Alumni News
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Alumni Updates Spring 2013
Don R. Taylor (1970) serves as pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, AR.
John (1972) and
Kathy (1972)
Dillman celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on January 19, 2013. John is a project manager at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, and Kathy is executive director of Industries for Christ. They have one adult child, Munkei, who was adopted during their missionary years in Kenya.
John R. Vaughn (1974) retired from Kalihi Baptist Church in April 2012. He served for 40 years in pastoral ministry in Hawaii. He has served as pastor of four churches and also served as a full time prison chaplain for 11 years.
Milton W. Kliesch (1977) retired from full-time ministry in July 2012 and now serves as interim pastor of Sunlight Baptist Church in Franklinton, LA.
Steven W. De Bernardi (1982) is now serving as chaplain-at-large in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico.
Gary Dewayne Martin (1982) has served as Pastor, Winton First Southern Baptist Church in Winton, CA from 1986 to present. He also serves as Moderator, Central Valley Southern Baptist Association. He served as Mission Team Leader, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, in 2002, 2003, and 2004. He and his wife, Nancy, have two adult daughters and three grandsons.
Donald “Don” Nelson Lee (1983) has served as a social worker at Rusk State Hospital in East Texas for the last 17 years. Earlier, he served for 16 years in the Pacific Northwest doing various types of mission work. He and his wife, Nany, have one eight-year-old daughter.
Jeanette Omarkhail (1985) has been serving as a middle school teacher in TN for 10 years.
Dan Brown (1986) and his wife, Jan, are serving for 2 years as volunteers with Bridges for Peace, a Christian ministry in Jerusalem. Dan and Jan have both served on staff at Abba's House in Chattanooga, TN, for the past 6 years and with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) fulltime from 2000-2006. Dan had served in various pastoral roles in CO and TX from 1986-2000.
David B. Hardesty (1986) is currently serving as Headmaster of Coram Deo Academy, a classical and Christian school in Carmel, IN.
Gary L. Buckner (1987) serves as Director of Missions at Mountain Valley Baptist Association in Alamogordo, NM.
Sheryl Marie Cooper (1987) has retired and now resides in Cuenca, Ecuador.
David Wilcox Howle (1988, 1993) has been serving as the Executive Director/Campus Dean of Wayland Baptist University’s Hawaii campus since in October 2011, after 16 years of ministry at WBU. He and wife, Cathy, live in Central Oahu; sons Adam and Greg live in California and Australia, respectively. The Howles have one grandson and two granddaughters.
Edward “Ed” H. Williamson (1988) retired from the US Army Chaplaincy in March 2011 after 22 years of service. He now serves Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado in their Montrose office.
H. Wayne Ballard, Jr. (1990) received a second PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Wayne and his wife, Kim, reside in Strawberry Plains, TN where he serves as Associate Professor of Religion at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN.
Art Brown (1990) is now serving as Children's Pastor at Hillcrest Covenant Church, Prairie Village, KS.
William “Bill” Howard Swartz (1991) serves as the senior pastor of Baptist Church on Homedale, Klamath Falls, OR. BCH was formed in 2012, by the uniting of Suburban Heights Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Klamath Falls.
Betty M. Chen (1993) lives in Sunnyvale, CA and serves with Bay Area Life Witness.
Rick Rogers (2000) is now serving in his fifth year as Regional Representative of Moody Bible Institute for California/Oregon/Nevada/Hawaii. He also serves as professor in the Moody Distance Learning program. He lives with his family in Redding, CA. His oldest daughter recently got married and his son-in-law attends GGBTS in Southern CA.
Eric L. Light (2004) serves as US Army Chaplain in VA.
Jerod Faris (2006) is a structural engineer from Lakewood, CO who, as part of a team of architects and engineers from across North America, volunteered his time with Engineering Ministries International. He spent a week in February 2013 in Honduras preparing the design for a new clinic, Clínica El Buen Pastor.
Jeff Waldrop (2006) received his Ph.D. in Church History and Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in December 2012. He is currently teaching Church History as an adjunct for Golden Gate’s Online Degree Program.
Adam Adams (2007) is now serving as Director of International Programs at Williams Baptist College, Walnut Ridge, AR.
Joy Rena Gragg (2007) serves at New Braunfels Christian Academy in New Braunfels, TX.
Charlene E. Hios (2008) wrote an article entitled “How Do I Respond When a Loved Says 'I'm Gay'?” which was published in a special insert of the 1/15/12 edition of the
Oklahoma Baptist Messenger called “The New Normal.”
Gary Brndiar (2009) serves as Staff Chaplain at North Colorado Medical Center. He is also a Family Care Pastor in Fort Collins, CO.
Terry Wayne Dorsett (2009) completed 19 years of ministry in Vermont, where for the last 11 years he has served as the Director of Missions for the Green Mountain Baptist Association. During Terry’s tenure, the number of SBC churches in Vermont grew from 18 to 37. Terry is now serving with the North American Mission Board as the Church Planting Catalyst for the state of Connecticut. Terry has written his fifth book,
Mission Possible: Reaching the Next Generation through the Small Church, published in 2012 by CrossBooks, a division of LifeWay.
Amanda Phifer (2009) is serving as a missionary with Resources for the Blind, International, working as a writer out of their Columbia, S.C. office. RBI provides Gospel-centered advocacy, education, prevention, and medical care for blind children and adults in the Philippines.
In Memoriam
ALUMNI
Walter Lloyd Phillips (1950)
Dexter Carl Ogan (1952, 1954)
Eilene Duett (1957)
Pauline Baker (1960)
Glynn Paul Hamm (1960, 1963, 1972) – also former NCC Library staff
Sara M. Wisdom (1962)
George Adam Baker (1964, 1972)
Glenn Alvin Grubb, Sr. (1968)
Mary Susie Colaque (2013)
FORMER STAFF
Manuel Casas (CLD)
Myrna S. Saulter (AZC)
Beulah M. Eakins (NCC) sister of retired professor, Dr. J. Kenneth Eakins
FORMER TRUSTEE
Floyd M. Hixson (CA)