• Hardin-Simmons University presented awards to several alumni during homecoming activities Oct. 15-16. Joe Sharp received the John J. Keeter Jr. Alumni Service Award. He has served on the HSU board of trustees 13 years, is a past member of the board of development and is a lifetime member of the President’s Club. Harvey Catchings and Jack Graham were the recipients of the distinguished alumni awards. Catchings, a 1974 graduate, played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association. After his retirement, he was the spokesman for the NBA’s “Stay In School” program. Graham, a 1972 HSU graduate, is pastor of the 28,000-member Preston-wood Church in Plano. He previously was pastor of churches in Fort Worth, Oklahoma and Florida. He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2002 to 2004, and he served as president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 1992. Elected to the HSU Athletics Hall of Fame were Micky Brewer, women’s basketball; Doyle Brunson, basketball and track; Collin McCormick, football; and Morris Southall, football.
Hardin-Simmons University student Hayley Thaxton receives a copy of “What’s Missing?” The multimedia compact disc—produced by Faith Comes by Hearing for the Baptist General Convention of Texas—contains evangelistic gospel presentations and Scripture in multiple languages. As part of Texas Hope 2010, Logsdon Seminary students, faculty and staff have contributed about $1,000 in the past year to help meet needs in Abilene. Hardin-Simmons students also have given more than 2,500 volunteer hours in the last year to Friendship House, a ministry to the neighborhood near the university campus.
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• The Houston Baptist University School of Business and its Center for Christianity in Business, in conjunction with the Headwaters Leadership Institute, will host Wallace Henley—assistant pastor at Houston’s Second Baptist Church, a management and organizational consultant, and a former White House and congressional aide. He will present “GlobeQuake: How to Build and Sustain Safe, Sane, Stable, Successful Companies in Turbulent Times” Friday, Oct. 23 from 7:30 a.m. to noon in the Morris Cultural Arts Center on the HBU campus. The presentation will explore the nature and extent of contemporary global change and how business and other key societal institutions can be stable and effective through the application of time-tested biblical principles. For more information, see www.hbu.edu/GlobeQuake.
• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will hold homecoming festivities Oct. 23-24. The homecoming chapel at 11 a.m. Friday will feature a number of alumni musicians. A luncheon for the Class of 1959 will follow. Friday evening’s activities will include a dinner, pep rally, fireworks, dessert party, and outdoor music and a movie. Saturday’s events begin with a 5K run, followed by a tailgate party and the football game versus Southern Oregon University. For more information, call (254) 295-4599.
• Baylor University recently dedicated the Jay and Jenny Allison Indoor Football Practice Facility. The building will allow the team to practice year-round without regard for weather. Jay Allison was a three-time Baylor football letter award winner. The couple also has endowed scholarships for football student-athletes, named the Jay and Jenny Reid Allison Skybox Complex at Floyd Casey Stadium and funded the Basketball Hall of Honor in the basketball practice facility. He also has served on the Baylor board of regents nine years. She is a former president of the Baylor University Women’s Council of Dallas, and she currently serves the group as parliamentarian.
• Baptist Child & Family Services has named Teresa Berkley director of adoptions. She will be responsible for matching potential adoptive parents with children eligible for adoption; developing, training and certifying adoptive parents; as well as facilitating continuity of services for children moving from foster care to forever homes.
• Dallas Baptist University has added three faculty members—Bob Brooks, associate professor of worship leadership, director of the master of arts in worship leadership program and associate dean of the Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership; Elaine Hatcher, assistant professor of English; and Sergiy Saydometov, assistant professor of finance.
• The board of trustees of East Texas Baptist University has elected its officers. Tom Lyles has been elected the board’s chairman; Sam Moseley, vice chairman; and Ray Delk, secretary.
Anniversaries
• Rick Roman, fifth, a youth minister at First Church in Skidmore, Aug. 30.
• Primera Iglesia Mexicana of Brownsville, 100th, Oct. 14-17. The church held a three-day evangelistic event led by Dimas Gomez and Beau Hesterberg to kick off the celebration. The main celebration was held Saturday afternoon and evening. Leocadio Baltazar is pastor.
• Ron Walker, 10th, as pastor of First Church in Mathis.
• Amadeo Rodriguez, 15th, as music minister at Primera Iglesia in Corpus Christi.
• Rey Escalante, 10th, as pastor of Church Without Walls in Corpus Christi.
• Colby Benavidez, fifth, as youth minister at First Church in Mathis.
Deaths
• Bill Clanton, 82, July 15 in Beaumont. A bivocational pastor, he taught school in the Fort Bend school district more than 20 years. He served as pastor of Rock Island Church in Rock Island, First Church in Shriner, First Church in Sargeant, Friendship Church in Caldwell and Batson Prairie Church in Batson. He is survived by his wife, Bethel; son, Wesley; and two grandchildren.
• James Thurmond, 88, Sept. 13 in Fort Worth. He was a member of Broadway Church in Fort Worth 65 years, serving as chair man of deacons, committee member and Sunday school teacher. He also was a longtime trustee of Buckner International, serving part of that time as chairman. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; sons, James and Stephen; daughters, Nancy Broyles and Jane Anne Thurmond; six grandchildren; and six great-granddaughters.
• Charles Wellborn, 86, Oct. 1 in Georgetown, Ky. Described by his contemporaries as one of the best preachers, he was a clear voice of conscience among his generation of Baptists. He accepted Christ at age 23 amid the Southern Baptist youth revival movement of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1948, he began preaching on the “Baptist Hour,” a weekly program produced by the Radio Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, while still a student at Southwestern Seminary. After graduation, he served 10 years as pastor of Seventh & James Church, adjacent to Baylor University in Waco. After the congregation voted to open its membership to people of all “races and colors” in 1958, the young pastor received threatening phone calls and a cross was burned on the lawn of the parsonage. He left the church to begin doctoral studies at Duke University. After graduation, he taught at a number of universities until his retirement in 1990. He was preceded in death by his sister, LaVerne Wentworth. He is survived by his sons, Gary and Jon; sister, Faye Robbins; three grandchilden; and two great-grandsons.
• Todd Trimble, 30, Oct. 3 in Tyler. Trimble, whose father is pastor of Pine Church in Pittsburg, died at the hospital a few hours after a hunting accident. He is survived by his wife, Amie; children, Kason, Kallie and Kaden; parents, Danny and Cheryl Trimble; brothers, Chad and Eric; sister, April Trimble; maternal grandmother, Pat Galyon; and paternal grandparents, Leo and Joan Trimble.
Ordained
• DeWayne Bush, to the ministry, at First Church in Tuscola.
• Noe Rodriguez, to the ministry, at First Church in Cotulla.
• Marcus Foster as a deacon at Naruna Church in Lampasas.
Revivals
• Walker Memorial Church, Bandera; Oct. 24-28; evangelist, Robert Barge; pastor, Bill McGarity.
• Chicota Church, Chicota; Nov. 1-4; evangelist, Johnny Witherspoon; pastor, Rocky Burrow.