 1985) teaches EBD middle school at the Methodist Children’s Home in Macon, GA. Her daughter, Sarah Anne, recently married Jeremy Stewart, and her son, Timothy, will graduate from Warner Robins High School in 2009.
Patsy Adams (class of 1990) works in the Edward Jones Investments office in Cleveland, GA, where she has been employed for the past nine years. She is remembered pleasantly by many TMC alumni as a college employee in the Registrar’s Office for several years in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lori Hickey Brooks (attended 1990-1992) has been married to Jimmy Brooks for 13 years. They are the parents of an eight-year-old daughter, Sierra, and a six-year-old daughter, Gracie. The family lives in Woodstock, where Lori is a pre-K teacher at Alpharetta Christian Academy operated by Alpharetta First Baptist Church. She is back in college working on a degree in early childhood education.
James Armour (class of 1992) says that he is staying busy in his job with developmentally disabled adults. He lives in Crawford, GA.
Scott Thomas (class of 1992) and his wife, Lisa, announce the birth of their second son, Aiden Carter Thomas, on August 20, 2008. Aiden joins a brother, Ryan, aged 4, in the Thomas household in Birmingham, AL. Scott works for Long’s Electronics and assists Lisa, who is the preschool director for First Baptist Church of Trussville, AL.
Olu Menjay (class of 1993) has been administrator of the Ricks Institute in his hometown of Monrovia, Liberia, in West Africa for the past several years. He has worked very hard to get the secondary boarding school that was begun by Baptists in 1887 back up and running after it was almost destroyed by the civil war which raged in Liberia in the 1990s. Recently he has been forced to close the school down and send the approximately 400 students home until a dispute over land ownership is resolved. It seems that local town officials near the school donated 28 acres of land to the Liberia Repatriation, Resettlement and Reintegration Commission to build housing units for refugees from Sierra Leone. However, Menjay maintains that the Ricks Institute has a deed to that land, which was part of a 1200-acre purchase in 1887 by Baptists as a campus for the school. He maintains that the local town officials did not own the land and, therefore, had no right to give a deed to it. Construction of the housing units has already begun on land that the school has always claimed as its own. The matter is currently before the Supreme Court of Liberia, and until it is decided, the Ricks Institute is closed down.
Johnathan Gray (class of 1994) has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation, having begun his responsibilities on November 7, 2008. Dr. Gray and his wife, Andrea Folsom Gray (class of 1988), along with their four children, have moved to the Fort Worth area and now live in the suburb of Keller, TX. He serves as immediate past president of the Truett-McConnell College Alumni Association.
Chad Robbins (class of 1994) and his wife founded and operate a ministry called Mtn2Sea Outfitters, Inc. During 2008 they relocated their ministry from Talmo, GA, to St. Simons Island, GA, where they are finding opportunities to serve everywhere. At Christmas Chad sent an e-mail to the Alumni Office, and these are some excerpts: “In 2008 God granted us the opportunity to serve across the world, across the country, and across the street. We have had the opportunity to serve those who are hungry, those who have suffered great loss, and those who just needed a little encouragement to help them keep their heads up. This year [2008] we have strived to meet our mission of Reaching the Lost, Teaching the Found, and Serving in His Name. In 2008 we were blessed with the opportunity to serve in Mexico, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Georgia and locally doing mission work, which included working on churches, serving those in need and disaster relief work. We had the opportunity to speak to groups in different states about God’s love for them and also about how they have the responsibility and the ability to serve Him right now, right where they are.” The ministry website is http://www.mtn2sea.com/ministry.htm.
Ryan Raymond (class of 1995) is on the staff at Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, FL, as youth minister. He has also started his own company called Wayout Apparel that prints t-shirts for local ministries, schools and businesses.
Brian Hancock and Melanie Brantley (both class of 1999) were married in 2004 and reside in Carrollton, GA, where Brian is a funeral director with Almon Funeral Home and Melanie is a teacher in the Carrollton City School. Brian says he “still preaches from time to time.”
Mitch Fielder (class of 2003) was married on August 13, 2005, to Rebecca Chapman (class of 2004). The couple lives in Nashville, TN, where Mitch is account executive for Liberty Party Rentals and currently serves as Director of Communications for the board of the Tennessee Chapter of Meeting Professionals International. He also works with the worship arts team at The People’s Church in Franklin, TN. Rebecca earned her Master of Education degree from Belmont University in May of 2007 and currently teaches first grade at Sunset Elementary in Brentwood, TN.
Scott Sienkiewicz (class of 2008) and Carrie Ann Saville (attended 2007-08) were married on December 31, 2008, in a small wedding with family and friends. They now live in Gainesville, where Scott has been employed as a youth pastor. He is enrolling in seminary through Liberty University’s online program. Carrie Ann is employed at Truett-McConnell as an admissions counselor. Congratulations to the Sienkiewiczes.
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