ACU Today Fall 2012

ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Fall 2012

ACU TODAY Trailblazers Dr. Billy Curl and Larry Bonner return to campus 50 years after integrating it

Division I: A Whole New Ballgame

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Alumni Award Winners

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Red read Movement

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Abel Alvarez

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Horizons Trailblazers: Larry Bonner and Dr. Billy Curl Southland Conference and NCAA Division I: A Whole New Ballgame Q&A with Dr. Stephen Johnson: ACU at CitySquare Calvert Headlines Alumni Award Winners reads of Hope: e Red read Movement Willing and Abel Hilltop View Academic News Campus News Wildcat Sports EXperiences Second Glance

OUR PROMISE

ACU is a vibrant, innovative, Christ-centered community that engages students in authentic spiritual and intellectual growth, equipping them to make a real difference in the world

ACU Today is published three times a year by the Office of University Marketing at Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas.

Staff Editor and Graphic Designer: Ron Hadfield (’79) Associate Editor: Katie (Noah ’06) Gibson Sports Editor: Lance Fleming (’92) Contributing Writers This Issue: Paul A. Anthony (’04), Katie (Noah ’06) Gibson, Chris Macaluso, Dr. Charlie Marler (’55), Deana (Hamby ’94) Nall, Lauren Peterson, Robin (Ward ’82) Saylor, Tamara (Kull ’77) Thompson Contributing Photographers This Issue: Pat Arrabito, Steve Butman, Lindsey (Hoskins ’03) Cotton, Dr. Kyle Dickson (’92), Jeremy Enlow, Jason Jones, David Leeson (’78), Paul Reeves, Gary Rhodes (’07), Kim Ritzenthaler, Amy (Daugherity ’96) Warren, Paul White (’68) Contributing Graphic Designers / Illustrators This Issue: Greg Golden (’87), Holly Harrell, Jack Maxwell (’78), Mallory Ming (’14), Todd Mullins, Amy Ozment Proofreaders: Vicki Britten, Rendi (Young ’83) Hahn, Scott Kilmer (’01), Robin (Ward ’82) Saylor, Kailey Rhoden (’13), Bettye (McKinzie ’48) Shipp

ADVISORY COMMIT T EE Administration: Suzanne Allmon (’79), Dr. Allison Garrett, Dr. Gary D. McCaleb (’64), Dr. Robert Rhodes Advancement: Phil Boone (’83), Billie Currey (’70), Paul A. Anthony (’04) Alumni Relations: Craig Fisher (’92), Jama (Fry ’97) Cadle, Samantha (Bickett ’01) Adkins Alumni Association: Randy Pittenger (’80) Marketing: Jason Groves (’00), Grant Rampy (’87) Student Life: Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson Ex-officio: Dr. Phil Schubert (’91)

corre s pon denc e ACU Today : hadfieldr@acu.edu ACU Alumni Association: alumni@acu.edu Record Changes: ACU Box 29132, Abilene, Texas 79699-9132, 325-674-2620

ON THE WE B Abilene Christian University: acu.edu ACU Today Blog: acu.edu/acutoday Address changes: acu.edu/alumni /whatsnew/update.html ACU Advancement Office (Exceptional Fund, Gift Records): acu.edu/giveonline ACU Alumni Web Site: acu.edu/alumni Find Us on Facebook: facebook.com/abilenechristian facebook.com/ACUsports Follow Us on Twitter: twitter.com/ACUedu twitter.com/ACUsports Join our Google+ circle: gplus.to/abilenechristian

ON THE COVER Dr. Billy Curl and Larry Bonner were recently together on campus for the first time since they were students and racial integration pioneers.

(Photograph by Jeremy Enlow)

Fr om the President

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odly difference-makers.

That’s the essence of what we intend for our students to be.

Our faculty and staff model that each day as they prepare young men and women for careers

and purposeful lives in our communities and churches. Our mission and our Promise reflect that, and I believe you will see evidence of it as you read through the pages of this issue. A few examples include: • Our annual alumni awards (pages 32-40), which profile exemplary men and women who reflect our recognition of their accomplishments back upon the university and our God. The winners provide inspiring examples for our students to follow.

• Abel Alvarez, an extraordinary alumnus, trustee, community advocate and student recruiter who goes to great lengths to make ACU’s name known throughout the Rio Grande Valley. And he succeeds in amazing ways, including a unique role pairing our mobile-learning experts with a school district eager to prepare its students for future success (pages 50-55); • ACU at CitySquare, a new initiative brought about by Larry James and other visionary supporters of his remarkable, longtime and successful urban ministry in Dallas (pages 30-31). This evolving partnership has captured the imagination of our innovative faculty and students, who recognize the ways we can help solve the problem of poverty with powerful engagement opportunities across many academic disciplines.

• Brittany Partridge and Samantha Sutherland, whose inspiring story of founding the Red Thread Movement is told in “Threads of Hope (pages 42-49).

Our cover story chronicles the journey Dr. Billy Curl and Larry Bonner made through ACU as its first full-time African-American undergraduate students in 1962. It was moving to see them receive a standing ovation from the packed Moody Coliseum crowd during our annual Opening Assembly as we recognized a historic moment in our heritage. Their reflections of integrating Abilene Christian are sometimes painful to read and surely were difficult to recount for this story, but I appreciate their candor and kind words.

Upon returning to Maryland in August, Larry sent a touching note back to several people on campus, acknowledging that he unknowingly carried home what he termed “a wound” with him after earning his degree in May 1964. “I have always encouraged family and friends to attend ACU for their education,” he wrote.

“Being invited back to ACU as a guest revealed my wound, but my ACU family cleaned, closed and healed that wound for me. I am so touched and at peace.”

What a testament! What courage it took for him and Dr. Curl – one of our trustees – to be trailblazers on ACU’s often difficult road to civil rights and equal opportunity for people of all colors on our campus. And what faith it takes to forgive our past failings and forget our shortcomings. The 50th anniversary of integration at ACU has been a fascinating study of history and human nature, and the determined work of this university community to right wrongs and build bridges to true racial reconciliation and peace.

Thank you for contributing to the important Partnering in the Journey campaign (page 60), which helps make ACU as affordable as it is attractive to increasing numbers of new students from around the world. Your support sustains us, and your prayers give us strength and inspiration to be godly difference-makers in the lives of our students. 䊱

DR. PHIL SCHUBERT (’91), President The mission of ACU is to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.

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HORIZ ON S Hola, Martinez Elementary The newest and largest elementary school in the Abilene Independent School District honors the memory of Myra P. Martinez (’94), a beloved teacher who died of lupus in 2004 at age 34. The $7.02 million school was built on the site of the old Franklin Middle School on the corner of North 12th and Merchant streets.

Martinez taught eight years before moving to the Region 14 Education Service Center to consult on projects designed to help bilingual students.

The new school’s principal is alumna Linda Case, who earned an M.Ed. in 1977 in addition to other educational management certifications from ACU in 1983 and 1990. She was principal of Abilene’s Jackson Elementary School for 14 years.

Martinez principal Linda Case

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Abilene ISD board chair Stan Lambert (’75) applauds the unveiling by students Madison Valencia and Caleb Vasquez of a portrait of Myra P. Martinez (’94), the namesake of Abilene’s newest elementary school.

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Perfect Pitch(es) More than 850 alumni and other friends of ACU attended the June 12, 2012, game between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

They sat together in the All You Can Eat Porch and saw president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) throw out the ceremonial first pitch and heard country music recording artist Aaron Watson (’00) sing the national anthem.

See Bonus Coverage at acu.edu/acutoday

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ACU Exceptional Fund officer Kristi (Halfacre ’85) Thaxton greets some of the more than 850 alumni and other fans of ACU who filled the upper deck sections in right field.

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The Rangers’ post-game press conference facility serves as a place for Watson to tune his guitar and Schubert to stretch his arm.

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Schubert climbs the stairs onto the field level of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

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Craig Fisher (’92), director of alumni relations and annual programs, leads Watson and Schubert in a quick prayer before they take the field.

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Sara (Martin ’01) Hejl, Luke Hejl (’01) and their daughter, Juliet.

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Schubert is congratulated by mascot Rangers Captain and third-base coach Dave Anderson

FROM LEFT: Jim ('86) and Elaine (Rainwater '87) Orr; Casey (Lewis '08) Orr; and Jayne (Montgomery '83) and Doug Orr ('83).

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Chris (’92) and Karen (Polk ’93) Doggett and their daughter, Taylor.

Scot Colley (’04), ACU director of construction and risk management, attended with his family: wife Aimee (Goble ’97), and two of his sons, Connel and Gavin.

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Dawson Mullins focuses on his artwork in Learning to Lead.

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Julia Martin’s Kadesh experience included community service.

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Summer Camps More than 1,600 young people made ACU their home away from home in 2012 during Leadership Camps, Summer Academy and Champions Sports Camps. The university offers a comprehensive program serving students who experience life on a college campus while growing mentally, physically and spiritually. Registration for 2013 camps began Nov. 1 at acucamps.com.

See Bonus Coverage at acu.edu/acutoday Champions girls basketball camps used Moody Coliseum for their workouts and scrimmages.

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Summer Academy students explored Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

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Kariss Ward and Sara Jane Shanks were campers last summer during KidQuest.

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Imani Morris and Annie Bailey participated in Summer Academy.

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ACU head football coach Ken Collums encourages his campers during calisthenics.

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Camp Wildcat introduces kids in grades 2-5 to a variety of sports and activities to help them develop physical and leadership skills and spiritual awareness.

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Dr. Bob Strader (’76), ACU’s director of ministry and service, has been the longtime director of the university’s Leadership Camps.

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ACU students often serve as Leadership Camp counselors.

Chelsea Gaulden and (below) Taylor Flowers help make the experience fun and spiritually meaningful for campers.

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Some of ACU’s top professors – such as Dan McGregor (’97) of the Department of Art and Design and (below) Dr. Richard Beck (’89) of the Department of Psychology – teach talented high school students during Summer Academy.

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ACU Summer Academy students took iPads with them last summer while touring Mesa Veda National Park in Colorado, where Puebloans inhabited cliff dwellings from A.D. 550 to 1300.

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ACU assistant tennis coach John Walker (left) and defensive coordinator Darian Dulin teach skills to young athletes in Champions Sports Camps.

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Learning to Lead campers compete in various skills competitions and other activities that teach life lessons and leadership skills.

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Kadesh campers such as Schuyler Holcomb take part in service-learning projects as part of their week-long experience.

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KidQuest campers participate in games, creative arts and other fun in a Christ-centered environment.

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ACU head women’s basketball coach Julie Goodenough directs one of 11 Champions sports camps each summer.

She has camps for girls in kindergarten through fifth grade, sixth through ninth grade, and a three-day overnight elite camp for eighth through 12th-graders.

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ACU’s Royce and Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center offers a great venue for campers of all ages: a lap pool, leisure pool, four gymnasiums, climbing wall, indoor track, and fitness center.

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MPulse campers enjoy time in the Money Center’s leisure pool.

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Campers develop close friendships with their new best friends: counselors such as ACU student Kaitlyn Howell.

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Each summer, ACU Leadership Camps are a family affair for Chad (’94) and Deana (Hamby ’93) Nall and their daughters, Julia and Jenna. Chad and Deana serve as volunteer counselors.

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HORIZONS Joy in Jerryworld ACU fans flocked Sept. 15, 2012, to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington to watch the Wildcats defeat Tarleton State, 34-31, with a second-half rally in the second annual Lone Star Football Festival.

The three-day, six-game event drew more than 33,000 to the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

See story on page 65.

See Bonus Coverage at acu.edu/acutoday

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ACU cheerleader Cassie Brooks and (inset) Big Purple Band trumpet player Adam Starbuck were some of the 20,000 fans who attended the game. The ACU-Tarleton State contest drew the largest crowd of Saturday’s matchups.

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FROM LEFT: Kamryn Long, Blair Mosley and Kynlee Long

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Rebecca Fowler, Hollyn Griffin and Martha Marquez (’11) helped register high school students for the event.

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FROM LEFT: Jason Pittenger (’07), Kinley Pittenger, Justin (’09) and Jana (Pittenger '09) Schofield, LaGay (Vanderveer '80) Pittenger, Randy Pittenger (’80) and Ansley Pittenger.

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FROM LEFT: Christina Brown, Hilary VanSickle and Audrey Schaffner perform with the Big Purple Band.

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Shannon Motz is one of ACU’s cheerleaders.

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Marilyn Newberry, Matthew Willoughby (’16), Madison Collins, Lyndon Willoughby (’13), Jackson Willoughby, Kristal (Koehn ’87) Willoughby and Mike Willoughby (’86).

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ACU quarterback Mitchell Gale threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Taylor Gabriel (above) in the big win. Running back Charcandrick West (facing page) scored on a 1-yard run in the first quarter.

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ACU mascot Willie the Wildcat flashed the WC and helped lead the crowd in “Oh, Dear Christian College.”

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B Y PA U L A . A N T H O N Y PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY ENL OW

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Dr. Billy Curl (left) and Larry Bonner were recently on campus together for the first time since they were seniors in 1964.

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he foyer is crowded, administrators and faculty pressing in on every side, adjusting robes, donning caps, making small-talk. But Dr. Billy Curl (’64) stands in front of a mirror in the Teague Special Events Center, fiddling with the tassel on his cap.

He’s dressed in a black robe, the fabric barely covering all of his 6-foot, 2-inch frame, and as he smooths it down, the bustle around him seems far away.

Curl takes stock of his appearance, and his tight smile of anticipation breaks into a laugh before he remarks: “This is my graduation year.”

Strange words from a 70-year-old man who graduated

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I have to think a lot to bring back the memories, because a lot of them I have blocked.”

– Dr. Billy Curl

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Bonner and Curl were pictured studying in the library in the May 10, 1963, issue of the Optimist.

from ACU nearly 50 years ago, holds an honorary doctorate and serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.

Yet not so strange from a man who, along with former roommate Larry Bonner (’64), broke ACU’s color barrier, becoming its first full-time undergraduate AfricanAmerican students. Enduring overt racism and subtle ostracism among generous acts of kindness along the way, the two men left campus as soon as they finished classes, with Curl in particular vowing never to return.

“I have to think a lot to bring back the memories,” Curl said of his historic time as an accidental, even unwilling, pioneer in the movement for civil rights, “because a lot of them I blocked.”

ACU honored Bonner and Curl on Aug. 28 for their “courage, humility, grace and pioneer spirit,” in the words of Dr. Gary McCaleb (’64), vice president of the university, who introduced them to the campus during Opening Assembly, the 50th anniversary of their first arrival to campus as transfer students from Southwestern Christian College.

The weekend reunion stirred old memories and awakened dormant grievances, but the public response – a standing ovation from the 4,500 students, faculty, staff and guests 12

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in attendance – overwhelmed both men and their wives, and it provided at least a measure of closure to their experience of integrating Abilene Christian.

A cold shoulder in Abilene Larry Bonner has never lacked for a retort – and he certainly had one available when the admissions clerk told him he could not enroll in Abilene Christian College.

Bonner, a bespectacled 20-year-old with a newly earned associate’s degree and plenty of self-confidence, didn’t know ACU had been, until that fall semester of 1962, off limits for undergraduate African-Americans.

“I was just there because I wanted to go there,” he said. “All my life I’d been a member of the Church of Christ, so I was expecting to go there.”

He walked into the building dressed in the typical garb of the day – slacks, a polo shirt and a Kangol knit cap. Bonner

strode into the admissions office and told the clerk he wanted to enroll.

“I can’t help you,” she replied. “You can’t enroll here.”

Whether motivated by racial animus or simple ignorance of the college’s new policy, the clerk stood firm as Bonner tried to understand what she was saying.

“I didn’t know you were closed,” Bonner replied, tongue perhaps slightly in cheek.

“We’re not,” she said, “but you can’t enroll here. You’re a Negro.”

“No, I’m not,” he retorted, beginning to laugh in disbelief. “I’m a Christian.”

In the end, Bonner did enroll, taking his case directly to president Dr. Don H. Morris (’24), who escorted him back to the admissions office and personally instructed the clerk to admit him.

But it was a wake-up call for the admittedly naïve Bonner – and a taste of the difficulties to come.

Curl’s and Bonner’s names are on the historical timeline in the Hunter Welcome Center.

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“I thought that the church made a difference,” Bonner said. “I was so hung up on the Church of Christ making a difference.

But it didn’t that day.”

Days later, Curl arrived.

A 135-pound, self-described stringbean, Curl also came from Southwestern, but did so more traditionally – applying to ACU at the suggestion of the junior college’s president, A.V. Isbell, and, to his surprise, being accepted by the previously segregated institution.

“I had no intention of being – what do they call it? A pioneer, a trailblazer, none of that,” Curl said. “I did what he advised me to do. I was so naïve. All I wanted to do was graduate. All I wanted to do was get in, go through and get out.”

Curl’s welcome to the campus was no less chilly than Bonner’s.

In the opening days of his first semester, Curl walked into a class only to be summoned outside by the professor.

“They told me you were coming,” she said in the hall. “They told me I didn’t have a choice. I can’t keep you out of my class, but I can keep you from passing.”

“Despite her best efforts, I passed,” Curl said.

The few objections aside, Abilene

Christian College was an integrated institution. Racial equality had arrived, at least officially – an experience no less new or daunting for the previously segregated college than it was for the two young men from East Texas.

Second-class citizens in Nacogdoches By coincidence, Curl and Bonner both came from Nacogdoches, attending E.J. Campbell High School, the all-black facility that provided “separate but equal” education only in theory, the two men said.

Black students only received textbooks when the white high school finished using them, Curl said; whatever they learned was several years out of date.

Like many minorities in the region, both men said they were raised to fear white authority, whether in the form of policemen, who could – and did, in the case of Curl’s brother – arrest and imprison AfricanAmericans without cause, or white women, who could destroy a black man’s life with a single accusation, no matter how unfounded.

“Looking back on it, that was the most horrific experience anyone could go through,” Curl said. “We were taught that we were second-class citizens.”

“Your parents warned you not to get yourself in trouble,” Bonner echoed. “I found myself being afraid of white females. It was very frightening.”

Both men grew up impoverished, and both lived on farms outside the city.

With 10 children and just one income from his father’s job in the Nacogdoches sanitation department, Bonner’s family rode the bus to school, walked four miles to church and made their own bicycles.

Far from experiencing an idyllic country life, however, the family was well acquainted with their second-class status.

Bonner learned the hard way when he was forced to explain to his youngest brother why the boy could no longer play with a white friend whose parents owned the farm where the Bonners lived.

“He was so confused,” Bonner said.

“I learned a lesson there.”

Bonner’s parents impressed on him the importance of higher education, and in 1960, his senior year of high school, Bonner applied to Southwestern after first being rejected by the still-segregated Stephen F. Austin State University. “I didn’t understand all that stuff at the time,” he said.

Like the Bonners, Curl’s family lived on a farm – but they had the rare fortune of ACU TODAY

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Optimist Gave A voice to Pro-Integration advocates

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ntegration Comes to ACC – Quietly” So read the May 1963 Optimist headline marking the end of Abilene Christian College’s first year as an integrated institution.

“The movement for integration at ACC did not begin as suddenly as it might appear,” Optimist editor Carole Straughn (’63) wrote.

Indeed, among the student body, the movement to allow African-Americans to enroll at Abilene Christian was nearly two decades old – and promoted openly in the pages of the Optimist.

Through letters to the editor, columns and editorials, the ACU student body argued, cajoled and pleaded for their college to admit African-American students. The Optimist, which in 2012 is celebrating its 100th birthday, played a significant role in the integration of the campus 50 years ago.

It started with a man named Numa.

On Oct. 11, 1946, the Optimist editorial page published a letter from Numa Crowder, a 27-year-old World War II veteran studying to be a preacher.

Crowder’s letter compared the Nazi regime against which he fought to the Jim Crow regime of the American South, and it closed with a question: “Can a school be truly a Christian or democratic school that will turn away boys and girls because of their race?”

Integration was a passion for Crowder (’48), who died in 2008. His diary, which he kept daily in the 1940s, recorded the title of an address he gave in Dr. Fred Barton’s speech class: “Can We Justify Racial Prejudice?” Several times, Crowder noted visiting what he called “the colored congregation” in Abilene, North 10th and Treadaway Church of Christ.

“I suspect that along with his godly upbringing and study of scripture,” said Steve Crowder (’80), one of Numa’s five children, “his experiences in the military may have shaped his thinking regarding integration.”

Months later, Crowder and 16 other students signed a December 1946 letter to the Optimist focusing on Jesus’ call for unity.

“How can we teach Christianity in this Christian school,” the letter asked, “unless we practice it?”

For Hartsell Johnson (’49), one of the signers, the comparison between segregation and Nazism was powerful – and accurate.

“That’s still my sentiment exactly,” he said. “Prejudice against any people, I didn’t think that was right. We’d gone through the prejudice with the Jews and the

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Nazi regime, and I didn’t go for that.”

Neither Johnson nor Kitty (Hanks ’47) Owings, a former Optimist editor who was business manager when the letters were published, said they remembered any backlash from their fellow students.

Yet opposition to integration certainly existed. In November 1945, a column, signed “D.M.,” referenced “much discussion pro and con” and cited “many students” who supported placing African-Americans “on a level with white students in every respect.”

The author, however, only supported allowing black students on campus if they remained segregated, with separate housing, dining facilities, teachers and classrooms.

“The Negro,” the author concluded, “surely had rather associate with people of his own understanding.”

But opinion as expressed in the Optimist was overwhelmingly against segregation.

In January 1947, Boyd Hays (’48) sarcastically wrote, “Maybe all we need is for SMU, TCU and Baylor to admit a few Negroes, and then it will be safe for ‘Us Christians’ to do the same.” Over the next several years, a smattering of editorials and letters more generally opposed discrimination against African-Americans.

“It was not a real hot topic around the student body, as I recall,” said Ed Broadus (’52), “but there were students who had a conscience about it.”

Broadus, editor in 1950-51, became the first Optimist staff member to publicly endorse integration when he wrote his “Informal Informer” column the next year.

Decrying the failure of “separate but equal” facilities in the South to provide adequate education for black students, Broadus then noted ACU was, in fact, an increasingly diverse place.

“Here at ACC we exercise our Christian love to the extent of welcoming students from every country and from every race

under heaven except the Negro race – why fall short here?” he wrote. “Don’t they deserve the same opportunities that we offer to the rest?”

The column was born from a meeting Broadus and some of his friends had requested with an administrator. Hearing that an African-American student had been denied admission to ACU, the group of students asked if he could confirm the rumor, and he did.

“I had the feeling at the time that the faculty and administration would have gladly done something about it,” Broadus said, “but they were concerned about the constituent reaction.”

Student discussion of integration reached a peak several years later. As civil rights became a national issue in the early 1950s, the Optimist itself took sides in an unsigned April 17, 1953, editorial headlined, “Admit the Negro? Why Shouldn’t We?” “ACC should at least equal if not excel the provisions for colored education made by the colleges and universities of the nation,” the editorial argued, marking the first time the newspaper itself had expressed its support of integration so overtly.

Then, in 1954, a group of 10 freshmen and sophomores collaborated to make a thorough scriptural case for the admission of African-American students.

The Mabee Hall residents began discussing something they had begun to notice: the absence of any American-born black students.

“By the end of the first semester, we got to looking around,” said Sonny Hollis (’57).

“We got the strong impression that any student from all over the globe was there, but African-American kids were not.”

The students began developing their argument – a collaborative process, said John Bailey (’57). Hollis said a handful of students then met with several

administrators about the prospects for full integration. “They were all cordial,” Hollis said, “and they all had the same reaction – that the time was not right.”

Nevertheless, the students were undeterred.

“When we realized we were not going to get action from the administration, we appealed to the Optimist,” Hollis said. “We went back to the drawing board and once again put all our scriptures and ideas together.”

Nearly 60 years later, the author’s identity has grown foggy, although a consensus of the surviving signers available for comment gives much of the credit to Joe Schubert (’57), the late father of current ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) and a national debate champion at the time.

“We unanimously appointed Joe Schubert to put it all together,” Hollis said. “We told him, ‘Put it in the strongest debate form you can.’ There wasn’t a lawyer in the state of Texas that could have done a better job than Joe Schubert did. He did a super job.”

The letter, like many of its predecessors, posed a series of provocative questions: “Our colored brethren are sons of God. We, too, are sons of God. Are we any more sons of God than they? …

If God will accept them into heaven, can we not accept them in school?

If not, why? … When we gather at the throne of God to sing praises to His name, will God want us any closer to His throne than the Negro?

Every race on the face of the earth is permitted to attend ACC except the Negro. Why?” The strongly worded opinion was the product of debates with segregation-minded students who lived in Mabee Hall, Bailey said, adding that he never could understand their arguments.

“The idea that you have to look up or down [at someone else] was repugnant to me,” he said. “We look across at people. That’s what fellowship means.”

In the ensuing years, integration at ACU seemed inevitable, and opinions in the Optimist reflected that notion; its wisdom was assumed by the authors and never publicly questioned by any opponents.

By 1960, when Dr. Carl Spain’s now-famous Lectureship speech called for integration at ACU, the issue had become a part of the printed platforms for Students’ Association executive officer candidates.

When ACU admitted its first African-American student – Colorado City principal Washington Harris, who enrolled in a weekly graduate-level class – the news was so anticlimactic, the Optimist buried it on page 3 of its Feb. 9, 1962, edition.

“I can only assume a school principal coming to campus one night a week for a class didn’t resonate with us as much of a desegregation,” said Charles Smith (’63), editor for the 1962 calendar year, looking back at the story’s placement.

Indeed, the five-sentence article closed with a less-than-subtle critique: “The undergraduate school is still segregated.”

On May 10, 1962, however, the Optimist’s faculty adviser, Dr. Reg Westmoreland, walked into Smith’s office with a press release announcing the Fall 1962 integration of the junior and senior classes.

With the deadline for the next day’s paper looming, Smith rearranged the front page, placing the story as high as he could on short notice and setting the body copy entirely in bold to emphasize its importance. An article the next week reported overwhelming support among the student body.

Yet the editorial page, for 17 years the forum where students had pushed for this moment, remained, in retrospect, strangely quiet.

“I can’t imagine why we didn’t at least have an editorial the next week praising the school for what it had done,” Smith said. “In retrospect, it’s amazing that I didn’t do something about that. … Perhaps the sentiment was to just move on.”

The next September, Larry Bonner (’64) and Billy Curl (’64), who were preschoolers when Numa Crowder’s letter to the Optimist opened the debate they would finally settle, enrolled in classes. Integration had indeed come to ACU, perhaps not so quietly after all. 䊱 – PAUL A. ANTHONY

owning their own land. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to earn a living, especially with 12 children, so Curl’s father was a sharecropper, and Billy mowed lawns for some of his father’s employers.

One of them, Earl Hanna, changed Curl’s life.

“I had no hopes of ever going to college,” Curl said, even though it was his only chance to “get away from this oppressive reality.

I never dreamed of going to college.”

Yet when Hanna asked the young man if he’d like to go, Curl, sensing an opportunity, said yes.

“If you go to the college I choose, I’ll help you,” Hanna replied. A member of the Church of Christ, Hanna and Curl’s father soon helped the young man pack and drove him to Terrell, Texas, to enroll at Southwestern.

“As I look back on it, he was the only one who was fair to my father, the only one to invite me into his house for lunch, the only one who paid us a fair wage,” Curl said.

“Only after I graduated from Abilene did I realize the impact he’d had on my life.”

Generosity and painful symbolism Despite their similar backgrounds, including attendance at the same high school, Bonner and Curl did not know each other until they came to Southwestern.

Bonner worked his way through college and didn’t struggle with grades, while Curl, funded partly by Hanna’s generosity, focused on his studies – no easy task after the inadequate education he’d received in Nacogdoches.

“It was tough,” Curl said. “I had a lot to overcome. I had a lot to catch up. [Larry] was the smart one. He was just sharp.”

As graduation from Southwestern loomed, the notion of transferring to a school such as Abilene Christian was out of the question, Curl said.

Curl knew the worst that could happen when an African-American stood against the power of white authority. A friend had left Southwestern to join the May 1961 Freedom Rides, where he was beaten nearly to death with a baseball bat.

“I couldn’t go to any white school at all in the South,” he said. “I just knew that we couldn’t go. You don’t try because you know it’s not going to happen. It was part of our psyche. Don’t try it because if you do, you’re going to get beaten, get thrown in jail, have your life ruined.”

But one day Isbell, the Southwestern president, stepped out of his office and suggested Curl apply to ACU. “So I applied and was accepted,” Curl said. “That’s it.”

Meanwhile, Bonner, his persistence in the admissions office having paid off, had

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I never did get involved in much of anything.

I never got a class ring.

Nobody called me and said you’ve got to get ready for graduation, none of that. … There was nothing they did mean-spirited, you might say. Just neglect.”

JEREMY ENLOW

– Larry Bonner

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been living with an older brother in Abilene.

The two didn’t always get along, he said, and he asked ACU for a place to live.

When Bonner was told the college had found a place for him to share with new arrival Curl, he expected a room in a residence hall. Instead, ACU offered the students room in a remodeled barn near Judge Ely Boulevard, north of the main campus.

The phone directory listed their residence as the “ACC Farm.”

The reason the students lived off campus may never be fully known or remembered.

Curl said he recalls provision of the barn itself as an act of generosity by Dr. Keith Justice, ACU professor of agronomy, former Nacogdoches resident and a friend of Hanna. As chair of the agriculture department, Justice oversaw the farm.

“It worked out really well,” Curl said.

“From the outside it looked horrible; from the inside it was really nice. I had a nice place to stay. It’s just the symbolism of it was really awful.”

Bonner seemed to have a harder time, struggling to look past the situation and focus on the positive aspects of his time at ACU. “You have to have something to get yourself immune from this stuff,” he said.

“It is what it is. … There was a lot of negative, but I didn’t have time [to dwell on it]. I was working all the time.”

Indeed, the contrast between the two students at Southwestern carried to Abilene, where Bonner worked at the Petroleum Club all four years to pay his way through college, while Curl worked weekends as a dishwasher and studied hard to keep up his grades.

In addition to the challenge of upper-level classes in a new educational environment, both men dealt with the curiosity, pressure and resentment that came with blazing a trail for racial equality in West Texas.

The results sometimes were amusing: For example, Bonner one day noticed a classmate following him on campus, and

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WORLD WAR II WAS AN early TEST OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY

T

he times of Dr. Don H. Morris (’24) accustomed him to dealing with large, serious trends.

He rose to vice president of Abilene Christian in the Depression year of 1932, and Homecoming planning was his responsibility in the context of war looming in Europe in 1938.

As the centerpiece of Homecoming, which fell then on Armistice Day, he and president James F. Cox invited Lt. James V. Leak of the World War I “Lost Battalion” to speak. Morris undoubtedly sensed that some of the students who heard Leak would be called to war. Leak told them, “Let us not be confused by those who seek to divide and confuse and turn us away from the will to serve America.” Pacifism still reigned in some Churches of Christ, and a few of ACU’s faculty were conscientious objectors.

Morris, however, would write in 1960, “I was not and am not a conscientious objector.”

Morris became ACU’s seventh president in 1940. In 1943, he opened the campus to five Japanese students at the height of anti-Japan sentiment during World War II, the global conflict that would eventually take the lives of 40 of his students and alumni.

ACU’s relationship with the Japanese began when Hirosuke Ishiguro, one of Abilene Christian’s first missionary students, graduated in 1922 with a degree in Bible, a few months before Morris arrived on campus as a junior. In 1941, Pearl Harbor changed the lives of Morris; Ishiguro, now minister of the Westside Church of Christ in Los Angeles; and members of Ishiguro’s congregation, who were arrested and placed in internment camps.

But five Westside Japanese students from two of the internment camps – at Rivers, Ariz., and Amanche, Colo. – enrolled at Abilene Christian in 1943-45, became campus leaders, and signaled the coming social-cultural change of racial reconciliation. Ishiguro’s own son, Masaaki, founded and served as first president of men’s social club Frater Sodalis; Lorraine Hasegawa, who had been secretary to pioneer missionary J.M. McCaleb in Tokyo, was elected a Girls Training Class leader and honored as a Who’s Who selection; and Michio Nagi was sergeant-at-arms of Frater Sodalis. Alys Watada, who married Nagi, and Emma Hasegawa also enrolled.

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oaths as Army-bound Japanese-Americans.

Hatred of Japan was intense, so universal acceptance of the five was not guaranteed, but they served as a two-year micro-test of ACU’s ethnic tolerance.

On Jan. 12, 1945, the Optimist editorialized, At a table in the ACC Bean last Tuesday sat six students: one of Japanese extraction, one with German blood flowing in his veins, one of Chinese parentage, two descendants of the English, and one citizen of Mexico.

They sat there laughing, talking, breaking bread together – friends. … Let us give thanks, as we look at our neighbors, that we have the privilege of adding to the world’s store of tolerance and love.

A majority of ACU students argued against segregation, keeping integration at the forefront in the campus marketplace. For instance, Dr. Walter H. Adams (’25), dean, moderated an Alpha Chi forum in 1944 at which four students, including Nena Gutierrez from Belen, N.M., presented arguments for integration.

Although ethnic minorities made their mark in World War II – albeit in separate-but-equal fighting units – churches, colleges, schools and the nation lagged in their treatment of African-Americans.

The more typical behavior at ACU was students engaging in worship with African-Americans on their ground.

Students from The Hill, including the A Cappella Chorus, often worshipped with their brethren at what is now North 10th and Treadaway Church of Christ.

In retrospect, integration – though still two decades away – was foreordained by the war and the social changes brought by it. By the end of World War II, seven years after Leak’s address, the campus welcomed back hundreds of men and women who brought with them new attitudes about the structure of society. Likewise, international enrollment was rising, and Morris and the Board of Trustees prepped the campus and faculty for a college with new challenges.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the doctrine of “separate but equal” public educational facilities in Brown v. Board of Education sealed the inevitability of integration at ACU. While Morris was not a racist, he had a

Board of Trustees, faculty, student body and alumni base who did not agree with each other on the issue of integration, so his skills as a “Let’s bring ourselves together to work this out” leader – which had served him well before and during World War II – were tested at least as much as at any other time in his administration.

In 1960, two years before ACU allowed undergraduate African-Americans to enroll, Morris served as a fact-checker for a forthcoming history of the Restoration Movement authored by James DeForest Murch, managing editor of Christianity Today. In it, Morris approved a section about integration policies in the movement’s colleges stating, “Most of the schools, as far as administration, faculty, and student bodies, would accept integration if their regional clientele could permit it.”

Each African black turned away; each African-American referred to Southwestern

Morris was ACU’s seventh president.

Christian College; each student, alumnus and faculty member who spoke or wrote calling for integration from 1946 to 1960 moved the center of the debate closer to resolution.

When he was felled by a fatal heart attack on a sidewalk near the Brown Library in January 1974, Morris died on a campus he had integrated. 䊱 – DR. CHARLIE H. MARLER

when Bonner confronted him, the student, a Mississippi native, said he was trying – and failing – to find a reason to hate him.

The two became good friends.

Other times, however, humor was absent.

Open belligerence, willing acceptance Bonner, a psychology major, sat in a psychology class when a student raised her hand.

“I have a problem with him,” she said, pointing at Bonner.

When the professor pressed her on it, the classmate cited Bonner’s presence as the offending quality. “I didn’t come here and expect to find him here,” Bonner remembered her saying.

The next time the class met, Bonner had formulated a response. He raised his hand and asked the student: “Would you date a young man, who is white, soaked in kerosene from bombing a church, or would you date a doctor who is black?”

She refused to answer.

Curl, a speech and language major, had a similar experience when a student raised his hand in class and told the professor, “I’ve got a problem. I don’t want to be in a class with a black man.”

The professor retorted, “You don’t have a choice,” and moved on with the class.

Although such reactions stand out, Curl and Bonner also remember students, faculty and administrators going out of their way to make sure they succeeded at ACU. Dr. Ima (Fuchs ’24) Clevenger, professor of communication, shepherded Curl through the speech and language program, insisting on driving him once a week to his clinical work across town.

“Ooh, she was hard on me,” Curl said, “but I could tell she was determined to see me through.”

Soon after arriving on campus and enlisting Morris’ support to push through his admission, Bonner was surprised when the president himself began seeking him out to walk with him, one arm over Larry’s shoulders.

Eventually, Bonner said, he asked Morris to stop, afraid the extra attention would make him a target of ridicule from fellow students.

For the most part, however, Bonner and Curl said they were left alone – alone to pursue their studies without harassment, but also feeling left out of the on-campus social scene. The college simply did not seem to know what to do with them.

Between living off campus, transferring to Abilene Christian as a junior, and the need to study or work to make it through their two years, neither man recalled much social interaction with his classmates.

Curl was a member of the Speech and Hearing Therapy Association and served as an officer in the campus chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega national service organization, indicating at least some measure of on-campus involvement, though the depth of those connections has been blurred by time.

Bonner likened the situation to being “a visible and invisible man” – seen, sometimes spoken to, but many times feeling ignored.

Leaving with unfilled expectations As their time at ACU came to an end, both men said they were ready to leave.

If the college understood the historic nature of their impending graduation, there was no public indication of it.

In May 1964, Bonner finished his last final, and the next day he left Abilene.

He never walked across the stage; he received his diploma in the mail. The first African-American graduate from ACU didn’t even say goodbye.

“No one asked us to do nothing – no support whatsoever,” he said. “I never did get involved in much of anything. I never got a class ring. Nobody called me and said you’ve got to get ready for graduation, none of that. … There was nothing they did mean-spirited, you might say. Just neglect.”

One semester later, Curl finished his own classwork. The stress of five semesters under what felt like a microscope left him drained, and his final semester was worse than the previous four, he said.

When he left Abilene – also without participating in Commencement – Curl vowed never to return.

“Maybe I was angry at ACC,” he said. “I expected better of some of the administration. It was never the [whole] administration or the faculty or the staff.

It was just some of them.”

Curl did not leave empty-handed.

Bonner had introduced him to a young woman named Mary, a member of the North 10th and Treadaway Church of Christ, where the two men attended when Curl wasn’t preaching out of town.

It wasn’t love at first sight.

“She couldn’t stand me,” Curl said, laughing. “She didn’t like me at all.”

“We met,” Mary Curl added, “I looked at Billy and said, ‘He’s skinny! He’s so skinny!’”

Nevertheless, Curl won her over, and the couple married in March 1964. Her Abilene roots ensured that, no matter how strongly her husband felt about returning to the city, the couple would indeed make many return trips to her hometown.

Her own childhood experiences, meanwhile, pointed to how thoroughly enmeshed racism was in the culture surrounding ACU and the local community.

“I didn’t think it would ever come,” Mary Curl said of widespread integration.

“The thing that got me the most was these people are supposed to be Christians.

Christians do not treat each other that way.”

Forging a fragile peace In the 50 years since Bonner and Curl attended Abilene Christian, the university has grown more diverse – and more intentional about righting the wrongs perpetuated by the treatment of African-Americans before and during the integration process (See pages 22-23.).

In November 1999, ACU’s 10th president, Dr. Royce Money (’64), made a public apology at Southwestern Christian’s 50th anniversary celebration, telling the audience, “We are here today to confess the sins of racism and discrimination and to issue a formal apology to all of you and to ask for your forgiveness.” “… As we look to the future, we pledge to walk together with you as those in the body of Christ should always do,” Money told the largely African-American audience.

“May God help us in word and in deed to be truly ‘one in Christ.’ ” Looking back, ACU was not alone in its discriminatory admissions policy and practices.

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, decided in 1954, forced change in public schools, but institutions of higher education were slow to balance that change with the often conflicting opinions of their various constituencies.

For example, The University of Texas at Austin first admitted African-American undergraduate students in September 1956 yet struggled with integration into the early 1960s, mandating segregated residence halls and prohibiting the gathering of mixed races in public spaces such as dining rooms and living areas.

Although ACU integrated in 1962, Baylor University’s Board of Trustees did not vote to do so until November 1963, and Stephen F. Austin State University, in Bonner and Curl’s hometown of Nacogdoches, would not integrate until 1964. Among southern Church of Christ institutions, Harding University did not ACU TODAY

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world could not only thrive, but also feel at home.

“A regret of mine is that our campus as a whole was not more welcoming through the process,” said Money, now ACU’s chancellor and executive director of the new Siburt Institute for Church Ministry.

“The absence of unfortunate incidents did not always mean the presence of hospitality.”

Time heals many things Five decades have changed much.

One in three entering freshmen in 2012 came from ethnically diverse backgrounds, according to the university’s enrollment data, making the class of 2016 the most diverse in ACU history.

“It’s a blessing that we didn’t have to go through [what Curl and Bonner did],” said Kristen Mays, senior elementary education major from Chickasha, Okla., and a member of the Black Students Association.

“They made it possible for all of us to be here.”

Five decades have changed much for the two men, as well.

After leaving Abilene, Curl accepted an invitation from Uptown Church of Christ in San Francisco to live in Ethiopia and start a school there for deaf children. He lived there for six years before returning to California, and he continues to travel there periodically with school supplies for the teachers.

In 1972, Curl became the full-time preacher for the Los Angeles-area Crenshaw Church of Christ, a position he still holds after 40 years.

Meanwhile, time began to heal the hurt he experienced in Abilene.

He returned often to visit Mary’s family, and in 1979, he was invited to speak at Lectureship. Even then, he said, he struggled with his feelings toward ACU. “I’d drive through the campus and have a sense of coldness,” he said. “Not a sense of anger – a sense of distance.” Except, he said, when he drove up Judge Ely Boulevard and parked on the side of the road, near where he and Bonner had lived.

“That was the first thing I did when I came back to Abilene,” he said. “I drove up and sat there. That’s where the emotion came.”

Subsequent visits warmed him to the campus again, Curl said, and its increasing diversity proved to him that the ACU he had known no longer existed.

In 2003, when Curl was approached about joining ACU’s Board of Trustees, he agreed. The student who was not allowed to JEREMY ENLOW

admit African-Americans until 1963 nor Lipscomb University until 1964.

These institutions, ACU included, avoided the bloodshed and near-anarchy that accompanied integration in several major universities of the Deep South.

But the struggle to integrate – both before and after segregation was abolished – was nearly universal in the cultural context where ACU sat.

“These changes rarely took place smoothly or universally across the South and, even when they did, their potential was blunted,” said civil rights historian Dr. Paul Gaston, who cited two ways in which integration faced obstacles.

“First, by the very way in which the transition from segregation to integration took place,” Gaston said in a 2002 speech at Furman University, “and second, by the way in which an increasingly conservative national culture shaped university life.

Both developments prevented institutions of higher education from achieving a genuine interracial sense of community.”

From a Birmingham, Ala., jail cell in 1963, while Curl and Bonner were finishing their first year at ACU, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attributed the chief roadblock to integration not to radical segregationists but “the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; … who feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom.”

No one felt the conflicting pressures of reform, moderation and intransigence at ACU more acutely than Morris, its seventh president (1940-69), who faced a complex and perplexing cultural dilemma as he dealt with the varied views of the university’s trustees, faculty, alumni and donors.

While many pushed ACU to integrate, others resisted or argued for a slower adoption more befitting the segregated Abilene culture, which included its churches.

In the end, those who knew Morris and are familiar with his decisions as president argue his leadership allowed the university to integrate earlier than otherwise would have occurred (See page 18).

As a classmate of Curl and Bonner and a leader in student government, Money said he sensed the pressure ACU’s administrators felt from the forces buffeting universities across the South.

As his alma mater’s 10th president four decades later, Money decided true racial reconciliation needed the critical step of public apology. That, with a subsequent effort to improve dialogue and foster unity within Churches of Christ, was necessary, Money said, for ACU to truly become a place where students of color from around the

live on campus was now one of its leaders.

“To be a part of the family of ACU, I didn’t see that coming,” he said with a laugh.

Bonner’s path took him to the other side of the country. He worked several years for a state hospital, then joined the Air Force. He later worked in human resources at the University of California at Berkeley before moving to Washington, D.C., to earn his master’s degree in public administration from The George Washington University.

While there, he spotted an attractive young woman while he was relaxing in a Georgetown park. “I was a goner,” he said.

Larry and Donna Bonner have now been married 32 years.

Bonner also spent time in church leadership, spending more than a decade as an elder at 13th Street Church of Christ in the nation’s capital, where Craig Fisher (middle) surprised Curl and Bonner with their own ACU rings.

he still lives in semi-retirement.

He always remembered ACU fondly, he said, and let the negative experiences roll off his back. “I don’t have anything in my life to get bitter about,” Bonner said.

Yet he had regrets: He didn’t participate in Commencement, and he’d never received that class ring.

Finally, Graduation Day At a dessert reception with the Black Students Association the evening of Aug. 26, Craig Fisher (’92), ACU’s director of alumni relations and annual projects, held a pair of class rings behind his back as he addressed about two dozen African-American students, the Curls and the Bonners.

The class rings he then presented to Bonner and Curl symbolized “the thankfulness we have for how you have unified us,” Fisher said. “A ring symbolizes unity, and it symbolizes family. You are part of our family, and we are

Students get a closer look at Bonner’s ACU ring during a reception in his and Curl’s honor the evening before the first day of school and Opening Assembly.

“I was walking in between the president and the chancellor. That’s what really floored me. I’m going to be with the president. I’m going to walk beside him all the way. That was a gesture of significance to me.”

– Dr. Billy Curl GARY RHODES

ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert, Dr. Billy Curl, Dr. Royce Money and Larry Bonner led the processional at Opening Assembly.

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Bonner and his wife, Donna, and Curl and his wife, Mary, stand as applause for them begins Aug. 27 during Opening Assembly in Moody Coliseum.

GARY RHODES

multicultural effort builds campus Community

W

hen Dr. Steven Moore touched pen to paper and signed his name on a contract to teach at ACU, he had no idea how those few simple strokes would change his life.

He did not know his family’s painful history with the university that had just employed him. He knew little about the groundbreaking apology delivered that very year for its role in racial discrimination.

Moore only knew that he had a job.

“After I mailed the contract, that’s when my parents sat me down and told the story,” said Moore, assistant professor of language and literature. “I never knew the story of my dad and ACC. Not at all.”

In 1957, Troy Moore was a high school honors student with multiple collegiate offers. But he intended to go to a Christian college, and as a member of the Church of Christ, wanted to attend Abilene Christian.

ACU – still five years away from desegregating its undergraduate classes – turned Moore away.

“I could not believe it,” his son said, reclining in the desk chair of his lamp-lit, book- and plaque-lined Chambers Hall office 55 years later as he recounted the moment his parents relayed the story.

“I was dumbfounded. I was shocked.”

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for the university’s past segregation.

Moore’s tenure and background make him uniquely qualified to assess ACU’s progress toward further healing the wounds of old divisions and creating new opportunities for multicultural community since Money’s apology.

In the 12 years since he was hired, Moore has become one of ACU’s most popular professors, winning the student-selected Teacher of the Year award in 2004. He has always felt welcomed on a campus that remains predominantly white, he said, but has noticed a significant improvement in the way race is approached, discussed and lived at Abilene Christian.

“I’ve seen enormous change in that regard,” he said. “We’ve had the opportunity to tear down so many boundaries and so many walls.”

Since 1962, when Billy Curl (’64) and Larry Bonner (’64) made ACU history by enrolling in classes as the university’s first full-time undergraduate African-American students, ACU has clearly made significant strides in its acceptance and treatment of ethnic minorities on campus.

Since 2000, the changes are perhaps not as stark – but they are no less real, officials say.

In Fall 1999, just 6 percent of ACU’s faculty and staff were ethnic minorities.

By Fall 2011, that figure had doubled.

Similarly, the number of students reporting an ethnically diverse background has

risen to nearly 30 percent – and exceeded that figure for the first time in the Fall 2012 entering freshman class.

“Fifteen, 20 years ago, you saw much less of a presence of black and Hispanic students on campus,” said Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean of student life.

“There’s a completely different feel now.”

Thompson, an African-American, speaks from experience. He visited campus as a youth and noticed how few students looked like him – and those he saw seemed sequestered in their own groups. “There was clear racial tension,” he said. “I think today the difference is I see less racial tension, yet a general unawareness of the real issues involving race and culture.”

Generational change undoubtedly has played a role in that transformation, but so also have intentional efforts to increase communication between and among students of different backgrounds, said Byron Martin (’09), director of the Office of Multicultural Enrichment.

For years, the university simply did not appreciate the extent to which students of color – many of them from out of town or out of state and not from a Church of Christ background – experienced culture shock when coming to campus for the first time, said Martin, himself an African-American.

“As a whole, ACU is becoming a little more aware of that and making strides in opening it up to make students feel more comfortable on campus,” he said.

Dr. Steven Moore is one of ACU’s most popular professors.

A large part of that has been the creation of the Intercultural Effectiveness Team, a group of campus leaders, co-chaired by Thompson and provost Dr. Robert Rhodes, committed to increasing minority recruiting and retention – which means having a campus both welcoming and embracing of students from many different backgrounds.

“We’re expected to secure a certain level of results,” said Martin, also a member of the team, which is a successor to a volunteer committee with a similar purpose started in the 1990s by then-provost Dr. Dwayne VanRheenen.

As a result, new student groups representing students of color have flourished – older groups such as the Black Students Association (formerly Essence of Ebony), Hispanos Unidos and the International Students Association joined

by Virtuous Sisterhood, Sanctify, Chinese Christian Fellowship and others. Likewise, a monthly multicultural Chapel now attracts hundreds of attendees to a format in which students lead prayer, read scripture and sing in a variety of styles and languages.

The goal, Martin said, is not to achieve a colorblindness in which no one discusses race, but to celebrate campus diversity and learn from each other’s differences.

“How do we get together and say,

university was not lost on them.

“I was walking in between the president and the chancellor,” Curl said. “That’s what really floored me. I’m going to be with the president. I’m going to walk beside him all the way. That was a gesture of significance to me.”

After Curl and Bonner took their seats, McCaleb – student-body president during their senior year – rose to speak.

“Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary” of their arrival, McCaleb, “and we celebrate all the students who have followed Dr. Curl and Mr. Bonner the last half-century.”

As the capacity crowd rose for a lengthy standing ovation, Curl and McCaleb waved to each other.

“It was overwhelming,” Bonner said of the moment. “Just, wow. It’s hard to describe it, really. It was one of the best days of my life.” 䊱

walking at the head of the procession, dressed in the customary regalia worn by the administrators and faculty behind them.

Whether intentional or not, both men had the same thought: This was the Commencement ceremony they never had.

Were they excited? “I’m frozen,” Curl said. “More nervous than excited.”

The pair lined up between ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) and chancellor Money, and the four men led the faculty procession to begin Opening Assembly. The symbolism of walking as equals with on-campus leaders of the

‘Campus, this is who we are?’” Martin said. “‘Come join us in that, share in that with us.’ ” One way, begun by university vice president Dr. Gary McCaleb (’64) in 1998, is the Lynay program, part of the Center for Building Community, which McCaleb, a former Abilene mayor, runs.

Lynay, originally an acronym for the phrase, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” began as a group of 100 students – 25 from each classification and roughly divided so that 30 are white, 30 are black, 30 are Hispanic and 10 are international students.

Likewise, the group is composed of 50 men and 50 women.

“Every way you slice it, it’s diverse,” McCaleb said. “The best communities come out of diversity.”

The students meet weekly to hear speakers from the ACU and Abilene communities, as well as occasionally national and international leaders, and they also perform on-campus and community service projects together.

When McCaleb assembled his first group of students, he told them, “Each of you is participating in a human experiment in building community.”

The experiment has gone well enough to comprise 400 students in intentionally diverse communities

JASON JONES

blessed more than you’ll ever know.”

The emotional ceremony was a surprise to both men. “What topped it off more than anything was those rings,” Bonner said.

“It’s just such an impressive thing to do.”

The students in the room said it moved them, as well.

“I was appreciative to witness it,” said BSA president Jeanetta Norris, senior music education major from Fort Worth. “Giving them the rings just puts the icing on the cake.”

The next morning, the men were to be recognized in Opening Assembly, and they were to enter Moody Coliseum by

between Lynay and its sister program, Pulse.

McCaleb said he believes 14 years of Lynay have made a dramatic impact on the entire student body as the conversations within the group are replicated in residence halls, in the Bean or in class.

“We get anecdotal types of impressions all the time that what we do in Lynay permeates from the Lynay members into the broader student body,” he said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Such community – whether the bond of 100 students in Lynay or a dozen students in a classroom – has long been a hallmark of ACU; its extension to students of color remains fairly recent in the life of the 107-year-old university.

Yet it’s happening. Of that, Moore is confident.

“That’s why I love teaching,” he said.

“I walk in the classroom, and we’re sharing life together. That’s the most important thing we try to do as we teach.”

One day, several years ago, Moore shared life – and his parents – with his students. Troy Moore sat in an ACU classroom for the first time and watched his son lead the discussion.

“After I’d heard the whole story from my dad – his rage and anger and disappointment with the university, and how it turned to love and forgiveness – it helped me to understand,” Steven Moore said.

“Being here definitely means so much more because of what happened to my dad and others who were deemed unacceptable.

“Now I walk into the classroom, and I get to see cultures interacting with each other,” he added. “I love that.”䊱 – PAUL A. ANTHONY ACU TODAY

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DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMS | ACU’s Vision to become the premier university for the education of Christ-centered, global leaders means building upon areas of strength and distinctiveness.

BY LANCE FLEMING PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY ENLOW

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couple hundred people watched intently as Southland Conference commissioner Tom Burnett stood on a press conference stage in the Hunter Welcome Center lobby on Aug. 25,

turned to ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) and extended an invitation two years in the making.

With trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, coaches, current and former student-athletes, alumni and fans peering down from the walkway above and assembled in front of them, Schubert shook Burnett’s hand, thanked him and provided the answer everyone was gathered to hear: The Wildcats are headed back to the Southland and on to NCAA Division I, returning to the athletics league it helped create almost 50 years ago.

The move aligns Abilene Christian’s academic vision with some of the top universities in the nation and brings the entire athletics program to the NCAA Division I level for the first time.

A commitment to due diligence Not long after taking office as ACU’s 11th president in June 2010, Schubert (’91) made a request of Jared Mosley (’00), his director of athletics.

“I told Jared I needed him to help me gain a good, strong perspective about the dynamics of intercollegiate athletics and ACU TODAY

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aspirations. We have been in a situation at the Division II level where we were trying to pull both ends of a rubber band, so to speak.

We want to remain highly competitive, but have found it increasingly difficult to do so in an environment that stretches us in the wrong direction in regard to the academic standards we’d like to maintain here.”

At the Division I level, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a semester-bysemester measure of eligibility and retention for student-athletes. It was put in place so the NCAA and its member institutions could measure how scholarship student-athletes are performing throughout the school year. Universities failing to achieve an APR score of 925 (equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate) may be

Leveling the academic playing field

Schubert’s acceptance of the Southland Conference invitation on behalf of ACU was an affirmative answer to more than a question about the future of Wildcat athletics.

The board’s vision for ACU is not wrapped up in winning national championships nor how many football players it can send to the National Football League. While athletics will remain a vitally important part of the ACU landscape, the move was made more for academic reasons, and while outsiders might scoff at that notion, a look at the facts reveals the university had little choice but to reach that conclusion.

According to the report Mosley prepared for Schubert ACU director of athletics and the board, ACU’s Division Jared Mosley II student-athletes are less academically prepared and less likely to graduate from ACU when compared to the general student population. The average ACT score of student-athletes is 22.3, compared to 24.2 for their classmates. Over the past five years, the first-year retention of student-athletes has averaged 67 percent, while non-athletes average almost 75 percent.

During the past five years, the disparity has been as much as 15 percent (59 percent to 76 percent).

According to U.S. News and World Report rankings, the average SAT score for all students in LSC-affiliated universities is nearly 100 points below the average of students at ACU. Students at LSC schools – Angelo State, Cameron, Eastern New Mexico, Incarnate Word, Midwestern State, Tarleton State, Texas A&M-Commerce, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Texas Woman’s, and West Texas A&M universities – have penalized; no similar metric exists an average five-year graduation rate of in Division II. 37 percent, significantly lower than According to its website, no other ACU’s 57 percent. Out of 23 Division II Division I league in the nation improved conferences across the nation, the LSC ranks its overall APR from 2004-05 to 2009-10 next to last in academic performance. as much as the Southland. In men’s As ACU’s academic requirements for basketball, the conference APR average admission and expectations for retention improved from 31st to 10th among the performance continue to rise, those gaps 31 leagues in Division I. would likely have widened without a “The requirements between Division I philosophical change or a move to Division I. and Division II are drastically different,” “By far, the most significant issue of this Mosley said. “The thing we look forward move is academic alignment,” Schubert said. to the most is the ability we’ll have to put “The standards for academic eligibility at accountability measures in place so we are the Division I level are significantly different better prepared to retain the young people than in Division II and they align much we recruit to campus. For us to be able to do more closely with our broader academic that fulfills what we promise student-athletes on the front end of the recruiting process: JEREMY ENLOW

whether or not we were properly positioned in NCAA Division II,” Schubert said. “I’ve heard people say we should be Division III or Division I or remain Division II forever.

But I wanted a complete study of the question and to be able to assemble the kind of perspectives and information that would lead us to a conclusion we could reach with confidence.”

The assessment took seven months – April-November 2010 – and evaluation another three. The development of a transition plan, including an intense focus on its financial aspects, then continued for more than a year and a half.

Concurrently, the Southland found itself exploring expansion while looking to replace three members it was losing to the Western Athletic Conference. The world of conference alignments has been in turmoil for several years, with dozens of universities changing longtime alliances for the prospect of financial gain or other strategic advantage.

ACU turned out to be one of three regional universities the Southland studied, visited and invited as new members, including the University of New Orleans and fellow Lone Star Conference member University of the Incarnate Word.

The answers Schubert received from Mosley were complex and took time to analyze, but they led the Board of Trustees in late August to make a historic decision in the life of ACU. With $4.3 million in first-year “transition funding” secured from a small group of alumni and other donors, the board voted Aug. 24 to accept an official invitation to re-join the Southland and move ACU into a new era as a full member of NCAA Division I, beginning July 1, 2013. Securing the transition funding up front was a key milestone to ensure a successful move while complementing progress of other key priorities and initiatives across the university.

The vote ended 40 years of membership in the LSC (ACU will leave at the end of the 2012-13 academic year) and returns Abilene Christian to a league it helped form in 1963. However, the decision didn’t come without untold hours of research, many meetings and campus-wide forums, and the input of trustees, administrators, faculty, staff and coaches.

“I can’t say enough about the commitment of those who have been involved with this study from the beginning,” Mosley said. “A lot of people have encouraged as well as challenged us, and asked tough and thoughtful questions.

We took their input to heart and came up with what we believed was the best recommendation to the president and the board. It’s a great feeling to know it has resulted in this opportunity to move to a conference and a divisional affiliation we believe will serve us well for a long time.”

when they leave ACU, they’re going to have earned a quality degree.

“Certainly we’ll continue to push them from a physical standpoint and maximize their competitive opportunities,” Mosley said, “but we’ll also challenge them in other ways so that when they graduate, they’ll have a better understanding of who they are and where their God-given gifts and talents can take them. When you look at all of those factors, it will bring a different studentathlete through our doors who better aligns with our institution and its long-term goals.”

“This wasn’t done on a whim,” said ACU board chair Dr. Barry Packer (’78).

“Phil and Jared went through a thorough and exhaustive process to discover the pluses and minuses, and found all of the blind

“

Abilene Christian

is an accomplished

institution, excelling in academics and athletics, and is

well-positioned to

succeed in Division I and the Southland Conference.

”

2013-14, and can participate in the conference golf tournament in 2014, but only as unattached entries. ACU is not eligible for Southland Conference post-season competition for any sport in which the winner is the league’s automatic qualifier for an NCAA championship (football, volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s tennis).

In addition to playing Southland Conference opponents, ACU will now have the opportunity to schedule games and matches against some of the top athletics programs around the nation.

And in five years, Wildcat teams can once again compete for regional and national championships,

– Tom Burnett

Commissioner Southland Conference

A large crowd gathered for the press conference in the lobby of the Hunter Welcome Center.

spots. The driving force behind this move is a better academic fit for this university.

We talked a lot about the positives and the negatives. We talked about how this would affect faculty, salaries and budget, and we addressed those matters. Those were the most important issues to the board. At the end of the day, the overwhelming support was solidly behind the recommendation to make the move to NCAA Division I.” Higher aspirations for athletics The move also is undeniably done to strengthen an already nationally recognized athletics program – one of the best in Division II for decades – and position it for future success. But some patience, initially, will be required.

ACU will serve a probationary four-year term – from 2013-14 through 2016-17 academic years – before it is eligible for all Southland Conference and NCAA postseason tournaments in 2017-18. ACU will begin playing a Southland schedule in all sports except football in 2013-14, with football beginning Southland play in 2014.

Head coach Ken Collums’ team will have to wait one year for conference-member status in that sport because of prior scheduling commitments within the league.

ACU, however, will be immediately eligible to win regular-season conference titles in every other sport, beginning next fall. Teams will be eligible for cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field conference championships beginning in

although at the higher Division I level.

“Another factor in this move is the visibility we’ll gain and the opportunity to position ACU in places that allow more people to know about us,” Schubert said.

“This move helps us in many ways, including promoting our image and building the brand of the university.”

With the recent additions of Houston Baptist and University of Incarnate Word to the Southland, ACU will have a regular presence in the strategically important and growing markets of Houston and San Antonio.

Houston is second only to Dallas-Fort Worth in the number of Abilene Christian alumni and new students who call it home.

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Southland Conference president Tom Burnett (seated) listens while ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert speaks at the Aug. 25 press conference.

“

The standards for

with a strong historical base in that sport. Current Southland and former LSC member Sam Houston State University academic eligibility played in the 2011 FCS championship game, a final at the Division I level contest – as in NCAA Division II and III – determined by a are significantly national playoff system.

Winners of most Southland different than in Conference championships receive an automatic bid Division II and they into Division I national tournaments, including align much more basketball’s “March Madness” that generates the potential for closely to our media exposure and TV revenue, and the nationally broader academic televised College World Series in baseball and softball.

A move to Division I aspirations. also means the university can offer more athletics – Dr. Phil Schubert scholarships in most sports, ACU President creating new opportunities for donors to become more involved in funding excellence for ACU’s 16 teams.

No significant improvements will be required for Wildcat athletics facilities to begin hosting Division I competition, although Elmer Gray Stadium JEREMY ENLOW

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hen ACU surveyed the NCAA Division I landscape in search of a potential athletics conference, the criteria didn’t require the league’s first president to be an ACU Bible and Greek scholar.

But that’s how the Southland Conference began in 1963, thanks to the considerable influence of the late J.W. Roberts (’42), a Bible faculty member who was the Wildcats’ first faculty representative to the league ACU helped start nearly 50 years ago with Trinity University, Lamar State College of Technology (now Lamar University), Arlington State College (now The University of Texas at Arlington), and Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University).

Roberts also served as chair of the league’s first Constitution and By-laws Committee, leading to his eventual election as the Southland’s first president. He served a two-year term, according to Dr. Charlie 28

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Marler (’55), professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication who served on the league’s first public relations council.

“It would be an NCAA conference with ‘high academic standards,’ ” recalled Marler, who helped the public relations council choose the Southland’s name. “The respect in which Wildcat athletics director A.B. Morris was held as dean of Texas college and university ADs was a major factor in the conference development.”

Today, the Southland has 11 members in four states, and will have 14 once ACU, the University of New Orleans and the University of the Incarnate Word begin play in Fall 2013. The league will then include the University of Central Arkansas, Lamar University, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, Oral Roberts University, Sam Houston State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Houston Baptist University,

The 1968 ACU men’s cross country team returned victorious from Jonesboro, Ark., after winning the Southland Conference championship. Coaches were Burl McCoy (’54) and Bill McClure (’48).

(track and field) is in need of upgrades.

The university has explored architectural concepts for an on-campus football stadium that would create a more dynamic Game Day atmosphere, build school spirit and attract high school regular season and playoff games to ACU, though no concrete plans for its construction are in place.

An attractive partnership Although the announcement came a year before the Wildcats play their first game in Division I, the ACU-Southland partnership is already considered a win-win for both.

Abilene Christian will bring one of the nation’s most-accomplished intercollegiate

athletics programs into the Southland.

The Wildcats have won 64 team national championships since 1952, including 59 in men’s and women’s track and field. With 57 NCAA national championships to its credit (32 in men’s track and field, 22 in women’s track and field, two in men’s cross country and one in men’s golf), ACU ranks fourth nationally in total number of national team championships, behind only UCLA, Stanford University and the University of Southern California.

Since joining the LSC in 1973, ACU has captured 163 team championships in league competition. It is the only NCAA Division II member to finish in the top 15 of the

2013-14 Southland Conference universities TULSA

CONWAY

Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup – awarded to the top athletics program in each division – in all 17 years of the award’s history.

“The announcement of Abilene Christian’s return to the Southland Conference culminates a thoughtful and deliberate membership process for our league,” said Burnett, who was part of the team from the Southland that visited the campus in early August. “As with other membership additions, the Board of Directors methodically researched those institutions that clearly enhance the Southland. Abilene Christian is an accomplished institution, excelling in academics and athletics, and is well-positioned to succeed in Division I and the Southland Conference. We are thrilled to welcome one of our charter members back to the league and look forward to a great future together.”

“We are pleased to return to and help make the Southland one of the strongest FCS conferences in the nation,” Schubert said. “We are honored to be partners with some familiar and new friends in the league, and to continue to fulfill our own unique mission alongside them. We are serious about achieving academic and athletics excellence, and confident Division I is the best place to continue our strong commitment to both.”䊱

NATCHITOCHES ABILENE

For more about ACU’s move to Division I and the Southland Conference, visit acu.edu/division1

NACOGDOCHES HUNTSVILLE

BEAUMONT

HAMMOND LAKE CHARLES NEW ORLEANS

HOUSTON SAN ANTONIO

THIBODAUX

CORPUS CHRISTI

University of the Incarnate Word, University of New Orleans, and ACU. The Southland is a Division I Football Championship Conference (FCS) differing from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which features 30 annual bowl games at the end of each season plus five others as part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

In football, FCS teams compete in a national playoff tournament that concludes with a game at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

The conference, whose headquarters also are in Frisco, is one of the game’s hosts.

When the Southland was a Division I-A conference in the late 1970s, it was instrumental in starting and hosting the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. In men’s basketball, Southland teams have twice advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and once to the NIT Final Four, while one former member has reached the women’s NCAA Final Four. Similar national successes

for other sports are common throughout Southland history.

And even though ACU hasn’t played as a member of the Southland since 1972, names of its teams and former student-athletes are still in the conference record books. Quarterback Jim Lindsey (’71) is still fifth in career passing yards and ninth in total offense. Prior to 2011, wide receiver Pat Holder (’71) was still 10th in career receptions. The men’s basketball team won Southland titles in 1964-65, 1965-66 and 1967-68. John Ray Godfrey (’68) and Ronnie Hearne (’71) are two of only 17 players to be voted first team all-conference three times. Andrew Prince’s (’75) career rebounding

average is still the third-best in history.

The men’s track and field team won seven straight Southland titles from 1964-70.

There are 12 other FCS-affiliated conferences in the nation, including the Ivy League, which includes Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities. Examples of other FCS members are Indiana State University (Missouri Valley Conference), James Madison University (Colonial Athletic Association), Coastal Carolina University (Big South Conference), Grambling State University (Southwestern Athletic Conference), Appalachian State University (Southern Conference) and Bucknell University (Patriot League). 䊱 In 1966, the Wildcats won the Southland Conference men’s basketball title, the NCAA Southwest regional championship, and took their first trip to the national college division tournament in Evansville, Ind. At nationals, ACU lost to North Dakota, 63-62.

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Q&A The new ACU at CitySquare initiative Abilene Christian University recently announced the formation of ACU at CitySquare, a collaborative initiative with CitySquare to provide students in most disciplines of study an opportunity to connect their learning with the real-world problem of urban poverty. For more than 24 years, CitySquare – formerly known as Central Dallas Food Pantry and later, Central Dallas Ministries – has been one of the most admired and effective non-profit sources of food, health care, housing, legal services and job training for low-income individuals, families and the homeless in Dallas. CitySquare’s administrative offices are located at 511 N. Akard St. in the heart of downtown Dallas and the organization helps more than 50,000 neighbors annually. We asked Dr. Stephen Johnson (’90), professor of ministry and dean of the Honors College, to help explain the new

initiative he helps lead.

history, sociology and social work, English, and political science while in Dallas. Last fall, Dr. Wayne Paris, associate professor and director of ACU’s graduate social work program, led students in a series of two-day field research experiences to study “chronically homeless housing.”

For several years, professor of political science Dr. David Dillman (’70), who directs the Jack Pope Fellows Program, has been teaching a course for Pope Fellows in Dallas with CitySquare each May. That experience was among those that outstanding students such as ACU senior political science major Brad Schultz have cited as most formative. So there are these connections between ACU and CitySquare stretching long before us and leading up to this moment.

KIM RITZENTHALER

What made this conversation between ACU and CitySquare begin to take shape?

What makes CitySquare an effective faith-based In January 2011, we invited CitySquare president and CEO Larry organization in Dallas?

James to join us on campus for a forum attended by faculty and CitySquare is clear about its mission emerging from the heart of students from all academic disciplines. From kinesiology to Bible, God for the poor. For that reason, they choose to stand with their from nutrition to business, and from social work to the pre-health neighbors and strike at the root causes of poverty. I think two things programs, faculty and students joined staff from Student Life and are at the center of what they do. began to imagine even more possibilities.

First, CitySquare believes in the value Looking a little closer, we discovered and dignity of every person. They are that many ACU departments and degree convinced that we are all rich and poor, programs found an expression at CitySquare. though in different ways, and that we So we began to explore what learning and all have something to offer one another. formation would look like if we were to For this reason, they do not participate apply to CitySquare the university’s mission in charity for the poor, but partner with to educate students for Christian service their neighbors to create opportunity and leadership throughout the world. and hope.

We made day trips to Dallas to learn Second, CitySquare addresses the more. We hosted faculty from many root causes of poverty rather than academic departments and engaged in merely treating its symptoms. This conversation about how a partnership with leads them to a systemic and multiCitySquare could enrich our central mission. disciplinary approach of addressing We invited staff from Student Life, Physical poverty with their neighbors.

Dr. Stephen Johnson (left) and Larry James walk with Resources and Advancement; academic students through neighborhoods CitySquare serves What is CitySquare’s Opportunity and senior administrators; and members of in south Dallas.

Center and how will it enhance this ACU’s Board of Trustees. partnership with ACU? We discovered an opportunity to occupy the second floor of CitySquare’s 15-story, downtown headquarters, imagining placing The Opportunity Center is under construction at the corner students and faculty in real-world, collaborative projects that would of Interstate 30 and Malcolm X Boulevard in south Dallas. Once complete in summer 2013, this innovative 53,000-square-foot facility will provide a food distribution center, a state-of-the-art “This generation of students does not want to wellness center, a comprehensive employment training center to house offices for Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas make a difference in the world only when they and CitySquare’s WorkPaths employment training division, finish their education. They insist on engaging CitySquare’s AmeriCorps headquarters/offices, and staging areas for CitySquare’s growing summer and after-school feeding the world as a means to their education.” program funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture.

– DR. STEPHEN JOHNSON I think it’s interesting to hear how CitySquare describes the opportunity center as a “campus” to serve its neighbors. As ACU students interact with the Opportunity Center, they will enter into an environment in which critical thinking and problem-solving are applied to a complex and interdisciplinary set of issues.

How have ACU professors and students been involved at CitySquare in past years?

About 10 years ago, Dr. Bill Culp of the School of Social Work began forging a partnership where student learning and formation were connected to CitySquare (then called Central Dallas Ministries). Students began taking semester-long courses in Bible, 30

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enhance student learning and formation.

ACU students and faculty have the opportunity Each step along the at CitySquare to engage with community leaders way, we have prayed and others involved in fighting poverty in Dallas. together and sought to discern God’s leading.

We believe He has uniquely prepared both institutions for such a time as this.

How does a partnership with CitySquare relate to ACU’s mission and 21st-Century Vision?

For me, ACU’s mission means we are forming students who will offer who they are – the gifts of their intellect (what they know and their ability to think critically), their skill (what they are able to do and produce) and their passion (what they care about most, what moves them) – for the sake of the world, particularly in its most vulnerable places. ACU at CitySquare locates student learning and formation at the intersection of all these things.

Do university students learn differently today, or are we simply discovering new ways to teach them?

On one hand, we best learn the way we always have: in community with others and in the context of guidance by people further down the road. We also tend to learn by constructing more than by merely memorizing. The more senses we can engage and the more we can engage people in real-world applications, which give people “hooks” on which to hang new information, the more likely they are to learn.

Increasingly, students not only prefer learning in a way that engages the world, they are demanding it. This generation of students does not want to make a difference in the world only when they finish their education. They insist on engaging the world as a means to their education. Further, I’m convinced that when students learn by engaging those things about which they are most passionate, their learning and formation is greater.

What does it mean to “learn in context”?

It means not only learning in a “contextualized” place – one with particular cultural, historical, political and social connections to broader systems, as opposed to the generic, “de-contextualized”

space of classrooms, where we have to import connections with the outside world – but also learning that is repetitive and broadly interconnected, where one sees systems as part of the dominant experience instead of as isolated elements.

Learning in context allows students to more closely integrate theory and practice in ways that deepen their understanding and enhance their capacity to find creative solutions to real problems.

Why is it important for ACU students to engage these kinds of learning opportunities now, rather than as graduates?

The significant challenges facing the world right now can’t be addressed from the standpoint of a single disciplinary approach. Some of the difficulties we face were exacerbated by a failure to understand the complex systems involved. For example, can you solve poverty merely through economic means, or don’t you also have to address culture, education, health, politics and a host of other disciplines to generate a systemic approach?

If this is how students will have to work – in complex, multidisciplinary teams addressing complex, systemsbased challenges – then we need to give them experience as early as possible functioning in those teams.

What will be happening there this year?

Student learning and formation through ACU at CitySquare take many different forms. We refer to these different forms of learning and formation as engagements, including projects, course offerings, internships and practica, formative experiences, and an undergraduate degree program.

This fall, a team of Honors College students is engaged in a new interdisciplinary studies degree in justice and urban studies, connecting their learning directly to the problem of urban poverty as it occurs in south Dallas in partnership with CitySquare.

In their first semester, they will have four engagements in Dallas that constitute the first steps in their work as a team.

In addition, three exciting course projects are under way.

First-year Master of Science in Social Work (M.S.S.W.) students are engaged in a research project in Dallas. Their experience began with a two-day field experience introducing them to CitySquare and the broad range of social service programs offered. M.S.S.W. students will return for three more field experiences this academic year.

Marketing majors in the College of Business Administration are engaged in a capstone project at CitySquare as part of a senior-level Marketing Strategy course. They have traveled to Dallas to conduct marketing analysis as a team. They will assess their findings and return to propose creative marketing solutions to CitySquare administrators.

Project teams from the School of Information Technology are assessing and creating IT solutions for CitySquare. Students from every major in the iSchool apply skills in this senior capstone experience as they practice bringing Christian leadership and service to organizations.

And in Spring 2013, ACU’s Center for Christian Service and Leadership will extend its Emerging Leaders Experience to CitySquare.

These are a few of the first engagements placing student learning and formation at CitySquare. You can follow these projects and initiatives as they unfold at acu.edu/citysquare. 䊱 AC U TO D AY

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One of Calvert’s prized possessions is a depiction of Haitian life that is displayed in his Houston office.

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A L U M N I AW A R D S bilene Christian University’s 107-year history is distinguished by the accomplishments of graduates who take the university’s mission to heart, using their God-given talents as servant-leaders around the world.

A

Outstanding Alumnus oF the Year Provides timely recognition of the lifetime achievement of an individual who has brought honor to ACU through personal and professional excellence and service to the university, the church or the community.

OUTSTANDING ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

Mike Calvert

Young Alumnus oF the Year Recognizes professional achievement and/or distinguished service to the university. To be eligible, a recipient must not have reached 40 years of age at the time of nomination.

Stories by Paul A. Anthony, Deana Nall and Tamara Thompson

Distinguished Alumni Citation

Illustrations by Jack Maxwell

Recognizes distinctive personal or professional achievement that has merited the honor and praise of peers and colleagues.

NOTE TO OUR READERS

JEREMY ENLOW

In an effort to better align our publication cycle with the university’s timetable for presenting its annual alumni awards, this layout includes profiles of 2011 and 2012 winners. Our next issue will include only 2012 recipients of Distinguished Alumni Citations, and the Fall issue, starting in 2013, will profile the full complement of annual awardees in the same calendar year in which they are recognized.

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2012 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year

“It’s easy to see Mike’s passion for the Haitian people when you add up the number of hours he spends each week in phone conversations, email and personal visits with members of Mission Lazarus and the other many organizations he supports in Haiti.”

– STEVE ROBERTS

M

ike Calvert (’67) says if he had his life to live over again, he would become a physician.

“Doctors can do what no one else can do. They can impact a life in a way that no one else can from a physical standpoint, and that also opens the door a lot of times for spiritual lessons and teaching,” said the 2012 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year. “I know a number of doctors who spend a good portion of their year in mission work. They combine the physical care and the spiritual care. My, what a beautiful thing!”

Not that Calvert regrets the path his life has taken since receiving his bachelor’s degree in accounting. After a short stint as an accountant, Calvert went to work for an automobile dealer in Houston. Working his way up through the ranks to general manager in less than a decade, he became part owner in a couple of dealerships.

Since 1983, he has owned and grown Mike Calvert Toyota in Houston to one of the largest-volume Toyota dealerships within a five-state region, with sales of up to $160 million annually in new and used vehicles. He also holds ownership interest in a Houston Chevrolet dealership and a Toyota dealership in Boerne, Texas.

His success in automobile sales has given him the opportunity to pursue a passion he discovered eight years ago while on a medical mission trip to Haiti. “I was never the same after that trip. Spent a week there.

And it impacted my life greatly,” he said.

Invited by a friend from church to participate in the Hope for Haiti’s Children mission, Calvert, who has no medical training, worked with eye doctors to help fill prescriptions.

“That gave me the opportunity to see every child that came through, every one of them. And the ones that were in the poorest physical condition are the ones that your heart went out to the most,” he recalled.

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Calvert witnessed the plight of the poor in Port-au-Prince’s Cité Soleil, one of the largest slums in the Western Hemisphere.

He also visited people in outlying villages around Port-au-Prince, where he saw firsthand the extreme poverty of the country at its worst. On his last day there, he went to an orphanage in a rural area and fell in love with the children.

“The kids at the orphanage just overwhelm you with the way they reach out to you,” he said. The combination of visiting Cité Soleil, the villages and then the orphanage cemented his passion for Haitian work.

“Those three things are what kept me – and keep me – coming back to Haiti,” Calvert said. That visit was in January 2004.

Over the next couple of years, he joined the board of Hope for Haiti’s Children and made several trips back to the poverty-stricken nation to visit schools, distribute supplies and food, check on the progress of sick children the organization treated, and do whatever else the mission asked him to do.

In 2005 a Haitian woman studying at The University of Texas Health Science

Center in the Texas Medical Center, just a couple of miles down the road from Calvert’s dealership, introduced him to Geoff Preidis, who also had visited Haiti. At the time of their meeting, Preidis was working on a medical degree and a Ph.D. During a one-hour lunch with Calvert, Preidis laid out his plans to devote his life to research and clinic work to improve health care in the developing world. “At the end of that lunch, I said, ‘I’d like to help you make that happen,’” Calvert said. “Within a year we had met several times and formed Health Empowering Humanity,” along with a third person.

Through HEH, Calvert and his partners hope to help impoverished countries improve their quality of life by having access to quality basic health care. One of the most successful examples of this is in Lilongwe, Malawi, where HEH started an inpatient emergency triage assessment and treatment protocol at a local hospital. Because of understaffing and lack of triage equipment, HIV-positive children treated at the hospital often did not get the care they needed. HEH provided funding to train community health workers to take vital signs of children using equipment donated by HEH. The program had impressive results.

“Now, when children get released they are in much better physical condition, so fewer of them ended up having to come back. And even on this very small scale, … it did improve the mortality rate. It was so successful that the government decided to implement it,” Calvert said.

In addition to this project, HEH conducts several others in Haiti, Panama and Kenya.

“To say that it’s a blessing to get to work with Mike is an understatement; the organization simply wouldn't exist without his leadership and vision,” said Preidis, now a resident at Texas Children’s Hospital in

Houston. “As a co-founder of HEH, Mike has been a driving force in leading the organization from its first small project in Haiti to its growth into multiple countries. … It’s been inspiring to work with someone who embodies Matthew 25:40 in everything he does.”

Even with his involvement in HEH, Calvert kept up his work with Hope for Haiti’s Children. Then in 2010, Calvert and three others who had been active in that organization decided to launch a new endeavor to provide high-quality care for Haitian orphans. The four visited Mission Lazarus in Honduras, where ACU alum Jarrod Brown (’00) has built a highly successful orphanage as part of a multifaceted missions operation. Calvert and his colleagues – Phil Smith (’85) of Cincinnati, Ohio; Steve Roberts of Richmond, Texas; and Debbie Vanderbeek, who lives in Haiti – were impressed with Brown’s organization.

“They’ve got training manuals for the director, for the housemoms, for everyone involved in the care of those children.

They are trained, they are supervised, and they are evaluated. It’s a high-quality program, and they are sticklers about operating within the laws of the country where you are,” Calvert said.

Rather than starting a new organization, the team decided to partner with Brown and extend Mission Lazarus into Haiti.

Using plans similar to those in Honduras, Mission Lazarus Haiti built opened its first orphanage in November 2012. Located next to Cité Soleil, it will house 32 children

(16 boys and 16 girls), four housemothers and a director.

Calvert’s voice cannot hide his excitement when he talks about the new orphanage. “It is a state-of-the-art facility; there are not many like it in Haiti,” he said.

“What we would like to do, once we get this home up and operating smoothly, is probably replicate it and do another one,” this time outside of the Port-au-Prince area.

“It's easy to see Mike’s passion for the Haitian people when you add up the number of hours he spends each week in phone conversations, email and personal visits with members of Mission Lazarus and the other many organizations he supports in Haiti,” said colleague Roberts. “Mike takes his commitment to the highest level because if he tells someone he will work on a problem or situation, he puts everything else on the back burner. His passion for the Haitian people is a reflection of his spiritual passion.”

With his involvement in Hope for Haiti’s Children, Health Empowering Humanity, and Mission Lazarus Haiti, Calvert spends about half of his time working on missions.

He also works stateside with Arms of Hope, a nonprofit that assists children and single-mother families with services primarily at Medina Children’s Home near San Antonio and Boles Children’s Home outside of Dallas.

But that’s not all. Early this year, through his efforts, the Mike Calvert Toyota dealership adopted a local school to provide teacher training, equipment, supplies,

parent support services, and access to healthcare for at-risk children. With a matching grant from Toyota Motors, the dealership has provided $20,000 to the College Bound from Birth program, which is designed to prepare youngsters for school and track them with services as they go through the system.

Even with all his charitable endeavors and business oversight, Calvert, 67, still finds time for his wife, Nancy (Knight ’72), their four children and six grandchildren.

And in September he became an elder at the First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land, a position he does not take lightly.

“I had to think about it because of all the other work I’m involved in,” he said.

“I had to reach the conclusion that if I have to cut back on some of the other stuff, I will, because that will have to be a priority.”

Even without becoming a physician, Calvert has been able to do what many others cannot.

“It would have been a shame had Mike chosen anything but the path God intended for him,” Preidis said. “With the tens of thousands of children Mike serves each year … he has improved the health of more children in dire need than many physicians will in their careers.”

And that, to use Calvert’s words, is a beautiful thing.

– TAMARA THOMPSON

JEREMY ENLOW

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2012 YOUNG Alumnus of the Year

Sean Adams

“I define luck as working your tail off so when an opportunity comes by, you’re ready for it.”

– SEan adaMS JACK MAXWELL

S

ean adams (’93) loves sports.

He also has a passion for leadership and some pretty valuable know-how when it comes to business. And he’s found a way to make a living doing all three.

“I’ve really carved out a niche for myself,” Adams said.

The former two-sport athlete for ACU works the job of his dreams as host of ESPN Austin’s The Big Show, a top-rated afternoon drive-time radio program that airs for four hours every day. As a business leader and motivational speaker, Adams travels the nation to reach audiences of athletes, parents, athletic programs, sales teams and corporate clients such as State Farm and Yahoo with a message of teamwork, potential and motivation.

And as the first research fellow of the Program in Sports and Media at The University of Texas at Austin, he helps bring voice and experiences of sports and media professionals on campus for interaction and collaboration with faculty and students.

A former chief financial officer and chief operating officer, Adams believes everything he does comes together in a seamless philosophy uniting athletics principles and leadership.

“When you’re dealing with a business, you’re dealing with a team,” Adams said.

“Preparation, determination and learning from failure – all the things that make you successful in sports also work in business.”

Speaking to groups of young athletes is especially meaningful to Adams. He knows the empowerment that can come from someone investing faith in young people.

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As a freshman at ACU in Fall 1989, Adams didn’t feel like he fit in.

“I was a kid from the inner city of Oakland,” he said. “The other students at ACU were having completely different conversations than I was having. It seemed like they were all talking about going to Aspen for spring break. As a result, I don’t know that I had the best attitude about people when I first got there.”

But Adams’ professors in the College of Business Administration noticed he had drive and talent – and not just on the track or football field. COBA dean Dr. Jack Griggs (’64) told Adams’ mother, “If Sean Adams is going to take a stand for something, he’s going to do it at 100 miles an hour.”

Other mentors such as Dr. Rick Lytle and Dr. Terry Pope (’64) also took the time to invest in Adams.

“I appreciated the professors who saw past my insecurities and my immaturity and found something in me that they could pour themselves into,” he said. “They believed I could turn out OK at the end.”

Adams turned out more than OK. After having made his mark at ACU playing football and earning all-America status in track and field, he graduated in 1993 and moved to Washington, D.C., where he went to work for Janet Reno in the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I thought I was going to work toward national security or CIA,” he said. “That was my plan.”

But Adams also had plans to marry Karen Vann (’97), a track and field athlete he met at ACU. He soon discovered that a security career in Washington would not be

ideal for married life. Jack Rich (’77), then the executive vice president at ACU, offered Adams a position in the business office back on campus. He moved back to Abilene and finished his M.B.A. before he and Karen moved to Austin so he could start work as an analyst at Dell, Inc. Still, Adams’ passion for sports – especially football – never subsided.

In his spare time, he became a student of the game, an expertise that would prove invaluable as Adams began getting opportunities to work as a sportswriter.

He talked his way into working in radio when, through a mutual friend, Adams met someone who hosted a radio show. His co-host had a doctor’s appointment the next day and the spot needed filling, so Adams – sans any tangible radio experience – quickly volunteered to help.

Adams subbed for radio hosts several more times until ESPN bought a sports radio station in Austin and hired him as its permanent host. Six years later, Adams is still doing what he loves.

“I love radio,” he said. “I love that you can interact with the listeners. I think dialogue is so important. Even when people disagree, it’s important.”

The author of two books, Adams embraces a career that unites everything he is passionate about.

“I consider myself the luckiest dude in the world, but I define luck as working your tail off so when an opportunity comes by, you’re ready for it,” he said.

– DEANA NALL

2011 YOUNG Alumnus of the Year

Aaron Watson

“I always tell people that I’m not here just to sing you a few songs. I’m here to tell you that Jesus is for real.”

– aaROn waTSOn JACK MAXWELL

A

aron watson (’00) is not one to compromise his Christian beliefs, and being a country music singer-songwriter, he has had many opportunities to do so.

The honky-tonk singer, whose voice has been described as “red-dirt twang,” started in the music business while a junior at ACU, selling CDs out of his backpack. During his 11-plus years as a country music artist, he has been asked to write about beer and women and to accept sponsorships from the alcohol industry. He’s turned them all down.

“I’ve made decisions that, in one way, you could say have held my career back, by not going with certain sponsorships, or by not going this route or that route,” he said.

“I always tell people that I’m not here just to sing you a few songs. I’m here to tell you that Jesus is for real. And I just come right out and say it. You know, you can’t be ashamed of it.”

Make no mistake: He’s had reminders along the way to keep it real. There was the Bible professor who told him, “You don’t have to go to Africa to be on the mission field.” And the college-age brunette who, after one of his concerts, handed him a letter telling him he needed to speak out more about his faith. Although he talks a lot about his beliefs on stage, he did some re-evaluation and started Barbed Wire Halo Blog, named after one of his early songs.

He uses the blog to share his personal story. In the past year, he and his wife, Kimberly (Calkins ’01) have written about their painful loss of daughter Julia Grace shortly after her birth. In the blog as on

stage, he talks about losing her and how his faith in Jesus got him through the tough times. He’s heard from many fans, including a pregnant woman considering an abortion.

“She started reading our blogs. She said it totally changed her heart,” Watson said.

“You know, that’s not me. That’s the power of God.” After Julia Grace’s death, Watson found it difficult to return to song-writing. In the middle of a December night, he finally hung up his guitar and prayed for God’s help.

“And I tell you, that night I just started writing songs like it was no big deal,” he said.

He wrote 15 of the 18 songs that compose his 11th album, Real Good Time, which was released Oct. 9, the day before the anniversary of Julia Grace’s death.

Watson’s other albums have had good success. His eighth album, Angels & Outlaws, reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart, No. 28 on its Country Albums chart, and landed in The Billboard Top 200. Hearts Are Breaking Across Texas and Raise Your Bottle both reached the No. 1 spot on the Texas Music Chart. Several of his albums have been produced by Ray Benson, Grammy Award-winning leader of the legendary western swing band, Asleep at the Wheel.

Raise Your Bottle – no, not a drinking song, but a “country-boy way” of saying “tip your hat or let’s acknowledge or let’s honor” – is a tribute to his grandfather and his father, a wounded veteran. Sales of the song benefit wounded soldiers, one of several ways he is helping that cause.

Based in Abilene, Watson has a regular

tour schedule that takes him around the nation. He has even toured in Europe, where he discovered fans had made up a line dance to one of his songs.

When he is not on tour, performing at local honky-tonks or writing music, Watson can be found with his wife and their two sons, Jack and Jake, and daughter, Jolee Kate. “My family time is non-negotiable,” Watson said. “My managers can tell when I’ve been on the road or in the studio too long. I get grouchy, and they know it’s time to slow down the schedule and get Aaron some extended family time.”

Watson believes God has blessed him in many ways, including his college experience. “ACU was part of God’s plan,” he said. “I met people there, from professors to my wife, who have supported me and pointed me in the right direction. I could have had professors say, ‘It’s not right for you to play in bars.’ … many people would have said that. Instead, professors saw an opportunity for me to share the gospel with people who most likely don’t have the opportunity to hear about Jesus.”

Watson has heard from many people whose lives have been changed after hearing his Christian witness in honky-tonks.

“I think God gives me little snippets of satisfaction to show me, hey, you’re not out here to win gold records. You’re not out here to win ACM awards. You’re out here to share My story, to spread the gospel.”

Watson is not going to let anything deter him from doing that.

– TAMARA THOMPSON

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Mike WilloughBy

JACK MAXWELL

STephen MansField

JACK MAXWELL

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hen Mike willoughby (’86) enrolled at ACU as a Bible major, he envisioned entering a mission field someday.

Today, as president and chief information officer of a service business, Willoughby knows he never abandoned his dream of doing mission work. The setting just changed a little.

“Life isn’t about living within a set of compartments or divisions,” Willoughby said. “It’s about being the same person in every respect and every setting in life.

If you have that perspective, it opens new opportunities to be salt and light in our world, as Jesus has called us to be.”

At PFSweb, Inc., a Dallas-area-based public company that acts as a global facilitator of digital and physical commerce for some of the world’s leading brands, Willoughby has a key role in the design of the company’s solution and service offerings and he is responsible for the company’s global business development.

To him, this is not a business environment in which company leaders should check their faith at the door. In fact, Willoughby and other PFSweb leaders believe in making their faith a central part of their business operations.

“My boss (chairman and CEO Mark C. Layton) wanted me to bring my faith background into practical teachings that reinforce the things we’re doing as a business.” Willoughby said. “We’re finding that what most people think of as business

T

his is an election year, which means author Stephen Mansfield (’88) must have a new book in a bookstore near you.

In the past three presidential elections, Mansfield has written about the faith of one of the candidates. In 2003, he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, followed in 2008 by The Faith of Barack Obama.

This year, The Mormonizing of America, a look at the beliefs of Mitt Romney’s church, hit bookstores in July.

It may not be that surprising that Mansfield writes about the faith of political figures. During his graduate studies at ACU, he combined classes from history, political science and biblical studies to fit his interest in faith as a civic institution.

Under the tutelage of professors such as Drs. Bill Humble (’48), James Burrow,

ethics is becoming more important … a differentiator for businesses. We want to make sure we are rooted in a solid foundation, and that foundation comes from the Bible.”

Willoughby has carried this faith-at-work approach from his undergraduate years in ACU’s College of Business Administration.

“When I changed majors from Bible to business, I thought I lost a year and a half,” he said. Instead, those three semesters as a Bible major provided an unexpected foundation of principles he would use alongside the business principles he learned in COBA. “Even though I am a technologist by education and experience, my last few years have been in sales and marketing, and my broad COBA experience has given me a solid background for that,” he said.

PFSweb continues to hire ACU graduates because of COBA’s emphasis on building business on a foundation of faith-led principles. To Willoughby, faith and business cannot be separated from each other in the workplace.

“The values we have as a service business just happen to correspond with biblical principles,” he said. “The need for transparency, to be good stewards – we find it’s helpful to use biblical examples.

It’s important be a servant within our business. The Golden Rule is a perfect application for that.”

– DEANA NALL

Ian Fair (’68), Richard Hughes (’67 M.A.) and Mel Hailey (’70), Mansfield said he had “the perfect faculty” with which to pursue "the perfect degree.”

“Every day I lecture or write, I’m drawing from that well,” he said. “It really was a marvelous experience.”

Initially, however, he went into ministry and spent 20 years as a pastor. He began writing on the side, completing books about Winston Churchill, Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield.

In 2002, Mansfield left the ministry to write and lecture full time. “I was one of those guys who knew he wasn’t going to pastor forever,” he said. “Almost immediately, I had the opportunity to write The Faith of George W. Bush.”

Released a year before Bush’s re-election, the book shot to the top of the nonfiction bestseller lists, selling some

2011

Distinguished Alumni CItations

1.5 million copies. “I criticized the president a little bit, questioned some of his theological depth,” he said. “The book is just a good, hard look at his faith.”

Four years later, while rumors circulated about Barack Obama’s faith, Mansfield took on the myth of Obama-as-Muslim in The Faith of Barack Obama, which topped bestseller lists internationally and was

Russ Pennington

JACK MAXWELL

translated into more than 20 languages.

The success of those books has led to others about national figures, including Paul Harvey, Sarah Palin, U.S. Grant and Oprah Winfrey. One about Abraham Lincoln will be released this November.

Mansfield also speaks around the world on topics of faith, leadership and culture, and is the founder of two firms:

R

uss Pennington’s career as a public school math teacher in Amarillo now seems a far cry from being a missionary in Thailand, rescuing prostitutes and planting churches.

Nevertheless, Pennington (’89) and his wife, Tracy (Brasher ’88) are stateside now after spending 16 years in Thailand – a difficult mission field, he said, because of the pervasiveness of Buddhism and its intertwining with Thai culture and patriotism.

“People are really open to hearing the Gospel,” he said, “but to become a Christian, for most people, feels like they would be betraying their country.”

As missionaries, they did a little of everything, from planting churches to forming a band and playing in bars to reach Thailand’s large population of prostitutes.

“We called it street church,” said Pennington, whose band worked with Christian women in the Tamar Center to approach prostitutes and help them leave their lifestyles. “The first time we did it was really intimidating.”

In one case, Pennington said, a church member struck up a conversation with a woman spending her first night in the bar.

She said she was there because she needed money to put her young daughter through school. She had a nursing degree, and the church put her in touch with a local hospital, which hired her.

The Mansfield Group and Chartwell Literary Group. Still, he has not forgotten his ACU roots.

“There’s not a day that goes by,” Mansfield said, “that I don’t draw on something I was inspired to pursue at ACU.” – PAUL A. ANTHONY

“That was a real meaningful year because we saw a lot of girls come out of prostitution into the training program,” Pennington said.

The Penningtons also began the Thailand New Life Foundation to provide for the needs of Thai orphans.

With their own children reaching high-school age, Russ and Tracy Pennington moved back to the United States, relocating near Tracy’s hometown of Amarillo. Russ became a math teacher, which he said has its own missions-like qualities.

“I think being a public-school teacher is tougher than being a missionary overall,” he said. “I’ve got a whole new mission field, I guess.”

At ACU, Pennington studied math and worked as a math tutor. Math was a struggle for him, he said, and that helped him better explain the concepts to others who struggled.

The experience made him realize he should be a teacher, though the ultimate course of his career wasn’t quite what he initially planned.

Many were baptized during the Penningtons’ 16 years in Thailand, a testament to their perseverance in what Russ considers a tough place to be a missionary – but one to which he plans a return in the near future.

– PAUL A. ANTHONY

“Life isn’t about a set of compartments or divisions. It’s about being the same person in every respect. If you have that perspective, it opens new opportunities.”

– MIkE wILLOugHBy

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elise Mitchell

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e

lise (Smith ’83) Mitchell puts a lot of value on the gift of giving, but she says the return she has received from being a giver has changed her.

Kathy Pulley

JACK MAXWELL

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t one point in 1980, kathy Pulley was considered an anomaly as one of just two women pursuing a master’s degree in doctrinal studies in the ACU Graduate School of Theology.

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A public relations executive who got her start in Nashville, Mitchell has had her own agency since 1995, shortly after she and her husband, Raye, moved to Fayetteville, Ark. At the time it was a small market anchored by the nearby headquarters of the booming Walmart chain.

“I was very fortunate to have mentors in my life who told me I could build an agency of my own some day,” she said. “There’s no ideal time to become an entrepreneur. You do it when the opportunity presents itself.”

Mitchell’s big break came when a friend of hers who worked for Walmart asked for her resumé to pass along inside the company. Not long after, she was hired as a consultant for the retailer.

In the years since, her Mitchell Communications Group has expanded its work with Walmart across the company.

The group added J.B. Hunt as a client in 2000, Tyson Foods in 2003, and Sam’s Club, Hilton Hotels and Procter & Gamble in recent years. Today, the company employs 60 people and has more than $10 million in gross revenue.

In 2010, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication finalized plans for a new student-run advertising and public

relations agency – a laboratory setting providing the kind of experience for advertising and public relations students that the Optimist and JMC Network provide for student journalists. Department chair Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon (’76), a graduate assistant in the department when Mitchell was a student there, called to ask for help with the funding.

“The thought that my alma mater – where I sat in those classrooms and learned how to be a professional – was doing this innovative thing, I didn’t hesitate,” said Mitchell, who gave a major gift to the project. “I absolutely knew it was the right thing to do.”

She didn’t expect, however, that students would vote to include her in the agency’s name alongside former ACU president and building namesake Dr. Don H. Morris (’24).

She attended the dedication of the Morris & Mitchell agency. “The entire experience was so moving,” she said.

“It changed me. If it’s a meaningful gift for you to give, the amount of money doesn’t matter because you get tenfold in return.

You’ll never be the same again.”

Finishing the coursework in just one calendar year on a full-ride scholarship, Pulley studied with Drs. John Willis (’55), Neil Lightfoot, Everett Ferguson (’53) and Thomas Olbricht.

“I was encouraged to have confidence in myself and my abilities as I did graduate study,” she said. “That was important.”

That confidence helped her achieve her master’s and go on to obtain a doctorate at Boston University. For the past 30 years she has conducted research, written and taught on aspects of the Stone-Campbell movement in American religion.

Today, Pulley (M.A. ’80) is professor of religious studies at Missouri State University and a former associate provost there. Her disciplinary specialization is religion and culture, with a primary focus of her recent research on women in Churches of Christ.

She has taught such courses as Modern Religious Thought and God and Politics.

Pulley said she always planned to teach, but the idea of becoming a college professor developed slowly. She enjoyed learning so much in undergraduate studies that she decided to take a year to study in Abilene.

Even then, she said, she wasn’t thinking of becoming a college professor, perhaps a reflection of her Church of Christ roots,

in which women traditionally were not viewed as authority figures, particularly in religious fields.

“Our parents never seemed to impose any limits on what we wanted to do, in terms of our futures,” she said. “They may have been surprised at times, but supportive. Always supportive.”

Teaching Bible or theology at a Church of Christ-affiliated school was not possible at the time, so she returned to her undergraduate alma mater, Missouri State, to teach.

“ACU continues to influence me because it has continued to provide a network of valuable connections,” she said. “I think I’m a better faculty member because of the modeling and mentoring I received at ACU.” Those connections have led to a number of opportunities, such as serving on the editorial board for The Stone-Campbell Encyclopedia.

“I often say that I have the best job in the world, but I truly believe my life as a professor would not have been possible without ACU,” she said. 䊱

– PAUL A. ANTHONY

– PAUL A. ANTHONY

Selections of books written, edited, compiled or contributed to

by ACU alumni, faculty, staff and students. See others on Pages 56-57.

The BOOKCASE

The Mormonizing of America

Life’s Too Short to Miss the Big Picture

HOW THE MORMON RELIGION BECAME A DOMINANT FORCE IN POLITICS, ENTERTAINMENT AND POP CULTURE

FOR MOMS

By Stephen Mansfield (’88) ISBN 978-1-6179-5078-0 • 288 pages worthypublishing.com Mansfield has written several books about the faith and politics of world leaders, including three American presidents. His latest looks at the history of the Mormon faith in an effort to help people have a more informed and respectful dialogue about it. (See story on page 38.)

By Melanie (Fudge ’95) Simpson ISBN 978-0-8911-2103-9 • 224 pages leafwoodpublishers.com A mother’s life is filled with endless errands and cluttered calendars. Simpson’s first book offers a breath of fresh air, a moment of humor to keep the day moving and focused on God.

Teaching Eutychus Hell: A Final Word THE SUPRISING TRUTHS I FOUND IN THE BIBLE

By Edward William Fudge (’67) ISBN 978-0-89112-149-7 • 176 pages leafwoodpublishers.com This is the story behind the earlier book, The Fire That Consumes, Fudge’s much longer study of three views of the nature of hell. The author’s perspective on “annihilationism” is the subject of “Hell and Mr. Fudge,” a new feature-length film (See story on pages 72-73).

ENGAGING TODAY’S LEARNERS WITH PASSION AND CREATIVITY

By Dr. Houston Heflin (’95) ISBN 978-0-89112-230-2 • 140 pages acupressbooks.com Whether you’re a first-time teacher or want to add new skills to years of teaching experience, you’ll discover how to create a classroom environment where people are motivated and eager to learn, how to prepare successful lessons and strategies for leading groups, and effective ways to utilize technology.

Thriving in Leadership Live Loved

STRATEGIES FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

EXPERIENCING GOD’S PRESENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Edited by Karen A. Longman ISBN 978-0-89112-229-6 • 366 pages acupressbooks.com

By Max Lucaco (’77) ISBN 978-1-4041-9006-1 • 320 pages thomasnelson.com Fresh, new devotionals based on the writings of Lucado, including a range of topics such as facing your fears, accepting His grace, and truly knowing God’s omnipresent love. Each devotional is accompanied by an ending prayer to nurture a stronger prayer life for new believers, as well as long-standing Christ followers.

One of the essayists in this collection of insights from 15 senior leaders of Christian colleges and universities is ACU professor of English and former provost Dr. Jeanine Varner. The book shares insights into the theory and practice of Christian higher education leadership.

Imago Dei Max on Life ANSWERS AND INSIGHTS TO YOUR MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

By Max Lucaco (’77) ISBN 978-0-8499-4812-1 • 256 pages thomasnelson.com Lucado writes about the role of prayer, the purpose of pain, and the reason for our ultimate hope. He responds to the day-to-day questions – parenting quandaries, financial challenges, difficult relationships – as well as to the profound: Is God really listening?

To Win Her Heart

By Karen (Gaskin ’93) Witemeyer ISBN 978-0-7642-0757-0 • 208 pages bethanyhouse.com A blacksmith with a criminal past. A librarian with pacifist ideals. Do they have a fighting chance at finding love? Witemeyer’s Christian romance novel was nominated for some of the industry’s top fiction-writing awards.

POEMS FROM CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE

Edited by Jill Baumgaertner ISBN 978-0-89112-321-7 • 224 pages acupressbooks.com An anthology of the best poems published in the journal Christianity and Literature over the past 60 years, this book brings together poems merging faith, literature and art as a form of worship and inspiration. One of the featured artists is Dr. Chris Willerton, ACU professor of English.

Historical Dictionary of the Beat Movement

By Dr. Paul Varner ISBN 978-0-8108-7189-2 • 394 pages rowman.com The Beat Movement was one of the most radical and innovative literary and arts movements of the 20th century, and its history is still being written in the early years of the 21st century. Varner, ACU English scholar-in-residence, covers the movement’s hisotry through a chronology, an introductory essay and an extensive bibliography.

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JEREMY ENLOW

Brittany Partridge

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STUDENTS, ALUMNA HELP NEPALESE WOMEN GAIN THEIR FREEDOM

By Robin Saylor

A few simple threads tie it all together.

A 16-year-old girl from Nepal finds out her “boyfriend,” who has talked her into traveling to India to start a better life, plans to sell her to a brothel once they cross the border.

A former flight attendant pours her heart into a nonprofit organization, working to bring hope to women in developing countries by teaching them an income-producing skill and then helping them sell their creations.

Two college freshmen in a mid-size West Texas city listen to their professors encourage them to start making a difference in the world – now. e threads intersect. Stories are interwoven. And lives across two continents are forever changed.

THE RED THREAD MOVEMENT If you visit a university campus today, you may see students, faculty and staff wearing a simple red bracelet. Hand-woven by girls in Nepal at risk for sex trafficking, they represent freedom from

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exploitation. ey also represent a movement that started as a spark on the Abilene Christian University campus and has spread like wildfire. e Red read Movement can now be found on 75 university campuses, partners with dozens of musicians and businesses, and interacts with students in numerous high school and youth groups across the United States. e idea is as simple as the product itself. Wearing the $3 bracelet raises awareness of human trafficking and modern-day slavery around the world. Proceeds support anti-trafficking work in Nepal that rescues as many as 100 girls each month and fund a “safe house” where the girls can take shelter. In the process, the Nepalese girls earn an income from weaving the bracelets and learn a sustainable skill that makes them less vulnerable to the lure of sex-traffickers.

ACU Honors College seniors Brittany Partridge and Samantha Sutherland, who co-founded the movement in 2009 as freshmen, never dreamed their cause would grow as quickly and spread as widely as it has.

Partridge was a high school student in Annandale, Minn., when she first encountered human trafficking. While on a mission trip to Romania, she was invited to tour a safe house filled with teenage girls who had been rescued from forced prostitution.

Partridge felt an immediate connection. “ese girls looked like me. ey were mostly my age. I couldn’t help but think that could have been me,” she recalled.

When she returned home, she began to research the sex trafficking industry. “I found out it was happening all over the

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world. I was just shocked that nobody was talking about the issue,” she said. “People never brought it up at school. We talk about slavery from 200 years ago but not about today.” at first encounter with modern-day slavery ignited a passion within Partridge. She decided her purpose in life was to combat human trafficking, to champion people who were being exploited.

When she arrived at ACU a year later, she entered the political science program with plans to become a public-interest lawyer and prosecute the traffickers.

“I didn’t really think I would be able to do anything big while I was still in school. I had this vision that my goals would have to wait until I had more education,” she said.

But one of her political science professors, Dr. Caron Gentry, convinced Partridge she shouldn’t wait to act on her dreams.

“I was so intimidated by college, by the atmosphere where nobody knew who I was, nobody knew what I was capable of doing,” Partridge said. “And Dr. Gentry really called that out and helped me have more confidence in myself. She was the catalyst for Red read and my inspiration.”

Gentry told Partridge about Eternal reads, an Abilene nonprofit whose mission is to improve the lives of women and children most at risk of extreme poverty, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Eternal reads creates jobs in developing nations by buying simple products like hats, totes and scarves made by women and reselling them in the U.S. Partridge and her roommate Sutherland, an advertising and public relations major from Brownwood, began volunteering two days a week at Eternal reads. ere they met Linda Egle, the

organization’s founder and executive director. Egle, a 1973 graduate of Abilene Christian, traveled the world for 27 years as a flight attendant for United Airlines. But not until she took a mission trip to India in 1988 did she see a part of it disturbing enough to change her own life’s mission. She was so touched by meeting women in India’s rural villages that she vowed to do something to break their cycle of poverty. Eternal reads was the result.

One of Eternal reads’ efforts involves rescuing Nepalese girls from sex traffickers and giving them shelter in safe houses along the border between Nepal and India. at project dovetailed with Partridge’s passion, and their stories began to intertwine.

BRANDING WITH A BRACELET As volunteers at Eternal reads, Partridge and Sutherland brainstormed ways to generate funds and raise awareness for the situation in Nepal. One day, while unloading a shipment of colorful friendship bracelets, an idea clicked.

“I had come up with all these designs for things like T-shirts,

but T-shirts don’t become viral. Nobody wears a T-shirt all the time,” Partridge said. “I realized that a bracelet was the ideal product. It wasn’t expensive; you could put it on your wrist and leave it there.”

Partridge pitched the idea to Egle, who quickly embraced it.

“I thought it was a fantastic idea,” Egle said. “It was visionary and well crafted with potential for something very worthwhile if we put the time, money and effort into it.

“Brittany already had the name – Red read – and ideas for branding,” Egle said. “My partner (Ramesh Sapkota, who operates Kingdom Investments Nepal) and I had already realized what we needed to do was try to employ girls so that they weren’t tempted to go with the traffickers. So we were looking at ways to do that. When this came along, it just seemed like a perfect fit.

We didn’t have to set up a complicated business. All we needed was a skein of yarn. We didn’t need special tools.” ough the idea was simple, the journey to marketplace took quite a bit of work. Eternal reads provided funding and other assistance to get the project off the ground AC U TO D AY

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and remains a strong partner in the student-led cause.

“We found a pattern and photos online, and sent them to my partner in Nepal and asked him to try to find some samples in the area where things are sold to tourists,” Egle said. “We went through several prototypes, as you do when you’re developing any product.

“Brittany and I first worked on developing the idea, and several months later Samantha came along, and then we all worked on the branding, what the logo was going to look like and developing all the materials needed to market the cause,” Egle said.

Cultural misunderstandings caused a few bumps along the way. “e first order of bracelets we received were supposed to be solid red. Instead, they were super colorful,” Partridge recalled. “We said, ‘ese are really beautiful but they’re not going to work for what we are trying to do here.’ It took some communication to find out what had happened. e girls in Nepal – they don’t think red looks pretty on their skin – so they thought the multi-colored bracelets were better.”

Even so, the product was quickly refined, and the movement began to grow.

Sutherland described those early days: “Brittany was the campus coordinator and used her connections to get some incredibly prestigious colleges on board. I started up the music section, which got bands to use their concerts to educate audiences about human trafficking. Rachel Koeller (’11) joined us and ran the youth group section and did huge things to get churches across the nation involved.”

“I don’t think we really understood what we were getting ourselves into when we started,” Partridge said. “But just having the ability to keep it going for three years now has been an adventure in and of itself.”

Sutherland agrees. “We’ve really just been along for the ride and tried to take advantage of the doors God opened up for the movement,” she said. “A lot of people ask what they can do to start a huge non-profit, but I believe starting it has to be incredibly organic.

We didn’t expect it to grow as big as it did; we didn’t think it would leave ACU, but it evolved over time.”

Partridge believes the grassroots nature of the movement helped Red read catch on so quickly. “We were able to engage other students to engage their friends, so it was kind of like this chain of people mobilizing other people. I think that really resonated with students in particular,” she said.

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TRIP TO NEPAL In January 2011 – about a year and a half after the start of the Red read Movement – Egle took Partridge, Sutherland and Koeller to Nepal so they could see firsthand the cause they were working so hard to support.

“I wanted them to put faces to what they were doing,” Egle said. “I wanted them to meet our partner in Nepal.” e trip was an eye-opener for Sutherland. “From the comfort of our homes, we just imagine horrors going on, and it’s enough to drive us to donate a few dollars, but it requires something else entirely to truly change our hearts and understanding,” she said.

What the ACU students got was a glimpse of a beautiful country filled with unimaginable hardships, particularly for the women and children. An estimated 12,000 women and girls – most ages 12-21 – are trafficked across the Nepal-India border annually.

“Extreme poverty and lack of opportunity for work makes the girls especially vulnerable to trafficking,” Egle explained. “e traffickers deceive the girls into thinking they are going to get a job or even convince them that they want to marry them.

Many family members in Nepal are going to Middle East countries for work, which leaves the remaining family members vulnerable. e traffickers are very clever at detecting the girls in a village who are most vulnerable due to family circumstances.”

Egle was able to show her traveling companions the border crossings patrolled by young women in purple dresses who watch all day for girls being trafficked. ese border stations rescue between 10 and 15 girls per station per month. e ACU students also visited the safe house they help support, a place where Nepalese girls receive counseling and learn sustainable skills like sewing. ey also make the Red read bracelets for a fair wage. From what they learn at the safe house and the income they earn from making the bracelets, the girls are able to return to their villages with respect and confidence and with as much as $500 in savings.

When the students returned to the U.S., their enthusiasm for their cause was high. But Partridge found herself confronting bondage of her own.

LINDA EGLE

Linda Egle (second from right) took Rachel Koeller, Brittany Partridge and Samantha Sutherland on a life-changing trip to Nepal in 2011.

LESSONS IN BROKENNESS “My freshman year, I started struggling with an eating disorder, and it was happening at the same time that Red read was being developed,” Brittany said. “ere was this kind of weird parallel between trying to help other people and yet having this huge problem myself. It became this thing that I was just so addicted to that nothing else really mattered.”

When she returned to Abilene, Partridge could no longer deny she needed outside help. She left school and returned to Minnesota for treatment.

“Going into treatment that second semester just brought me to this point where you have to be humbled a little bit to admit you have a problem and then to ask for help,” Partridge said. “I had never seen a counselor before in my life. I was very opposed to it for quite some time. But through that process and realizing that I’m not perfect – and I don’t have to be perfect to be meaningful to people – I found parallels to working with these girls in Nepal. Of course, their situations of bondage are entirely different, but I realized that I don’t have to help them from this top-down approach.

“We are all broken. We all have our struggles and they’re different, but at the end of the day we still love each other and care for each other,” Partridge said. “And we’re willing to admit our own

mistakes and come alongside one another. at’s something I definitely learned throughout that time.”

After finishing treatment, Partridge had extra time before her next semester, so she took the opportunity to return to Nepal, this time to live in a safe house.

“It was the second trip that was the more personal,” Partridge said. “I was the only American there at that point, and the only native English speaker. I stayed a month in Nepal, teaching English at the safe house and spending time with the girls and being their older sister. It was cool being able to develop relationships.

“I also got to meet with some United Nations representatives and with a State Department official and discuss human trafficking in the country of Nepal, which was exciting and informative too,” she said. e safe house was a typical Nepalese structure – a concrete building with four levels. About 15 girls lived there, each from a variety of backgrounds. Some of them had just arrived and were new to the safe house. Others had been there awhile.

Some were educated; some hadn’t had much schooling at all. e youngest at that time was 13 and the oldest was in her early 20s. ere were two house mothers in their 20s.

One of the girls’ stories especially stuck with Partridge.

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“Her trafficker was her boyfriend,” Partridge said. “is is a typical situation – it’s called the ‘lover boy’ tactic. is man will say he loves this girl. ey’ll profess their love, and after trust builds up, they will say, ‘Oh I think we should go to India, or I think we should go on a trip, or there’s better work for us in another country.’”

And they’ll end up selling the girl into a situation of slavery.

“And that’s what happened with this girl. e guy had asked to take her to India and she was willing to go because she wanted to be with her boyfriend,” Partridge said. “She became pregnant and then found out he intended to sell her. So she went to the safe house. She decided to carry the child to full term. I thought that was really powerful. She was probably 16 years old. e stigma is so high there to having a child out of wedlock. So I thought she was really brave to have the child.”

Partridge returned to Abilene Christian the following fall. “e ACU community was really encouraging. I came back feeling like I was so welcomed and really loved,” she said. “at is something across the board that ACU instills in people.”

SEASON OF CHANGE With both co-founders graduating in December, the Red read Movement is entering a time of transition.

Sutherland left Red read in March and now works for Abolition International, a non-profit based in Nashville that also combats the sex trade. But her Red read experience will always be a part of her.

“Red read has drastically changed the way I live,” she said.

“I’ve always believed that if you follow God’s calling for your life,

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then you will see some wild things happen and nothing will be out of reach. Watching Red read come into existence out of nothing in such a short time in the hands of inexperienced college kids only reaffirmed my belief.

“It also instilled in me a deeper passion to work for something greater than me,” Sutherland added. “We volunteered our time to Red read and never took a salary, yet I worked harder for it than I have for anything. We only have so much time in the day to invest in things and I know that, if you commit your time to being a servant, God will take care of the rest of your needs in other ways.”

Partridge looks forward to continuing her fight against human trafficking. is year, she was awarded two prestigious scholarships for graduate school, the Marshall and Truman awards, an accomplishment only a handful of students in the nation can claim. She plans to go to the Netherlands and Bosnia-Herzegovina for four months next spring to work at a Christian youth hostel and intern with the International Forum of Solidarity. en she’ll move to Washington, D.C., for the Truman Foundation’s Summer Institute. She will begin graduate work in the United Kingdom next fall.

She’d like to continue in some role as a spokeswoman for the Red read cause. “Ideally, it will continue to grow and expand and continue to be a symbol of hope,” she said.

Egle is open to any possibilities. But she is determined that Eternal reads will not let the Red read partnership unravel.

“It took so much hard work to develop,” she said. “It has gathered a huge amount of momentum since its beginning. I just don’t think that is going to stop.”

F

or the past three years, the enrollment team has shared ACU’s “Live Up” philosophy with prospective students and their families, telling the stories of current Wildcats and ACU faculty, staff and alumni who were finding ways to outlive their lives by living up to God’s call.

When it came time for University Marketing to update our printed material and invite the next class of students to ACU, we decided to do more than just share the great things others were doing – we wanted our target audiences to live up with us.

But how could we provide a meaningful Live Up experience for 10,000-plus people?

Hours of brainstorming led us to the Red Thread Movement and an opportunity to further display

Eternal read’s mission takes its wings from Half the Sky, a best-selling book by Sheryl WuDunn and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, who demonstrate how improving the lives of women can make an incredible difference in the world.

“A Chinese proverb says that ‘women hold up half the sky.’

When you empower a woman, you empower her family, and in turn, an entire village,” said Egle. e Red read Movement is just one avenue of her international ministry, which focuses on bringing justice and education to poor women and children in developing countries. rough Egle’s support and the volunteer work of ACU students such as Partridge, Sutherland and Koeller, the lives touched by simple red bracelets form a larger tapestry of hope and healing. e tapestry is not perfect, but it is beautiful in its imperfection – just like the hands that created it. 䊱

A spread from ACU’s new digital viewbook

Abilene Christian’s technological innovation.

This year, rather than sending out printed viewbooks, we’ve chosen to donate the printing cost for each book to Eternal Threads and purchase a Red Thread Movement bracelet for every prospective freshman who applies for admission. In addition to the bracelet, students receive a letter explaining the Red Thread Movement and its relation to ACU, a link to an interactive digital viewbook (accessible on a variety of platforms including smart phones and tablets), and a challenge to wear the bracelet and spread the word about how they’ve joined with ACU to help save young Nepalese girls and women from lives trapped in sex slavery.

So far, the bracelets have been mailed to more than 4,000 prospective freshmen across the nation – literally – from Anchorage, Alaska, to Tewksbury, Mass. 䊱 – LAUREN PETERSON AC U TO D AY

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Alvarez has served in a variety of ministry roles for 22 years at the Harvey Drive Church of Christ in McAllen, even mowing the lawn when needed.

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“In many ways, I’m still trying to figure what I’ll be when I grow up, but I realize I’m running out of time.”

– ABEL ALVAREZ

WILLING and ABEL

BY RON HADFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY ENLOW

McAllen minister’s ‘bargain’ with God fuels his relentless drive to help others, especially ACU

A

bel Alvarez (’82) has always thrived on seizing opportunities in which some caring person saw something in him worth saving, worth loving, worth nourishing.

e teacher who helped him navigate first, second and third grades in less than nine months – she was one. His first-year Greek professor at ACU was another. So was the elderly widow of a chemistry professor who gave him a ride to church at a place that fed his love for ministry. He grew comfortable capitalizing on new starts, each as fresh as the fruit he once picked and sold from a windowsill of his one-room, dirt-floor house in Monterrey, Mexico. e 52-year-old ACU graduate has made a life of seeing promise in others, making life better for them, and connecting dots to his alma mater.

He’s part minister of the Harvey Drive Church of Christ in McAllen, Texas; AC U TO D AY

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ACU’s Dr. William Rankin, George Saltsman and Abel Alvarez

“Abel is … always thinking about how to connect ACU with others, and how to bring our influence into his community.” – GEORGE SALTSMAN part mobile-learning advocate to his local school district; and a Pied Piper of sorts who believes every student in his community needs a life-changing degree from ACU. With a cantankerous kidney and a number of other health challenges, he also feels he’s living on borrowed time, which heightens the sense of urgency for nearly everything in his busy life.

From McAllen to Abilene Abelardo “Abel” Alvarez was 8 years old when he and his mother, Modesta, and two of his siblings found themselves in Mexico, “living under a tree,” as he describes it. ey immigrated to the United States in 1968 to seek a better life, moving in with family members in South Texas until his father could join them. Abel and his pregnant mother were picked up by a truck at 4:30 each morning so they could work as day-laborers in the fertile onion fields of the Valley, where thousands of migrant workers pick fruit and vegetables in a near-ideal year-round climate where produce thrives but people … well, not always so much.

He did not begin school until age 10, progressing through three grades in 1970, thanks to the determined kindness of his first-grade teacher, Mrs. Dolphin. “She used flash cards to help me catch up with the other kids during lunch and recess,” said Abel, who picked up a good grasp of English as a youngster and especially by fifth grade, when he said “everything began to click.”

He graduated a year early from high school in Pharr, Texas.

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He grew up Catholic but was baptized as a born-again Christian at a Spanish-speaking Church of Christ in McAllen at age 9. Abel soon began attending an English-speaking congregation across the street, where ACU alum Steve Barrett (M.A. ’88) was a popular and influential evangelist who confirmed Abel’s early desire to study toward a career in ministry.

“One summer during high school, my mother came with a group from our church to Bible Teachers Workshop at ACU,” Abel said. “She mailed me a postcard showing a wildcat statue in front of the Campus Center. She said they taught Bible and Greek there.

I will never forget her words: ‘is is a place you would like.’ ” Even though Abel made good grades and was told in high school that he was extremely bright, he did not score well on his ACT exam. He convinced ACU’s admissions office of his intangible qualities, promised to work hard and hitched a ride with a friend to Abilene. Too poor to own a suitcase, it was a simple move with three or four T-shirts and a couple pairs of jeans folded up in a trash bag.

“I quickly learned there were several levels of other bright students at ACU, and I was not in the top one,” laughs Abel, the first of his eight siblings to not only attend formal school, but college.

He worked his way through Abilene Christian, taking campus jobs in buildings and grounds, repairing doors and windows, cutting grass and changing the oil of vehicles in the motor pool.

“I saw a lot of ACU kids who were traumatized by leaving home for the first time in their lives, but not me,” he said. “I had

Alvarez regularly volunteers his time in McAllen classrooms.

José Oscanos and Javont-e Ortega show him what they are learning on an iPad.

a job, a roof over my head and three meals a day in a cafeteria where I could eat all I wanted. at seemed like a pretty good deal to me.”

He earned a Bible scholarship to go along with “maxxing out on every federal and state grant” offered because of his family’s low income. Dr. Ian Fair (’68), professor and dean of the College of Biblical Studies, taught his Greek class and took a liking to the irrepressible freshman.

“What impressed me about Abel was his determination to be the kind of person his mother had instilled in him, always to work hard, get involved with what was going on and apply himself to his studies,” Fair said.

“He saw something in me and has always been one of those who cleared a path for me,” Abel said.

Without a car, Abel rode the Wildcat Bus sent to campus by the 16th and Vine Church of Christ and became active in its bus ministry. ere, he befriended Willie (Pritchett) Witt, wife of the late longtime chemistry department chair Dr. Paul Witt (’22). Abel later asked her, “If I mow your lawn, can I ride to church with you?”

Sister Witt said he could not only ride with her, but could drive her to church if he liked. Later, he learned that Witt discreetly paid a $600 school bill he owed. “at was wonderful, yet strange to me,” he said. “I wasn’t used to people being so generous. I hadn’t come across that before.”

He met fellow freshman Diane Palmer, a psychology major

who grew up in a family of church planters in Southwest Ohio.

“I didn’t think I’d ever marry a minister, but I saw Abel’s love for God and that was important to me,” said Diane, whose cousin is Dr. Jon Ashby (’64), ACU professor emeritus of communication sciences and disorders.

Abel and Diane became good friends and dated over the next four years, graduating in May 1982 and marrying that August.

He stayed in town to begin graduate work, earning a master’s in ministry and evangelism, and years later, an M.Div. degree.

Blended roles give ACU a Valley presence Abel’s first paying ministry job was at the 16th and Vine congregation, where he earned $76 a week as a part-time youth minister. e congregation, which later merged with the Southern Hills Church of Christ, was known for helping its neighbors, including an active bus ministry in which Abel served. It also organized the Christian Service Center in 1965 that continues today to help feed and clothe the needy, and it donated land on which the current Woodlawn and South 11th and Willis church buildings were constructed.

Today, Abel is the longtime minister of the Harvey Drive Church of Christ in McAllen, where three elders, five deacons and a new youth minister serve a congregation of about 125 members. Abel said it is determined to be a bicultural community of believers. Sixty percent of its members are Hispanic, but when AC U TO D AY

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Abel arrived more than two decades ago, the percentage was far smaller, and Spanish-speaking members met in a separate church service. “e average tenure of a minister here used to be 33 months,” he said. “But I’ve worn every hat over the past 22 years.” When the congregation’s maintenance employee is sick, Abel also mows the lawn of the building and the parsonage house in which he and Diane live.

He has come to see his work and ministry take several forms: preacher, counselor, community outreach activist and ACU’s unofficial representative in McAllen. By combining these roles he is able to “do something for the kids, make a difference in peoples’ lives and affect the way they see the world.” e concept of family is huge in Hispanic culture. “But many kids here have a dysfunctional family,” Abel said. “I’m offering them a family through ACU, and by affecting some, it will affect siblings and others. A young person’s life can be radically transformed by an ACU education.”

Abel said he stays in touch with McAllen students throughout each school year and “more with those who need me the most.

I see myself in many of the kids in this community. I once was one of them,” he said. “Some of these kids never get 60 miles away from home, so if I can help them get out and see the world, I believe the world will be a better place.”

He only needs to look across the street for prospects, where Diane teaches fifth grade in Jackson Elementary School and he volunteers to read to and counsel students.

“It’s not a very private life, living next door to our church and my school,” Diane said. “But it helps with relationships with the kids’ parents. ey know I have a stake in this school and this neighborhood.” e community also knows Abilene Christian through the Alvarez family. At times, an ACU flag is displayed in the school’s hallway, and Diane’s students regularly wear Wildcat Game Day shirts to class. Abel drives cars and vans full of high school students to Abilene to experience the university for themselves, and is typically at the heart of hosting ACU events in the community.

“He lets us know the intangibles of each student we are recruiting from his community, in addition to their academic

Valley; nevertheless 60 percent of households with children there have incomes of less than $20,000 a year. “Ninety-three percent of students in the McAllen school district are Hispanic. Sixty-two percent of them are considered ‘at risk’ of dropping out and 54 percent are economically disadvantaged,” he said. “Our kids need a lot of encouragement and help.”

He estimates he helps recruit up to 18 students a year to Abilene, assisting them in finding scholarship, grant and loan aid.

“And in addition to helping students, that’s another way of making ACU a household name here,” he said.

Bringing mobile learning to McAllen McAllen Independent School District may be a long way from major metropolitan areas of the nation, but it is a rising rock star in K-12 schools around the world, with help from Abel and ACU. When Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the iPad Mini on Oct. 23 in California, one of the slides in his multimedia presentation included a quote from MISD superintendent Dr. James Ponce: “e iPad has been a real game-changer in education. No technology has impacted the way teachers teach and students learn more quickly and more profoundly. With iPad, the possibilities are endless.”

MISD is fully immersed in its own game-changing endeavor, something it calls TLC 3, which stands for Transforming Learning in the Classroom, Campus and Community. e bold program has put more than 27,000 mobile-learning devices in the hands of all students and teachers in the district, perhaps the largest deployment of iPads and iPod touches in any school system in the world.

Abel served as a fire-starter, urging MISD leaders to take a serious look at the innovative work ACU was doing with mobile-learning technology. He was successful in bringing Ponce to Abilene for the university’s Connected Summit in February 2011, where he heard Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talk about the ways education must change to meet the learning needs of students.

Ponce met ACU’s mobile-learning team and John Couch, Apple’s vice president for education, and saw Abilene Christian dedicate its new AT&T Learning Studio. e superintendent was hooked.

“When Dr. Ponce left here, he could see the connections to be

“He’s been a champion and advocate for us for many years, telling our story in the Valley to anyone who will listen.” – KEVIN CAMPBELL ability,” said Kevin Campbell (’00), ACU’s chief enrollment officer. “at really helps, especially when we are making scholarship decisions, to know who has strong character, who has a great work ethic, who has a desire to be the best.”

Campbell said his admissions team gets to know a student well over the course of the recruiting process. “But Abel’s strengths are best seen in the relationships he builds with others,” he said.

“When our alumni know prospective students well enough to tell us, ‘is person would be a great fit for ACU,’ it helps us tremendously. He’s been a champion and advocate for us for many years, telling our story in the Valley to anyone who will listen.”

Abel begins by reminding students that they may not have a safety net. “I tell them, ‘If you’re like me, no one will leave you anything (in an inheritance). But if you’ll accept it, I can give you an opportunity that will radically change your world. It will give you a different philosophy and underpinning in life,’” he said.

What he offers is an introduction to Abilene Christian.

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made,” Abel said. “I invited John Couch to McAllen. A few weeks later, Dr. Ponce announced the school district was entering a partnership with ACU to explore mobile-learning technology.”

Abel lobbied for MISD to use a fraction of its annual $200 million budget to invest in technology and the future of its students.

“I am a dreamer, and so is he,” Abel said. “I told Dr. Ponce, ‘ree-and-a-half million dollars will do it. I know that’s a huge deal, but for less than 2 percent of your annual budget, you can do this; you can change the future for our students, level the playing field and give them the best tools they can get. And ACU can show you how.”

Dr. Billie McConnell (’84), former ACU assistant professor of teacher education, went to McAllen to engage in conversations with students, teachers, staff and community leaders. Special funding allowed the district to initially purchase iPad 2s for 140 teachers representing 14 of the district schools. ACU began training teachers and by February 2012, the first wave of iPads began to arrive.

On March 20, ACU and MISD hosted the Transforming Learning Conference in McAllen, attracting 330 education and business leaders

from around Texas to continue dialogue about the ways in which mobile learning can be implemented in K-12 schools. Couch came to McAllen for the event and toured two MISD schools to see mobile devices at work, including Diane Alvarez’s fifth-grade class at Jackson Elementary. Couch beamed as he heard students excitedly explain how technology brings life to their learning. “at conference was a pep rally for the kind of 21st-century learning that equips teachers and administrators to make real change in the lives of students in an area of the world that is often overlooked and marginalized,” said George Saltsman (’90), executive director of ACU’s Task Force for Innovation, Learning and Educational Technology. e experience helped open doors in 2012 that led ACU to create Connected Consulting, a professional development organization partnering with K-12 districts and higher education institutions to create their own mobile-learning programs, and provides initial teacher training and ongoing support through an online learning community.

Connected Consulting offers on- and off-site training and draws on a core team of academic innovators from around the world, most of whom are Apple Distinguished Educators. e new organization is engaged in three-year partnerships with 17 school districts around the nation, helping more than 2,600 teachers use technology to transform their learning environment. e last batch of Apple devices arrived in November in McAllen, where pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students use iPod touches and grades 1-12 have iPads. Diane Alvarez said her students at Jackson Elementary love their iPads, using them every day to take photographs for use in their projects, as a microscope, and for in-class Web research through Kidrex.com (a child-safe Internet search engine).

“To do research just a few years ago, we would have to all walk down to the library, and worry about whether there were enough encyclopedias for everyone and whether or not they were current,” she said. “e iPad has changed everything in my classroom.”

Abel said the school district is now “the talk of the education world,” and Saltsman said Apple sees Connected Consulting as an ideal partnership between ACU and K-12 districts such as MISD. “Abel is always the ambassador, always thinking about how to connect ACU with others, and how to bring our influence into his community,” Saltsman said. “And he believes every child in the Valley would be best served with an ACU education.”

The urgency of living on borrowed time Other than God, his church ministry and his family, Abel says ACU is the most important influence in his life.

“I tell myself, ‘You’ve been around for 50 years. What have you done?’ In many ways, I’m still trying to figure what I’ll be when I grow up, but I realize I’m running out of time.

“I figure I’m here for a reason,” Abel said. “I almost died at age 28 with a wife and two small kids. I had a kidney transplant and my body rejected it, which caused all kinds of other problems. I begged God, ‘Let me live long enough to get these kids to a point where they are not starting out in life like I did.’ He’s kept his end of the bargain, so I need to keep mine. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time, and at times, like I am running on fumes. I don’t know if I have five or 10 years left. So it’s part of the drive I feel.” is summer, his agreement with God looked to be a finished sale. Abel was hospitalized with sepsis – systemic inflammatory response syndrome, a bacterial poisoning of the blood that causes organs and body systems to shut down. With Abel near death, McConnell drove to McAllen to pray in person with the Alvarez family. Some 30 of Abel’s relatives traveled from California to be with him, sensing the end was near but he gradually recovered with an even greater renewed sense of purpose. e university feels his influence not only in South Texas but on campus, where he is a member of the ACU Board of Trustees, bringing his insight and energy to every challenge and opportunity.

“His whole life, Abel has been going against the grain,” McConnell said. “He shouldn’t be where he is, given where he came from and what he’s been through. He is totally focused on others, but he also is relentless. When he puts his mind to something, it’s going to happen.”

“Aside from my grandfather, I have never known a more selfless person than Abel,” Diane said. “He has this huge heart for people; he would do anything for anyone. He puts everybody first and himself last, even to his own detriment. I feel shamed at times because he gives so much of himself and loves people so deeply. He walks the walk. He has a gift for people..”䊱 For more: acu.edu/connected and connectedconsulting.com and mcallenisd.org

ACU helps MISD students such as (from left) Alexa Gutierrez, Robert Martinez and Ethan Bazan learn to use mobile-learning technology to enrich their classroom experience.

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Hilltop VIEW

For the latest, visit acu.edu/news facebook.com/abilenechristian twitter.com/ACUedu gplus.to/abilenechristian

finalist during the seventh season of Design Star this spring. Hale competed with other finalists from around the country, designing rooms in various Hale styles, drawing on her expertise from nearly 20 years in the furniture and design business.

Amy (Daugherity ’96) Warren teamed up with Amanda Kelsoe and Hollee Ford – two of her neighbors in Euless, Texas – to shoot a video including footage of all three of their houses, entering a contest sponsored by The Rachael Ray Show.

The producers of HGTV’s Curb Appeal: The Block chose the women to be featured in an episode of their show, which approaches urban renewal by revamping several homes on a single street. They chose to highlight Warren and her neighbors because of their strong sense of community: their entry video emphasized the close-knit relationships on their cul-de-sac.

When asked to recommend neighbors for another episode of Curb Appeal, Warren and her neighbors suggested their friends, Nicki and Shane Pace, whose 2-year-old son, Trent, has a medical condition which will soon require him to use a wheelchair. The Curb Appeal team built a ramp from the Paces’ driveway to their front door, added a porch swing and gave their home a $20,000 makeover.

Both shows aired this spring on HGTV.

Midland, Texas, and recognizes all types of servant leadership exhibited by friends or alumni of the university.

ACU director of alumni relations and annual projects Craig Fisher (’92) presents the award to Middlebrook, who was joined by his wife, Mollie (Waltman ’72).

Houston minister Middlebook receives Outlive Your Life Award

Chancellor Money to also lead new Siburt Institute for Church Ministry

It was an easy decision for ACU to name its new church outreach initiative after one of its leading voices in congregations over the past two decades, and ask a former president with years of ministry experience to lead it.

ACU chancellor Dr. Royce Money (’64) has been appointed by president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) to serve as executive director of the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry, honoring the late Dr. Charles Siburt (’68).

Siburt, who died in July 2012 (see pages 78 and 79) had been ACU’s vice president for church relations in addition to teaching in the university’s Graduate School of Theology.

“Charlie was a respected minister who committed his personal and professional life to understanding the complex needs of congregations. Students loved him, and he served as a mentor to countless young ministers, providing encouragement and counsel long after they graduated from the university,” Schubert said.

“We can’t replace him, but we can honor him by building on the excellent foundation he built here through ElderLink, Ministers Support Network and other successful efforts.”

Money was a minister for churches in Texas, Alabama, Maryland and Missouri before joining ACU’s Bible faculty in 1981 and becoming its 10th president in 1991.

For more: acu.edu/siburt-institute

Alumni featured on two HGTV shows

Avid watchers of HGTV’s lineup of home makeover shows may have spotted a familiar face or two this year. Rebecca “Bex” (Allen ’97) Hale, owner of the Relics Home furniture and design store in downtown Abilene, appeared as a

An Integrative Habit of Mind

Capturing Head and Heart

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN ON THE PATH TO WISDOM

THE LIVES OF EARLY POPULAR STONE-CAMPBELL MOVEMENT LEADERS

By Dr. Fred Acquino (’89) ISBN 978-0-87580-452-1 • 140 pages www.niupress.niu.edu ACU professor of theology Acquino looks at the words of educator Newman and how teachers and researchers can use them to better inspire students to pursue wisdom by paying closer attention to their intellectual formation.

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(From left) Amanda Kelsoe, “Curb Appeal” architect John Gidding, Hollee Ford and Warren.

AMY WARREN

A life devoted to modeling service to others made Dr. Charlie Middlebook (’68) the newest recipient of the Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award, presented May 12, 2012, at Commencement.

Middlebrook once said it took a mid-life crisis to leave his full-time preaching job and begin Impact Houston Church of Christ. Twenty-five years later, Impact bears the marks of his dedication to transforming lives as an elder and minister of the congregation. The church has shared the Gospel while helping thousands of needy urban families with food, childcare, medicine, work, rehab, tutoring and college scholarships.

As an Abilene Christian faculty member, Charlie taught on and off campus for more than a decade, including as a missionary-in-residence, urban missions coordinator and missions consultant until 2002 – welcoming students to Houston for short courses and Spring Break Campaigns.

The Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award is named for its first recipients, Dale and Rita Brown of

STEVE BUTMAN

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By Dr. Donald M. Kinder (’75) ISBN 978-0-8911-2316-3 • 182 pages leafwoodpublishers.com Kinder, the director of international enrollment for Bethel University’s global pathways program, takes a fresh look at the lives of six leaders of the Stone-Campbell Movement.

GARY RHODES

Patterson waves to the cheering crowd in Moody Coliseum. She was accompanied by her daughter, Ann (Patterson ’63) Little (left) and Dr. Robert D. Hunter (’52).

Patterson saluted for longevity, generosity

Among special guests Aug. 27, 2012, at Opening Assembly was one of ACU’s newest centenarians and most faithful donors, 100-year-old Willa B Patterson (’37) of Abilene. Both of her children graduated from ACU, as did six of her grandchildren (four of them on the same day in 1992). Patterson started giving $1 a month to Abilene Christian in 1937, eventually supporting the library, new building construction, and scholarships for deserving students.

Wilkerson’s ranch skills come in handy as inaugural Miss Frontier Texas winner

PBS show art expert, Texas House committee chair among campus speakers

• Author, appraiser and art expert Lark Mason Jr., a mainstay on the PBS network’s “Antiques Roadshow,” was the keynote speaker and guest judge April 2, 2012, at the fourth annual Undergraduate Research Festival. His two children, Lark III and Melissa, are ACU students.

$19 million

• Dr. Frederica Mathewes-Green, an expert in orthodox Christianity and the theology of the Eastern Church, spoke twice Feb. 20, 2012, during lectures sponsored by ACU’s Graduate School of Theology. A prolific author, she has been a featured speaker at Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Cornell universities.

• 88bikes founder Dan Austin calls his business model “joy-based” philanthropy.

The Seattle-based company uses each $88 donation to buy a bicycle for a child in a developing country. He kicked off ACU’s Entrepreneur Speaker Series on Sept. 12, 2012, sponsored by the College of Business Administration’s Griggs Center for Entrepreneuship and Philanthropy.

• Texas Rep. Dan Branch, chair of the House Commitee on Higher Education, was the featured speaker Aug. 27, 2012, at ACU’s Opening Assembly. Branch is a former judicial clerk to Jack Pope (’34), who served as chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1982-85.

• Bill Greehey, former chair of NuStar Energy L.P. and Valero Energy who is deeply Greehey committed to helping the homeless in San Antonio, delivered the keynote address April 17, 2012, at ACU’s Springboard Ideas Challenge awards dinner.

He grew Valero to the largest refining business in North America.

• Church historian Dr. Richard Hughes (’67 M.A.), Distinguished Professor of Religion at Messiah College, was the featured speaker March 5, 2012, at the annual spring banquet of the Friends of the ACU Library. The title of his presentation was “Why We Must Take Our History Seriously: Why ACU is Crucial to the Task.” Hughes was professor of history at ACU from 1983-88.

GARY RHODES

Of the 32 contestants, Haley Wilkerson, an ACU sophomore animal science major from Bonham, Texas, was more than up to the challenge of a unique scholarship competition in March 2012. “This ain’t your mama’s beauty pageant,” the marketing materials for Miss Frontier Texas claimed.

“On the frontier, beauty has a backbone.”

To be crowned the inaugural Miss Frontier Texas, contestants had to chase and cage a chicken, wash a dirty shirt on a washboard, rope a horse, sew a satchel by hand, shoot a .50-caliber buffalo rifle and other skills common to a frontier woman’s everyday life. Wilkerson prevailed, winning a $4,000 scholarship and a pair of custom cowboy boots.

For more: missfrontiertexas.com

ACU BY THE NUMBERS Dollars raised as of Oct. 31, 2012, toward $50 million Partnering in the Journey campaign for student scholarships.

(See page 60.)

1million

Pounds lifted in the 1-year-old Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center by music faculty member Samuel Cook.

The artist-in-residence, opera director and associate professor of voice has lost more than 80 pounds by lifting weights and exercising regularly in the facility.

1,673

Number of young people participating in ACU’s 2012 Summer Camps. Leadership Camps, Champions Sports Camps and Summer Academy kept the campus buzzing from June through August. (See pages 6-7 and 58.)

24.5

percentage of “legacy” students in ACU’s Fall 2012 freshman class. Legacy students are defined as those having an immediate family member who previously attended Abilene Christian. Over the last five years, this percentage has been as low as 24.1 percent and as high as 32.4 percent, a testament to the great tradition Wildcat families have of sending students to ACU. According to the New York Times, 10-15 percent of freshmen at Ivy League schools are legacy students. (See page 60.)

37

Number of ACU track and field athletes who have competed in the Olympic Games since 1956, when Bobby Morrow (’58) won three gold medals in the Games in Melbourne, Australia. Two student-athletes from France and Trinidad and Tobago with London Olympics experience enrolled in ACU this fall. (See page 62.)

36

Number of students in ACU’s first engineering class. (See page 59.)

30.2

Record percentage of diversity among students in the Fall 2012 freshman class at ACU. (See page 60.)

Great Day Every Day

Short-Straw Bride

NAVIGATING LIFE’S CHALLENGES WITH PROMISE AND PURPOSE

By Karen (Gaskin ’93) Witemeyer ISBN 978-0-7642-0965-9 • 368 pages bethanyhouse.com

By Max Lucado (’77) 978-1-44973-031-4 • 148 pages shoestringministries.org Originally published as Every Day Deserves a Chance, Lucado has enhanced this book about viewing every day as a gift from God, because He is at work in every situation.

No one steps on Archer land. Ever. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a plot to burn the Archers out, a 12-year-old debt compels her to take the risk. Her good deed goes awry, however, and her damaged reputation can only be salvaged with marriage. Four brothers. Four straws. One bride.

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Ac adem ic NEWS Summer Academy expands offerings, filling quickly for 2013

NIL SANTANA

After a successful 2012 Summer Academy with more than 175 college credits earned and 1,599 miles traveled by high school students to UNESCO World Heritage sites as part of the summer offerings, the Honors College has expanded the 2013 Summer Academy to

Students toured Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park last summer.

include debate and speech camps, multiple one- and two-week academic camps as well as a three-week Study Abroad experience in Oxford, England: June 9-15 June 9-22

Debate CX Camp (team debate) – $699 Session I (4-hour college credit) – $1,699 Incoming juniors and seniors June 16-22 Individual Event Camp – $699 June 23-29 Session II (1-hour college credit) – $699 Incoming freshmen through seniors June 23-29 Homeschool Parliamentary Debate – $699 July 8-26 Session III in Oxford, England (3 hours college credit for incoming juniors, seniors and 2013 high school graduates) – $3,500

Dr. Kristina (Campos ’99) Davis, assistant professor of communication and honors studies, is excited about this year’s academic offerings. “Our debate and individual events camp will be led by Dena

(Davis ’90) Counts, director of forensics and coach of ACU’s nationally ranked debate team, and Jeff Craig (’12), who led the nation with the most debate wins in team competition during his senior year. Their willingness to lead a team of professors in debate and individual event training for a week at a price point of $699 can’t be matched.”

Davis noted the addition of engineering to the course options during Session I. “Dr. Ken Olree, our new director of engineering, will be offering an Introduction to Design course during which students will receive 3 hours of engineering course credit and 1 hour of lab credit,” she said.

Students may choose from psychology, Bible, history or computer science for their 3-hour credit and add an additional elective credit in photography, graphic design, creative writing or digital filmmaking.

“These courses are taught by some of our best faculty – the same professors teaching college and graduate students, leading research projects at national laboratories, and authoring papers and books as experts in their field,” said Davis.

One of the most exciting additions for Davis is the art camp in Oxford, England.

“We are taking 15 high school students to Oxford, England, for three weeks to study under world-renowned artist and ACU professor Jack Maxwell (’78).”

He and his wife, Jill (Thompson ’78), an art teacher in the Abilene ISD, will host students at ACU’s two Oxford houses with excursions to London and other cities to learn art history, visit famous art museums and develop new skills in sculpture, painting and watercolor.

“As professors, we work every day to offer ACU students an exceptional

Student news Suzanne Shedd (’01), a graduate student in the Department of Language and Literature, won the 2012 Outstanding Tutor award from the South Central Writing Centers Association. She was a finalist along with other students from universities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Works by 2012 Department of Art and Design graduates Morgan Hallmark, Jan Hendrick, Kimmy McNiece, Stacy Olsen, Leah Rama, Lauren St. John and Katie Stumbo, plus junior Anna Pinson, were displayed in May 2012 in the Cohn Drennan Contemporary gallery in Dallas. The exhibit was made possible by Drennan (’80), ACU’s 1997 Young Alumnus of the Year.

ACU students from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of Art and Design took home

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academic experience within a Christ-centered community,” Davis said.

It is my honor to offer a sampling of this experience to high school students who are interested in learning more about themselves and the world around them.”

Visit acu.edu/summmeracademy to learn more and to register your student.

Registration opened Nov. 1, and space is quickly filling. 䊱

Four ACU faculty invited to White House briefing On May 4, 2012, President Barack Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships hosted a special briefing at the White House.

The event, “Advancing the Common Good at Home and Abroad,” included four ACU professors among its attendees: Dr. Mark Hamilton of the Graduate School of Theology; Dr. Jerry Taylor and Dr. Christopher Hutson of the Department of Bible, Missions and Ministry; and Dr. Carisse Berryhill of the Brown Library’s Special Collections.

The project facilitates partnerships between faith groups and the government to improve education and school systems, feed the hungry, stop human trafficking and create community programs.

Members of the president's staff sought input from academic and religious leaders on current and future initiatives.

Taylor, Hutson and Hamilton were three of an estimated 150 religion professors in attendance.

The Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships was formed under the George W. Bush administration.

Dr. Shaun Casey (’81) visited ACU in

46 awards for newspaper, radio, news website, literary magazine and TV categories in March 2012 from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association. The JMC staff won TV sweepstakes for the most and highest awards in its area, and Dr. Kenneth Pybus (’89) was named Advisor of the Year. Twelve of the winning entries finished in first place. The Shinnery Review literary magazine also was represented among the student honors, and the Optimist newspaper placed third in Best of Show rankings.

So many entries were received in 2012 for the fourth annual ACU Undergraduate Research Festival – more than 100 student presenters overall and for the first time, several from other local universities – that the event is expanding to a two-day format in April 2013. For more about the 2012 winners, visit acu.edu/academics/undergradresearch.

UNDERGRADUATERESEARCH

Students, profs collaborate on their research experience 2008 to discuss the role of religion in the public square. Casey, professor of theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., serves as an advisor to the Obama administration on religious affairs and helped organize the event.

“The briefing revealed to me how many committed Christians are working quietly behind the scenes, making an eternal difference in the lives of many poor people in this country and around the world,” Taylor said.

“One of the beauties of Western democracy is the commitment to open communication between government and citizens,” Hamilton said. “The briefing gave us the opportunity to be part of that two-way conversation, and I am grateful for that invitation.”䊱

Engineering attracts 36 majors Thirty-six students are majoring in engineering this fall at ACU, pursuing the university’s new Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) degree in the newly named Department of Engineering and Physics. Dr. Ken Olree is assistant professor and director of the B.S.E. degree program.

“Engineering is a wonderful way to make the world a better place,” Olree recently told the Optimist. “Students are looking for a career option that will help them do so. One of the key components in that, especially at a Christian university, is making the students understand they are doing something that will help people and help advance the kingdom of Christ.”

“We offer students a world-class education in engineering, as we do in physics,” said Dr. Rusty Towell (’90), professor and department chair. “Both physics and engineering majors receive practical experience solving problems in a Christ-centered mentoring environment.”

For more: acu.edu/engineering 䊱

Whether conducting research in labs, traveling across the country to give presentations, or studying local issues in Texas, ACU’s undergraduate physics, biology, chemistry and biochemistry students are pursuing the kind of excellence that will make a difference in their disciplines.

In addition to several longstanding summer research projects at Fermilab (Chicago), Brookhaven National Laboratory (Long Island, N.Y.) and Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory, students traveled to new places to learn about research firsthand.

Since 1999, ACU physics students and faculty members have worked on the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven. But this summer’s research yielded something new: a Guinness World Record for the Highest Man-Made Temperature in the World: 4 trillion degrees Celsius. Sophomores Aric Tate, Ramsey Towell and Mat Solomon and 2012 graduate Walker Nikolaus worked alongside Dr. Mike Daugherity (’02), assistant professor of engineering and physics, and Dr. Rusty Towell (’90), professor and chair of engineering and physics.

Senior Grayson Allred spent time this summer working at the Otonga Nature Reserve in the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador. He joined professor of biology Dr. Tom Lee, Andrew Hennecke (’11), and one student and one professor from PUCE university in Ecuador. Allred collected tissue samples for DNA analysis of 16 mammal species in the Ecuadorian rainforest for the Natural History Collections at ACU and PUCE.

Faculty news Dr. Lesa Breeding (’80), former dean of the College of Education and Human Services, is the new executive director of the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning. Breeding also is professor of communication sciences and disorders.

Dr. Jess Dowdy (’98), associate professor and assistant chair of physics, was elected vice president of the Texas Section of the American Physics Teachers Association.

Dr. Neal Coates (’87), professor and chair of political science, was among 30 university teachers from North America chosen by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies to attend a 10-day program in Summer 2012 at Tel Aviv University in Israel, studying how terrorism affects democratic societies.

Dr. Dennis Cavitt (’87 M.S.), instructor of special education, was elected president of the Texas Council for Exceptional Children, which helps improve the

Senior Tori Moore spent her summer studying with ACU assistant professor of biology Dr. Qiang Xu at the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Lab in Kerrville, Texas. Moore conducted research on horn flies, a major cattle pest, and their effect on bovine milk production.

Blaine Smith participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, researching the Klotho gene and proving its effectiveness in protecting human lungs from damage.

ACU’s Pursuit Quality Enhancement Program (QEP) awarded six grants for faculty-student research projects this summer, and two of them went to the biology department. Dr. Josh Brokaw (’01), assistant professor of biology, and seniors Samantha Saldivar and Emily Adams studied the efficacy of bioremediation in native grassland communities. Assistant professor of biology Dr. Jennifer Huddleston and senior Kristin Goodwin studied genes and the transference between bacteria in the natural environment.

In November, 30 engineering and physics students participated in the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress (PhysCon) at Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Fla. This national conference gives undergraduates the opportunity to interact with Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, industry leaders and researchers. Eleven ACU students presented their research. Only the Massachussets Institute of Technology sent more students to PhysCon than Abilene Christian. 䊱

educational success of students with disabilities and/or special gifts and talents.

Dr. Jennifer (Wade ’92) Shewmaker, associate processor of psychology, was one of 30 female psychologists in the nation chosen to participate in a year-long Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology by the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Jeff Childers (’89), professor of church history, Bible, missions and ministry, and Carmichael-Walling Chair of New Testament, presented research in April 2012 at the first Syriac Studies Symposium at Mardin Artuklu University in Mardin, Turkey. Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.

Dr. Richard Beck (’89), professor and chair of psychology, presented research in June 2012 at the fifth annual Conference of Theology and Peace at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

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Campus NEWS Campaign for student scholarships reaches $19 million mark The Partnering in the Journey Campaign, ACU’s $50 million effort to increase student scholarships, continues at a steady pace.

As of Oct. 31, 2012, commitments to the campaign stood at $19 million from 756 individual donors. The campaign seeks to add to the university’s endowment, providing a stable base from which to provide more scholarships for the students who need them most. To that end, donors have established 45 new endowments and added to 182 existing ones.

“We’ve seen promising growth in first-time endowments of $10,000 and more,” said Phil Boone (’83), vice president for advancement. “We’re seeing donors step up from across the ACU community – including young alumni, groups of family and friends, social clubs, and teammates.”

One example of a new endowment is one created by the children and wife of W.D. “Dub” Winkles (’48), a World War II tail gunner who flew 40 missions over Europe before starring as an ACU basketball player and, 20 years later, returning to become the first manager of the newly built McGlothlin Campus Center, where he served for 18 years.

Winkles died Oct. 27, 2012, just three days after his 88th birthday – and two weeks after his family presented him with the certificate acknowledging the creation of an endowed scholarship in his honor. In lieu of flowers, the family asked well-wishers to give to the newly created endowment, which is unrestricted,

For the latest, visit acu.edu/news facebook.com/abilenechristian twitter.com/ACUedu gplus.to/abilenechristian

providing scholarship money to students who need it most.

Endowments created by groups of like-minded people in honor or memory of a loved one or mentor are key ingredients in helping students for years to come, Boone said.

The Partnering in the Journey Campaign is designed to help students with the biggest gap between their expected family contribution and financial aid received from other sources.

It, together with the annual block tuition plan implemented this year, is part of an effort by ACU to help students better afford the university’s exceptional, Christ-centered education while incurring less debt.

“This campaign is all about student affordability and is one component we are developing to help families afford to send their students to ACU,” Boone said. “It’s exciting to see our alumni and friends catch the vision of what they can accomplish for students who need it the most.”

The campaign was publicly announced Feb. 18, 2012, at the President’s Circle Dinner. Any gift to an endowed scholarship counts toward the $50 million campaign goal. Any unrestricted or unnamed gifts to endowed scholarships are designated to the Don and Carol Crisp Student Affordability Endowment, in honor of the former Board of Trustees chair and his wife.

More information about the Partnering in the Journey Campaign – including videos, student spotlights and more – is available at acu.edu/journey. To donate, email Boone at phil.boone@acu.edu or give online at acu.edu/giveonline. 䊱

Freshman class sees big gains, education experts again choose ACU ACU's freshman class for Fall 2012 is composed of 958 students, up nearly 11 percent from last year's 864. In addition, the ethnic diversity of the class is at an all-time high of 30.2 percent, and a greater percentage of the new students – 56.3 percent – come from the top quarter of their high school graduating class, up 6 percent from 2011. Total enrollment, meanwhile, stands at 4,371 students, including 742 graduate students.

“We’re pleased to see positive results in the academic quality and diversity of this talented group of new students,” said ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91), “We want to attract students who value highly their academic preparation for a career, as well as the opportunity to live and learn in an environment that builds their faith. The world needs Christ-centered leaders, and ACU continues to be the

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We’re No. 1: ACU endowment returns are the best in U.S. higher ed over the past decade Donors have an extra reason to feel confident about their investment in Abilene Christian: Over the past decade, no institution in U.S. higher education has had a higher-performing endowment than ACU. NACUBO’s 2011 survey evaluated 10-year endowment returns reported by 456 institutions of higher learning.

ACU’s returns over the last decade ending June 30, 2011, have averaged 10.13 percent annually. Over the same period the average annual rate among the schools in the study was 5.6 percent.

“We have been blessed to be in investments such as stock funds, energy sector investments and hedge funds that have performed quite well,” said Jack Rich (’76), ACU’s chief investment officer and president of the Abilene Christian Investment Management Company (ACIMCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of the university that manages ACU’s endowment, which stood at $302 million as of Oct. 31, 2012.

Rich said ACU focuses on long-term investments, working with the best fund managers it can identify, who then invest on ACU’s behalf. Abilene Christian studies the best-performing endowments in higher education, noticing that the larger ones – those with values of $1 billion or more – had the best long-term performance.

“So we set out to research, develop and include similar strategies where they were deemed appropriate for our portfolio,” Rich said. “Our investment committee has played a key role in determining our asset allocation over the past 10 years. It’s a group with considerable experience, expertise and continuity,” Rich said. 䊱

place where many employers and graduate schools look first for the best-prepared talent.”

ACU was ranked this fall among the nation’s top 20 regional universities in the West as determined by U.S. News & World Report in its 2012 “America’s Best Colleges” guide, and in the top 15 among the Great Schools at Great Prices in its region for the fifth consecutive year.

Abilene Christian was also ranked in the top 10 percent of the 6,600 accredited post-secondary institutions eligible for consideration in Forbes magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges” rankings. ACU and Pepperdine University were the only two universities on the list affiliated with Churches of Christ.

The Princeton Review named ACU one of the “Best in the West” for 2012, one of 121 “academically excellent institutions of higher learning” in the 15-state western region of the nation.

INNOVATIVEACU

Online M.Ed. degrees empower teachers with technology Garrett named executive V.P. Allison Garrett, J.D., began serving in August 2012 as executive vice president.

Formerly the senior vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University, she is now in a position previously held by Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) before he transitioned into the role of president in 2010.

Her responsibilities at ACU include Financial Operations, Enrollment, Marketing, Student Life, and Facilities and Campus Management (including landscape and grounds, physical resources and construction). She also serves on the Senior Leadership Team and as a key liaison to the Board of Trustees.

“Allison has impressive academic and business experience,” said Schubert.

“Most importantly, she is a strong Christian woman who is passionate about transforming the lives of students.

ACU is fortunate to have such a talented individual to help advance our mission.”

Since 2007, Garrett had overseen OC’s three colleges, graduate studies, the registrar’s office, international programs, Honors, the student success program, the library, Institutional Research, and a faculty technical support group.

Previously, she was an executive with Walmart Stores Inc. for more than a decade and served on the faculty of the Faulkner University College of Law. She earned a bachelor’s degree from OC and has law degrees from the University of Tulsa and Georgetown University.

Garrett is a speaker at women’s events on a regular basis and has served on a number of boards, including her current role as board co-chair of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. 䊱

Drs. Edward (36 years) and Jane (21 years) Coates were longtime professors in the teacher education department at ACU. Edward died in September 2008.

programs do that with excellence Educators wanting to sharpen their but also show teachers how to influence skills, or earn the credentials needed to change and continue to navigate the become principals, have several options emerging technologies in ways that through ACU’s new online Master cause greater learning.” of Education program.

“Few universities focus on digital The program offers a 36-hour learning or hands-on experience the Master of Education in Curriculum way we do,” said Brandon Lemley (’07), and Instruction and a 39-hour Master director of graduate marketing at of Education in Leadership of Learning ACU. “We’re teaching the next wave (Principalship). Both degree plans of teachers to use these devices.” include a choice of two specializations.

The new programs dovetail with Students in the Curriculum and the university’s continued efforts to Instruction program can specialize explore how mobile in 21st-Century Learning, learning can transform which focuses on “Few universities focus the classroom. ACU research-based strategies on digital learning or has been a consultant and practices for teaching hands-on experience for the McAllen (Texas) and learning. Students in Independent School the Principalship program the way we do.

District’s TLC3 program can specialize in Conflict We’re teaching the Resolution for Educators, that has put Apple iPads next wave of teachers which includes identifying and iPod touches in the to use these devices.” and dealing with conflict hands of each of its 27,000 in educational settings. students and teachers.

– BRANDON LEMLEY Both M.Ed. degree The initiative is earning programs also offer a worldwide acclaim for concentration in Leadership of its work (see pages 50-55).

Digital Learning that explores ways to In July 2011, ACU launched the K-12 incorporate new digital devices such as Digital Learning Institute, which brings e-readers, tablets and smartphones into teachers to campus to train them to classroom instruction. Students also will use mobile technology to support their study how to identify problems in their curricula. They learn to experiment with school systems and develop solutions, mobile devices, using them to practice while integrating new digital devices new teaching techniques and help spark and learning techniques. student engagement and creativity.

“There is a difference in ‘having’ Both M.Ed. degree programs technology and ‘using’ technology to prepare graduates to immediately augment the learning process,” said take on leadership roles in school Scott Hamm (’92), mobile learning districts, sharing innovative approaches research director in ACU’s Adams to teaching and learning with Center for Teaching and Learning. their colleagues.

“There are a lot of programs teaching For more: acu.edu/education. 䊱 teachers how to teach. The ACU M.Ed.

New scholarship endowments created • Jenny (Ross) Bizaillion Memorial Endowed Scholarship • Dr. Samuel Caire Endowed Scholarship • Ed and Jane Coates Endowed Scholarship • Communication Department Endowed Scholarship • David and Debra Engle Endowed Scholarship • Robert J. and Mary Ann Hall Endowed Bible Scholarship • Virginia Heacock Endowed Business Scholarship • Dell Hopkins Endowed Scholarship • Logan-Young Endowed Scholarship • Marguerite and Roger W. Lyons Endowed Music Scholarship • Sandy Brown Mack Endowed Scholarship • Michelle McArtor Endowed Scholarship

• Faunie and T.J. Meek Endowed Scholarship • Karlyn Suanna Metz Endowed Scholarship • Emmett and Pat Miller Endowed Environmental Science Scholarship • Todd and Suzanne Miller Endowed Business Scholarship • Stone Family Endowed Basketball Scholarship • Timothy and Kimberly Polvado Endowed Scholarship • James B. Rives Jr. Endowed Engineering Scholarship • Gary and Millie Skidmore Endowed Business Scholarship • SPF Endowed Scholarship To contribute to or create an endowed scholarship, call Barbara (Tubbs ’71) Hejl at 325-674-2600.

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Wildcat SPORTS Faith on the fairways: Carpenter shares beliefs between shots “What’s your faith?”

It’s a little question that’s opened up some big conversations for ACU senior golfer Adam Carpenter. e Little Rock, Ark., native has played in more than 20 collegiate tournaments around the globe for the Wildcats’ nationally ranked team. Despite the highly competitive environment, he feels called to do more than participate in the requisite small talk as he and his group grind their way through 18 holes of golf.

“Five hours is a long time to kill each day, and since I’m playing against guys

For the latest, visit acusports.com and acusports.blogspot.com facebook.com/ACUsports twitter.com/ACUsports gplus.to/abilenechristian

from either public or private schools, I’ll casually ask them what their beliefs are,” said Carpenter, who is on this year’s roster alongside his twin brother, Alex, and younger sibling, Luke. “I feel that it’s a basically simple, unimposing question that helps me get to know these guys beyond their first names.”

One of the first times Carpenter inquired about an opponent’s faith, it was to a Taiwanese player he met at a tournament played during the summer before his sophomore year.

Carpenter asked the international student about his country’s main religion, and part of the player’s response involved going over to his golf bag and pulling out a glass box with a small golden

GARY RHODES

Adam Carpenter was a three-time Arkansas all-state player whose high school team won four state titles.

JEREMY ENLOW

Mosley named Under Armor Athletics Director of Year Jared Mosley (’00) was named NCAA Division II West Region Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year at this summer’s National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention.

Under Mosley’s leadership, the Wildcats have built one of the top athletics programs in the country. In his nine years, the Wildcats have won 10 NCAA Division II national championships, 20 regional titles and 42 Lone Star Conference championships.

ACU also has finished in the top four of the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup in five of Mosley’s seven years on the job, and ninth the other two years, including in 2011-12.

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statue, which he revealed to be his god.

“I found that extremely interesting and asked him to tell me more about his beliefs,” Carpenter said. “But then when I told him that my God could fit all of us in His hands, he fell silent for about 15 seconds before saying, ‘Wow.’ at was a true, goose-bump moment. I think he was really left amazed by what I had to share.”

Another, more intense, example of this icebreaking question’s profound effects took place in September at Abilene’s Diamondback Golf Club. It was there when Carpenter initiated a conversation with a golfer who had begun to question his faith after his family experienced the tragic loss of a loved one while on vacation. e young man had every reason to keep such matters private but instead shared a harrowing account of events in between shots. Carpenter listened to his opponent’s every word and later encouraged the young man to follow through on his goal of reading the Bible from cover to cover.

“I told him I thought that was a great idea,” Carpenter said, “but I also gave him some of my favorite verses, some of which are from the Book of James, which encourages us all to be active in our faith.”

Carpenter also finds inspiration in Philippians 4:6-7, which he thinks has some good advice for golfers, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“It’s so easy to make golf your everything, but Jesus calls us to find joy and hope in Him,” Carpenter said. “I often quote scripture when I’m struggling on the course, because it reminds me to be thankful for His creation and blessings.

It’s my hope that through our chats, others will begin to feel that way, too.”䊱

Two London Olympians join women’s track and field teams Elea Mariama Diarra of France and Reyare Thomas of Trinidad and Tobago – who transferred to ACU this fall – were both in London this summer for the 2012 Olympics, but neither was selected to run as part of their respective relay teams.

Olympic teams can have up to six athletes on a relay team in case of illness or injury, but only four can race at a time.

Diarra ran on the French 4x400 relay team that finished third last year at the world championships with a time of 3:31.73. Thomas was a three-time national junior college champion as a sophomore for Iowa Central Community College, which won the 2012 NJCAA indoor team championship. Thomas’ personal bests include 11.3 in the 100 and 23.36 in the 200.

Thirty-seven Wildcats have competed in Olympic track and field.

See Bonus Coverage at acu.edu/acutoday

Classic comeback thrills Cowboys Stadium crowd

JEREMY ENLOW

e Wildcats have been main eventers at the first two Lone Star Conference Football Festivals at Cowboys Stadium, and their deep Metroplex alumni base has shown up in force both times.

Close to 25,000 people were there in 2011 for ACU’s 23-17 loss to national power North Alabama, and 20,000 came back Sept. 15, 2012, to watch the Wildcats rally with 24 second-half points and stun Tarleton State, 34-31.

With the victory, Abilene Christian became just the sixth college football team in the state to win games at both Cowboys Stadium and the historic Cotton Bowl stadium, joining Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and Midwestern State. ACU’s win at the Cotton Bowl came in 2009, when it defeated Texas A&M-Commerce, 20-14, in overtime.

But now that ACU is on its way to the Southland Conference in 2013, it’s hard to predict when the Wildcats will again be invited to play in the Metroplex. at uncertainty made many fans appreciate the defining moments of a memorable comeback in one of the nation’s premier football venues.

ACU trailed by as many as 13 points late in the first half before a 27-yard Morgan Lineberry field goal made it a 20-10 game with 1:53 remaining, but the Texans appeared determined to score once more before halftime.

Tarleton drove to the ACU 16-yard line with about 20 seconds to spare. But on the next play, a Texan pass was tipped into the air by L.B. Suggs, and or Woerner – who earlier in the first half recovered a pooch kickoff with one hand – picked it off to keep the Wildcats’ deficit at just 10 points. “at was really a huge momentum shift, and we could feel it,” Suggs said.

“ey could have at least come away with three points, if not seven.” en at halftime came a prophetic pep talk from first-year head coach Ken Collums, who predicted his team was going to dominate Tarleton offensively, and that the defense was going to rise to the occasion.

“I didn’t anticipate being down at halftime, and things looked pretty bleak for us at times in the first half,” Collums said.

“But our guys fought and kept fighting.

I’m proud of them for getting it together and playing a cleaner second half.” e Wildcats’ first possession of the third quarter ended with a punt, but the team was quickly rejuvenated when Darian Hogg blocked a Texan punt that gave ACU the ball at the Tarleton 36-yard line. Five plays later, Travis Tarver scored on a seven-yard run, and on ACU’s next possession, Taylor Gabriel set up his go-ahead 6-yard touchdown catch with a 54-yard punt return. e two sides then exchanged field goals at the start of the fourth quarter, preserving ACU’s 27-23 lead with 9:35 to go.

Knowing their next possession would likely decide the game, the Wildcats produced an impressive six-minute drive covering 79 yards in 14 plays. ACU

Five more inducted to ACU Sports Hall of Fame Jackie (Bucher ’01) Washington, Paul Goad (’56), Bill Steen (’89) and Greg Stirman (’75) were inducted Oct. 19, 2012, into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame.

Former ACU basketball player and director of recreation Dub Winkles (’48) also was inducted as the 20th recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Washington – an honorable mention all-America who led the Wildcats to the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament in 1998-99 – recorded 29 career double-doubles and finished her three seasons as the 11th-leading scorer in ACU history (1,357 points) and 12th all-time leading rebounder (620 rebounds).

Goad lettered in football, baseball, and track and field for the Wildcats, transferring to ACU after his freshman year at Vanderbilt University. He won

converted all four third-down plays on the drive, which included a 14-yard pass from Mitchell Gale to Hogg and a 38-yard reception for DeMarcus ompson when the Wildcats faced third-and-18. ompson was pushed out of bounds at the Tarleton 13-yard line and after a sack of Gale dropped ACU back three yards, the preseason national Player of the Year completed a pass to Taylor over the middle and let him go to work. e agile Gabriel tried to cut back, but slipped and looked as if he were going to be stopped short of the goal line. But he dropped his hand down to keep his balance, popped up and leapt into the end zone for a 34-23 ACU lead.

Tarleton came right back with a touchdown and two-point conversion to pull within three points, but Woerner stepped up again, recovering the Texans’ onside kick so Abilene Christian could run out the clock on an epic come-from-behind victory.

“I had fun the entire game,” said Gale.

“I had more fun on the trip to that game than I did last year. is was my last season at ACU and I’ve been intentional about having fun with our guys. I’m not going to play football forever, and I wanted to be able to look back in 15 years and know that we played hard, and left it all out on the field.” 䊱

the Texas Conference title in the shot put in 1954 and was a member of ACU’s NAIA national championship track and field teams in 1954 and 1955. In football, Goad was ACU’s leading rusher and scorer in 1954, and in 1955 he was third team all-America.

Steen was a first team NCAA Division II all-America performer in 1989 after helping the Wildcats to a sixth-place team finish in their third straight appearance in the national tournament. He shot rounds of 74-76-77-76 to finish 10th in the individual standings in the tournament.

Stirman was a four-time all-LSC and academic all-America selection. During his career, the tight end was one of the Wildcats’ leading receivers, helping carry his team to the 1973 NAIA Division I national title. He still ranks 10th in ACU history with 1,934 receiving yards and fifth with 125 career catches.

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Sports ROUNDUP followed up their blistering opening round of 270 with another solid round of 5-under-par 279 to give them a two-round total of 549 and a 30-shot victory over St. Mary’s. ACU’s win was its first at its own tournament since 2006 and only the second at the Coody since winning it in 2002. Carpenter’s title was his 16th in 39 career collegiate starts. ACU also won the Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational in San Antonio, a 33-stroke victory over 11 other teams. Sophomore Corbin Renner was the medalist, his first win as a collegiate golfer.

C ro ss C ountr y • Chris Ward was hired Sept. 5 to be ACU’s head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach in charge of distance events. Ward comes to Abilene after spending three years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma City University.

• The Wildcats were led to the finish line by junior Alyse Goldsmith and freshman Xavier King through their first few meets of the 2012 season. Both Goldsmith and King finished as runners-up of the season-opening 5K and 8K races at the McMurry/Bill Libby Invitational.

JEREMY ENLOW JEREMY ENLOW

Fo ot ball • The Wildcats were picked to finish second in the Lone Star Conference in 2012 behind pre-season favorite and defending LSC champion Midwestern State. ACU welcomed more than 120 players at the start of summer camp, including 36 lettermen from last year’s 8-3 team that reached the NCAA Division II playoffs for the sixth straight season.

• Senior quarterback Mitchell Gale was selected as the Lone Star Conference’s Offensive Pre-season Player of the Year. The pre-season citation was Gale’s third of the summer as he earlier was named the NCAA Division II Offensive Player of the Year by Lindy’s magazine and the Beyond Sports Network. Gale and senior placekicker Morgan Lineberry were each selected pre-season first team all-America by the Beyond Sports Network, while junior wide receiver Taylor Gabriel was selected to the third team.

• ACU won its final NCAA Division II game played at Shotwell Stadium, upsetting 21st-ranked West Alabama in overtime, 22-16. Junior running back Darrell Cantu-Harkless had nine catches for 113 yards and his 14-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Mitchell Gale provided the Wildcats’ winning margin. ACU won both its games in the First-and-10 Challenge series between teams from the Lone Star and Gulf South conferences. Earlier in the year, the Wildcats defeated GSC member Delta State, 34-28, in Cleveland, Miss. Two ACU senior defensive backs – L.B. Suggs and Steven Ford – led an improved Wildcat defense. Sophomore defensive back Nick Richardson had seven sacks in a 51-0 season-opening win over McMurry University, tying a school record set in 1997.

S occer • Seniors Julie Coppedge and Arielle Moncure were each named first team Capital One Academic all-District 6 by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Moncure is a first-time CoSIDA honoree, while Coppedge has earned this award each of the last two years.

JEREMY ENLOW

Volleyball • The American Volleyball Coaches Association listed ACU among its recipients of the 2011-12 AVCA Team Academic Award. The Wildcats were just one of three LSC universities to receive the award, which honors collegiate teams maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. ACU placed a majority of its 2011 roster on the LSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and claimed Borja Cortés five spots on the league’s all-academic team, led by senior scholar-athlete and LSC Academic Player of the Year Jennie (Hutt) Weathery.

• Junior Caley Johnson was among eight NCAA Division II volleyball players named for the second consecutive year to the Capital One Academic all-District 6 first team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Johnson is an accounting major with a 4.0 grade-point average.

Golf • The Wildcats began Fall 2012 with a No. 13 ranking from the Golf World / Nike Golf NCAA Division II coaches’ poll, but moved up to No. 3 by late October.

• Senior all-America Alex Carpenter and the Wildcats stormed to the individual and team championships at the season-opening Charles Coody West Texas Intercollegiate hosted at Abilene’s Diamondback Golf Club. The Wildcats

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Alyse Goldsmith

L.B. Suggs

M e n’s Te nnis • Junior Hans Hach received the James O’Hara Sargent Sportsmanship Award at the USTA / ITA National Small College Championships in November 2012. The award, which is presented by Rolex Watch, USA, goes to players who display outstanding sportsmanship and exemplify the spirit of college tennis. Hach finished as the tournament’s runner-up after falling, 6-2, 6-2, to the nation’s No. 1 singles player, Georgi Rumenov of Armstrong Atlantic.

• At the USTA/ITA South Central Regional Championships, hosted by ACU in late September, Hach won his third consecutive singles title followed by a second doubles championship. Hach first defeated Cameron University’s Nicolai Ferrigno in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and then paired with sophomore Borja Cortés to upset top-seeded Bruno Tiberti and Martin Poboril of Oklahoma Christian University, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6.

• The Wildcats will begin the Spring 2013 season ranked 11th in the nation by ITA. Hach is ranked No. 2 in singles and No. 3 in doubles with Cortés.

Wo me n’s Te nnis • Freshman Kaysie Hermsdorf and senior Laura Mongin won the doubles main draw at New Mexico State University, 9-7, over the Tarleton State University team of Alicia Perez and Karla Martinez. Hermsdorf won a second major title the following weekend at the Kansas Invitational after going 3-0 in the G Singles Draw.

• Senior Julia Mongin earned her third straight USTA / ITA South Central Regional singles championship after defeating St. Mary’s Mariana Rong, 6-0, 6-1. The native of Jaunay-Clan, France, also won her second doubles title in three years, after she and sophomore teammate Brittney Reed doubled up Oklahoma Christian University’s Barbora Bozkova and Angie Torres, 6-3, 6-3.

• The Wildcats will begin the spring 2013 season ranked third in the nation according to the ITA, behind Armstrong Atlantic and BYU-Hawai’i. Julia Mongin is ranked fifth in singles and fourth in doubles with sophomore Reed.

M e n’s Ba sk e tb a ll • Year two of the Joe Golding era began Oct. 25, 2012, when ACU faced national Division I powerhouse Baylor University in an exhibition game for the second straight year in Waco. The Bears prevailed, 103-75.

• Golding bolstered his coaching staff in the off-season with the additions of John Fowler and Cooper Schmidt.

Fowler is one of two graduate assistant coaches, along with Jaret von Rosenberg, while Schmidt serves as ACU’s director of basketball operations. Guard Desmond Woodberry is the only returning Wildcat from last year’s team. He has been joined by five high school recruits, junior college standout Cornelius Cammock and six senior transfers, five of whom have NCAA Division I experience.

Wome n’s B a sk e tb a ll • Julie Goodenough’s first game as ACU head coach was a 94-66 win Nov. 10 against Texas A&M-International in Moody Coliseum. Goodenough’s coaching staff includes assistant Jarod Newland, who served as her recruiting coordinator for two years at Charleston Southern University, and former Campbell University player Katelyn Bass, who serves as a graduate assistant coach. The 2012-13 roster features eight players from last year’s team, including third-team all-America Mackenzie Lankford. 䊱

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EX PERIENCES Submit your news online at blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/experiences or use the EXperiences card in each issue of the magazine.

Deadlines: ACU Today is published three times a year. Because of printing deadlines, your news could be delayed by one issue.

Births and adoptions: Please indicate whether the addition to your family is a boy or girl.

Marriages: Remember to indicate the date and place of your marriage.

In Memoriam: A member of the deceased’s immediate family should submit this notification. Please include class year for all former ACU students in the family.

1954

1961

Dr. Jack Scott retired Sept. 1 as chancellor of California’s community colleges. He and his wife, Lacreta, have returned to their home in the Pasadena area.

Maurice “Woody” Peterson won the 2004 state men’s doubles senior tennis championship in San Antonio, with Lynn Gordon. 1501 N. 1st Street, #211, Grand Junction, CO 81501.

Jack and Glenda (Riggs ’62) Fry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Feb. 17, 2012. 8800 The Briers Court, Granbury, TX 76049.

Dr. Elton Higgs has self-published a collection of poetry, Collected Poems, on Lulu.com. 1640 Cascade Court, Jackson, MI 49203. ehiggs@umich.edu

1957 Gerry (Rogers) Flewharty lost her husband, Louis H. Flewharty, April 14, 2012. He served on the board at Boles Children’s Home and as a deacon at the Highland Oaks Church of Christ. 9830 Shadydale Lane, Dallas, TX 75238.

Bacon’s assistant coaches at ACHS also were ACU students: Colby Carr (’12) and Nick Smith (’12).

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The Class of 1963 will celebrate its Golden Anniversary Reunion on campus, April 18-19, 2013.

1964 Larry and Ginger (Moore) Myers are looking forward to their 50th wedding anniversary June 29, 2013.

3500 County Road 201, Liberty Hill, TX 78642.

1966 Glenda (VanZandt) Stroud lost her husband of 42 years, Carl Ray Stroud, June 1, 2010, as a result of complications from a spinal injury in June 2009.

951 Festival Drive, Houston, TX 77062. gstroud@swbell.net

1967 Amy (Bailey) Bissell retired from Dillards in January 2012 after 26 years. She was named an Outstanding Woman of Pueblo and a Distinguished Alumna of Girl Scouts in 2012. 216 Fordham Circle, Pueblo, CO 81005. amybissell@yahoo.com James and Charlotte (Smith) Wade have retired to Asheville, N.C., after 16 years in the Washington, D.C. area. 1 Mave Lane, Biltmore Lake, NC 28715. charlotte.wade@verizon.net

LINDSEY COTTON

Most university students have a part-time job to help pay bills, provide spending money or gain experience in their future profession.

August 2012 graduate Michael Bacon (’12) actually works three part-time jobs, yet found a way in March to take the concept to a whole new level.

In his spare time, the 22-year-old son of journalism chair and professor Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon (’76) was head coach of Abilene Christian Schools’ 2011-12 boys basketball team. Not only did he get his head coaching feet wet, but led the team to its first Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools basketball state title in 30 years.

Only four years removed from playing for the Panthers himself, Bacon was assisted by ACU seniors Colby Carr and Nick Smith. Michael was an ACHS assistant the previous season, but the school just up Judge Ely Boulevard from ACU offered him the top job when its head coach left.

Bacon’s experience-rich adventure included tutoring and even doing the team’s laundry, but ended in a 25-4 record for the Panthers, and helped him earn an “A” in his Fundamentals of Coaching class this spring, taught by Deonna (Shake ’86) Moore.

During football season, Bacon is a sideline reporter on the Wildcat sports radio network.

ACU NEWSMAKERS

PAUL BRYAN

Although she retired from full-time work in 2007, Charlene Ricketts really called it a career in September 2012, leaving behind 45 years of service to ACU, most of it as administrative coordinator for Dr. Robert D. Hunter (’52). at busy tenure included Hunter’s 10 terms as a Texas state representative and a decade as president of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas. Her ability to calmly keep up with Hunter’s whirlwind working style was legendary.

my corner and fighting.” Poe laughed: “It surprises a lot of people that Janice and I are friends, and I don’t know who it bothers more, the Republicans or the Democrats.”

ACU’s Teacher of the Year for 2012 was Dr. Andrew Little (’97), assistant professor of marketing. Outstanding Staff of the Year were residential services coordinator Tracy Wetsel and campaign coordinator Rendi (Young ’83) Hahn, the Unsung Servant Award went to Karen Viertel, coordinator of student services in the College of Business Administration, and the John C. Stevens Award was presented to Barbara Wilson, administrative coordinator in the Department of Marriage and Family Studies.

J. Michael Hall (’89) was honored at the White House in June 2012 as one of 10 Fatherhood Champions of Change. e honor is awarded by the Office of Public Engagement and the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He is president and founder of Strong FathersStrong Families, LLC, in Fort Worth.

Professor of political science Dr. David Dillman (’71) and senior Rebecca Dial attended the recent Democratic National Convention. Dillman has volunteered at every DNC except one since 1980, and assists featured speakers.

Dial, who is 2012-13 president of the ACU Students’ Association, was one of nine Texas representatives on the Credentials Committee. Dillman PAUL WHITE arranged for her to meet Vice President Joe Biden and San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, among other dignitaries.

ACU’s two alumni in Congress – Texas Rep. Ted Poe (’70) and California Rep. Janice Hahn (’74) – had a busy day on campus Sept. 26, 2012, speaking four times to various groups, including a Forum on Civil Discourse and Christian Faith that attracted hundreds of students. Poe, a Republican, and Hahn, a Democrat, are teaming on legislation to improve port security around the nation. Hahn sought out Poe when she arrived in Washington.

“I said, ‘We’re both graduates of ACU. I think we should be friends, I think we should work together, and I think there are so many things we can agree on,’” Hahn told students. “I’m going to get more accomplished for this country by making friends than I am staying in

David Smith (’05), operations manager for 89.7 KACU-FM, was named one of radio’s up-and-comers by Radio Ink magazine. Known on air as D. Grant Smith, he is host of the popular syndicated show spotlighting indie music, “e Appetizer.”

Dr. Mimi (Simons ’81) Barnard has been named assistant provost for interdisciplinary studies and global education at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

Wylie ISD for 26 of his 33 years in the district, was added in August 2012 to the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor. His Wylie football teams have made the state playoffs 19 of the last 20 years, played in the 3A state final three times, and won it in 2004. He has been president of the Texas High School Football Coaches Association, and received ACU’s Distinguished Alumni Citation in 2006.

Dr. Don B. Wilmeth (’61) was presented the 2012 eatre Museum Award for eatre History Preservation. e award is one of four given annually by the eatre Museum in New York City.

Wilmeth is the Asa Messer Professor Emeritus and emeritus professor of theatre and English at Brown University.

Danny and LeRuth (Reed ’64) Stewart were honored at the Texas Hereford Association’s annual meeting in January 2012 at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. The Reed and Stewart Ranch, which spreads across Sterling, Howard and Kindergarten teacher Stacy Bryan (’01) Mitchell counties in Texas, was established received a First Class Teacher award from in 1889. Danny is director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers’ U.S. Rep. Hahn U.S. Rep. Poe Association.

In April 2012, Gov. Rick Perry named Billy R. Bradford Jr. (’81) of Brownsville to chair the Texas Water Development Board. He is a CPA and partner at Hales-Bradford LLP, chair of the Valley Regional Medical Center Board of Governors and past chair of the Southmost Regional Water Authority.

the Mesquite ISD. She was one of the Texas district’s 200 new hires in 2011, and one of 20 honored.

Tarleton State University women’s basketball coach Ronnie Hearne (’71) won his 1,000th game in January 2012. He is a member of the ACU Sports Hall of Fame.

Dr. Billy Wilbanks (’63) was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame in May 2012. Wilbanks was a three-sport star who led Belton High School to the 1958 Class 2A state title.

Former ACU women’s basketball head coach Shawna Lavender (M.Ed. ’01) has been named director of basketball operations at Southern Methodist University.

Hugh Sandifer (’77), head football coach and athletics director at Abilene’s

e most recent film project for production designer Nelson Coates (’84) is Flight, a drama by director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump and Cast Away), starring Denzel Washington. Coates also is production designer for Guilt Trip, a comedy opening in December starring Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen.

Karen (Gaskin ’93) Witemeyer’s book, To Win Her Heart, won the 2012 Holt Medallion award for Best Long Inspirational Romance from the Romance Writers of America, and the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award in the category of Long Historical Romance.

In June 2012, Chris Monroe (’89) was named treasurer of Southwest Airlines. He oversees capital markets, cash management and investing, fuel hedging, corporate insurance and other financial details for the company and its 39,000 employees.

Monroe has a B.B.A. in finance from ACU. AC U TO D AY

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Audrey Ruth Miles, daughter of Casey (’03) and Tenille (McDonald ’03) Miles of Fort Worth, Texas.

Samuel Louis Keyes and Larkin Keyes Young, son of Darren (’00) and Julia Keyes of Fort Worth, Texas, and daughter of Brandon (’97) and Jana (Keyes ’96) Young of Abilene, Texas.

Autumn Pierce and Adeleine Maloney, daughters of Jordan (’05) and Laura (Maloney ’05) Pierce of Keller, Texas, and Chris (’03) and Christina (Anderson ’03) Maloney of Lindale,Texas.

Andrew Loe, son of Greg (’94) and Valerie (Osburn ’95) Loe of Friendswood, Texas.

Michael James Watson, son of Allen (’06) and Casey (Thomas ’07) Watson of Carrollton, Texas.

Brylee Brokaw, daughter of Bryan (’05) and Jamie (Stoniecki ’05) Brokaw of Wylie, Texas.

Britton James, son of Sam and Traci (Nix ’05) James of Fort Worth, Texas.

Eisley Gray, daughter of Warren (’06) and Ashley (Moore ’08) Gray of Hunstville, Texas.

Audrey Damron, daughter of Justin and Maggie (Rogers ’04) Damron of Dimmitt, Texas.

Eliza Dishman, daughter of Cody (’04) and Chez (Parker ’04) Dishman of Cedar Park, Texas.

Brynna Swart, daughter of Dustin and Sarah (McCollough ’03) Swart of McKinney, Texas.

Ezra Saab, son of Maher (’07) and Maria (del Pinal ’07) Saab of Fort Worth, Texas.

Cale Thomas Sessions, son of David (’05) and Kristin (Newbill ’05) Sessions of Franklin, Tenn.

Beckett Brooks, son of Taylor (’08) and Sarah (Sparks ’09) Brooks of Keller, Texas.

Anna Ratliff, daughter of Phillip and Heather (Trietsch ’01) Ratliff of Abilene, Texas.

Chaney Myers, daughter of Jason and Ashli (Hobbs ’03) Myers of Abilene, Texas.

Graham Burns, son of Clint (’04) and Kat (Graham ’05) Burns of Altus, Okla.

Ellie Kay Gallagher, daughter of Jace (’07) and Heather (Weems ’07) Gallagher of Katy, Texas.

Connor Blessing, son of Cliff (’03) and Allison (Sevier ’05) Blessing of Dallas, Texas.

Shelby Jane Nieland, daughter of Zach (’03) and Melissa (Weaver ’03) Nieland of Belton, Texas.

Bishop Aidan Brown, son of Lewis (’95) and Elisa (Franco ’98) Brown of Amarillo, Texas.

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BORN TO BE A WILDCAT

LINDSEY COTTON

The Alumni Association will send a FREE Wildcat BabyWear T-shirt to the alumni parents of each newborn or adopted infant in your family!

Complete the EXperiences news card and mail it to us, or complete the info online at blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/experiences.

In-focus, high-resolution digital images (minimum file size of 500kb; use your camera’s highest quality setting) of alumni children wearing their Wildcat BabyWear should be emailed to babywear@acu.edu.

All will appear on the alumni website at acu.edu/alumni and the best will be printed in EXperiences. Call 800-373-4220 for more information.

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

Brooklyn Kennedy Carroll, daughter of Don (’92) and Tianay (Chambers) Carroll of Coppell, Texas.

Heath Nathan Sanders, son of Nathan and Shelly (Weed ’99) Sanders of Abilene, Texas.

Talia Piper Hutchings, daughter of Briant Leslie (Pickett ’04) Hutchins of Chesterfield, Va.

Julianna McBride, daughter of Donnie (’02 M.A.) and April (Ewing ’97) McBride of Norman, Okla.

Bailey Crowell, daughter of Travis (’07) and Hilary (Vick ’07) of Bedford, Texas.

Kellen Whitelaw, son of Kevin (’97) and Sara (Keathley ’97) Whitelaw of Colorado Springs, Colo.

Hope Ryanne Rogers, daughter of Mark (’03) and Jen (Barker ’03) Rogers of Abilene, Texas.

Gwenyth Reese Weckerly, daughter of Joel (’04) and Deborah (Koctar ’05) Weckerly of Cypress, Texas.

Camdyn Cawyer, daughter of Chase (’08) and Taryn (Chisholm ’07) Cawyer of Temple, Texas.

Olivia Nicole Crowe, daughter of Loren and Erin (Matthews ’04) Crowe of Houston, Texas.

Campbell Webb, daughter of Evan and Shaylee (Busch ’07) Webb of Austin, Texas.

Daisy Wilson, daughter of Brandon and Madison (Hirt ’12) Wilson of Katy, Texas.

Jonah Prysock, son of David (’06) and Stephanie (York ’06) Prysock of Fort Worth, Texas.

I cannot believe it has been 20 years.

It almost seems like yesterday that the class of 1992 walked across the stage in Moody in our caps and gowns, ready for the next stage of our lives.

We went many different directions but continued on our journeys together because of the relationships formed during our years as Wildcats.

The memories return of our times together. Dorm life, Welcome Week, roommates on Westheimer, Tuesday Night Devos, intramurals, Chapel, and Spring Break Campaigns were just some of our experiences.

Pledging, S.A., Sadie Hawkins’ Week, studying at the Kettle, big glasses and big hair, and being eyeballs at Sing Song are some others that take us back two decades. Our four years were full of events, people, learning and opportunity. Professors and mentors taught us, believed in us, challenged us, loved us, prayed for us and entrusted ACU’s mission to us so we, too, can make a real difference in the world.

Our 20th reunion at Homecoming in October 2012 was a wonderful opportunity to get back together for a special weekend and to reconnect while strengthening and renewing friendships. Our families enjoyed meeting so our children could see those relationships that began at ACU in 1988 and watch us re-engage with those who have influenced us to this day. It’s rewarding when we can ensure our families appreciate what Abilene Christian can provide them in the future. Eight other classes had a reunion this October as well, each carrying their own memories with them.

We always look forward to sharing special days like these with you, making you feel at home once more, creating opportunities for you to relive the moments that make a quality college education worthwhile.

The golf tournament, carnival, JamFest, fireworks, parade, Chapel, football game, musical, reunion dinners and other events fill the weekend calendar each October, but the truth is, all we need is you. 䊱 – CRAIG FISHER (’92) Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Projects

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SERVING YOU ADVANCING ACU

DALLAS AREA

FORT WORTH AREA Brent Barrow • URM 817-946-5917, brent.barrow@acu.edu Will Beasley • AC – Tarrant, Johnson and Hood Counties 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 wab06a@acu.edu Lance Rieder • AO 325-674-6080, lance.rieder@acu.edu

HOUSTON AREA Carri Hill • URM 713-582-2123 • carri.hill@acu.edu Lauryn Lewis • AC 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 lauryn.lewis@acu.edu Eric Fridge • AO 713-483-4004, eric.fridge@acu.edu

AUSTIN AREA Tunisia Singleton • URM – Austin / Central Texas 512-450-4329 • tunisia.singleton@acu.edu Natalie Fleet • AC – Austin, Central Texas 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 natalie.fleet@acu.edu

SAN ANTONIO AREA LaDonna Wilson • URM – San Antonio, South Texas 210-410-9014 • ladonna.wilson@acu.edu John Mark Moudy • AC – San Antonio, South Texas 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 johnmark.moudy@acu.edu Josh Clem • AO – San Antonio, South Texas 210-573-2475, josh.clem@acu.edu

WEST TEXAS AREA Cassie Baumann • AC 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 cassie.baumann@acu.edu Mark Rogers • AO 325-674-2669, mark.rogers@acu.edu

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fighting against the tide, but the culture of ACU is so supportive.” As Wilson begins her second year as a URM, she wants to spread the word about that culture to prospective students and parents, and help alumni tap into the connections offered by the Abilene Christian network. 䊱 – KATIE NOAH GIBSON

AUSTIN AREA facebook.com/ACUAustin • Gilbert Tuhabonye (’01) and his Gazelle Foundation sponsored Run for the Water, 5K and 10K races for more than 4,000 participants Oct. 27 that provided a rallying point for Hill Country alumni.

Proceeds went to developing clean water for people in Tuhabonye’s native Burundi.

A pre-race party the night before attracted more than 70 runners and fans, including ACU track and field stars Andrew Bynum, Baptiste Kerjean and Chloe Sussett, and Elea Mariama Diarra, who represented France in the 2012 London Olympics. Mike Mayeux (’87) grilled fajitas for the pre-race party and Tuhabonye spoke passionately about his love for his foundation and his alma mater.

He also was the featured Chapel speaker back on campus on Sept. 11, 2012.

• The Wildcat Caravan stopped at Saltgrass Steak House on July 17, 2012, where fans had lunch with head football coach Ken Collums, men’s head basketball coach Joe Golding (’99) and women’s head basketball coach Julie Goodenough, and other athletics staff members. Those present included Doug Bryant (’87), Delia Cantu-Harkless, Mike Carr (’90), Terry Childers (’74), Josh Clem, Aaron Dennington (’99), Albert Dennington (’71), Charis Dishman (Dillman ’02), Ty Dishman (’02), Abigail Dunagan (‘08), Ryan Dunagan (’08), Ken Gates (’82), Tom Hagan, Brian Jackson (’87), Randy Johnson, Geneva Johnson (’64), Casey Kelley (’03), Blaine Martin (’09), Mike Mayeux (’87), Bill McClellan (’81), Celeste Scarborough (’86), Todd Self (’93), Mark Shewmaker (’96), Brian Thrift (’06), Brooks Thrift and Brad VanStavern (’96).

• Alumni and Friends Luncheon speakers in recent months have included Tim Johnston (’80), assistant dean of ACU’s College of Business Administration and School of Information Technology, and Darbie Angell (’03), founder of CRU Dinnerware.

• Archie and Carol Johnson volunteered their home as the site of an Aug. 8, 2012, Send-Off Party in honor of 21 Austin-area freshmen. Co-hosts were Gary (’85) and Lisa (Crumley ’87) Shake and Gary (’85) and Bonny (Spoonts ’85) Jones.

• Bill (’81) and Jan (Seaberg ’82) McClellan, Jim (’82) and Dana (Hodde ’81) Jones and Scott (’93) and Sandy (Miller ’92) Ferguson hosted a Purple and White Party on Oct. 3 that attracted more than 100 interested students and parents.

• ACU Moms in Austin began meeting in September 2012 to get to know each other better, support and pray for their students. At the December meeting they will

HOLLY REED

Toni Young • URM 214-402-5183, toni.young@acu.edu Craig Rideout • AC – Collin, Denton, Wise and Parker counties 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 craig.rideout@acu.edu Lara Jenkins • AC – Dallas, Rockwall, Ellis and Kaufman counties 325-674-2650 / 800-460-6228 lara.jenkins@acu.edu Lance Rieder • AO 325-674-6080, lance.rieder@acu.edu

LaDonna Wilson is a relative newcomer to the ACU community: she has worked as a university relations manager for a little more than a year. But this Harding University graduate, minister’s daughter and mom of a rising junior says she loves working with the alumni community in the San Antonio area.

“We have a strong foundation in place here,” Wilson says. “San Antonio alumni are a tremendous support.”

Wilson says she “stepped into a full calendar” in September 2011, taking over from Tunisia (Sekhon ’81) Singleton so Singleton could focus her efforts on the Austin area. Attendance at San Antonio alumni luncheons has doubled over the past year, partly due to the introduction of speakers such as Steve Green (’77) and others. Additional events include a Wildcat Caravan event this summer that drew 46 people and a Basketball Bash at University of the Incarnate Word where ACU’s 250 supporters drowned out their opponents.

Between school visits, college fairs, parent groups and talking with area school counselors and ministers, Wilson says the job is “multitasking mania,” but she’s enjoying the ride. “We’re having a ball,” she says.

Wilson also has a broad network of connections in the Corpus Christi area, where she lived for 21 years. She has hosted several recruiting events there, seeing a jump in applications from Corpus Christi and South Texas. More than a tenth of this year’s freshman class hails from either San Antonio or South Texas, a testament to the efforts of Wilson, her partners Josh Clem of the Advancement office and John Mark Moudy (’04) of the Office of Admissions, and the tireless collaboration of parents and alumni in the area. “is is a warm and supportive group of people,” Wilson says. “ey are supportive of our students – they hire many of them and ACU’s recent alumni. ey also are tremendously supportive of our events, from planning to bringing in food to spreading the word to cleanup.”

As the parent of a current student, Wilson brings a different perspective to recruiting events than many recruiters and admissions counselors.

“I talk about the growth of my son and what I’ve seen happening in his life as a result of the ACU culture,” she says. “ere are a lot of places where he’d be LINDSEY COTTON

Do you want to recommend a prospective student, volunteer, host an event or just learn more about how you can be involved with ACU where you live?

To help foster relationships with alumni and future students, ACU has assigned personnel from its Advancement and Admissions offices to major markets in Texas.

A university relations manager (URM) focuses on establishing relationships with churches and schools, an admissions counselor (AC) reaches out to future students and their parents, and an advancement officer (AO) assists prospective donors who can contribute funds to ACU. Through this territory team approach, these dedicated professionals can provide exceptional service to those who contribute so graciously to ACU’s mission and 21st-Century Vision.

LaDonna Wilson has San Antonio buzzing over ACU

prepare care packages to be delivered to students on campus before finals. ACU Moms have included Terra (Hardin ’82) Brimberry, Carmen (Andrews ’85) Plunk, Ronnie (Ormsby ’87) Patterson, Sandra (Wilson ’73) Towler, Vicki (Rushing ’74) Dennington, Kay (Huff ’75) Taylor, Julie (Ward ’82) Metscher, Pam Bush, Gwyn Baird, Lezlie Henry, Sandy Hernandez, Tanya Kirby, Roxanne Lindholm, Wendy Onken, Teresa Turner and Alicia Stennett, whose daughter will be an ACU freshman in Fall 2013.

ACU Moms past, present and future are invited.

DALLAS AREA facebook.com/ACUDallas • Toni (Hale ’84) Young began work Oct. 29, 2012, as the university relations manager for the Dallas area.

Young has been head of school the past eight years at North Texas Christian Academy in McKinney. Her two daughters, Heather and April, are ACU students.

• The Wildcat Caravan had two meal events in the Dallas area for fans hungry for ACU athletics news. A lunch at Maggiano’s restaurant in Dallas on July 18, 2012, included Jim Barnett (’78), Corey Cheek (‘92), Cliff Compton (‘03), Kyle Conway (’98), Kris Covey, Brad Moore (’99), Johnny Patterson (’62), Joel Quile (’04), Scott Seale (’86), Cameron Watten (’11) and Trey Watten (’09). A breakfast meeting the next morning at Stonebridge Ranch Country Club in McKinney included Matt Allen (’05), Richard Beasley, Bryan Brokaw (’05), Greg Brooke (’78), Alan Copeland II (’10), Justin Frazier(‘95), Jim Orr (’86), Greg Pirtle (’98), David Schubert (’84) and Christopher Shim (’11).

• About 100 people particated in the ninth annual Rachel Blasingame Memorial Golf Tournament on May 14, 2012, at Buffalo Creek Golf Club in Rockwall, benefitting scholarships for another 10 ACU students this fall. Guy (’79) and Julie (Grasham ’80) Blasingame’s daughter, Rachel, who died in a car accident in 2003, would have been an ACU student.

FORT WORTH AREA facebook.com/ACUFtworth • The Wildcat Caravan‘s last road trip stop for the summer was at Joe T. Garcia’s restaurant on July 19, 2012. Those present included Shay Aldriedge (’10), David Amend, Starlyn (Thomas ’86) Barrow, DJ Bulls (’04), James Cobb (’54), Jeff Craig (’82), Don Davis, Jeff Dickinson, Terry Ferguson, Roy Fitts (’73), Jenny Freytag (’87), Kassidy Freytag, Kenneth Greene (’59), Ben Hamilton (’09), Dale Hart, Jason Hooper, Suzan Jenkins (’74), Paula Jones, Randy McCall (’76), Dustin Miller, Greg Miller (’79), Paul (’79) and Laura (Laman ’82) Motes, Mike O’Brien, Chris Paul (’71), Doug Peters (’90), Donna Ray (’80), Charles (’66) and Karen (Young ’70) Reynolds, Charles Richardson (’61), Harold (’69) and Belinda Scott, Chris Semprun, Darryn Shearmire (’86), Jerry Stephens, Stan Stephens (’89), Craig Stone (’85), Allen Tappe (’84) and Rick Wessel (’81).

• Eleven alumni helped host a Send-Off Party on Aug. 12, 2012, at the home of Doug (’83) and Jayne (Montgomery ’83) Orr for 89 freshmen headed to Abilene this fall.

• Two Purple and White Parties were held this fall, one at North Davis Church of Christ, hosted by Scott (’83) and Debbie (Beebe ’83) Souder and other volunteers for more than 140 people. Another was attended by more than 40 at the home of Dub (’74) and Val Stocker.

• The second annual Lone Star Football Festival at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington also was the site of a pre-game party Sept. 15, 2012.

ACU defeated Tarleton State University in a thrilling game.

(See pages 8-9.)

and The Steamboat House. Attendees included Michael and Kimberly Ales, Hosea Bassey (’03), Adam Brennen (’04), Jason Campbell (’05), Austin Cunningham (’03), Dr. Frank and Sara (Offutt ’65) Eggleston, Linda Evans (’94), Rick McCall (’81), Josh Parrott (’04), Alan Scott (’78), Matthew Sloan (’16), Ed Williamson (’70) and James Wright (’09) were present. At Steamboat House, Jason Hardcastle (’01), Jan Hart (Church ’84), Josh Howell (’01), Josh Lively (’06) and Audrey Maxwell-Lively (’09), Atruro Marquez, Richard Matthews (’67), Brian Smith (’01), and Joel (’04) and Deborah (Koctar ’05) Weckerly were in attendance.

• Local Purple and White parties for 73 students and their families were hosted in the homes of Colter (’95) and Elizabeth (Mitchen ’96) Lewis and Dr. Guy (’80) and Holly (Hollingsworth ’80) Lewis. Other alumni who were present to talk to students included Dr. Royce (’64) and Pam (Handy ’65) Money, Drs. Dave (’98) and Amy (Berry ’95) Fuller, and Kelsey Crane.

• Area Wildcat fans are enjoying the big season former ACU star safety Danieal Manning (’07) is having with this year’s top NFL team, the Houston Texans.

Kelly, Janet (White ’84) Niederhofer, Ellen (Gilliam ’83) Abshier, Brenda Bujan and Jessica Gum. ACU Moms – past, present and future – are invited.

• A Purple and White Party on Oct. 1, 2012, at Oak Hills North Central attracted more than 130 future students and their parents. Hosts included Herb and Jennifer (England ’85) Allen, Cecil (’71) and Judi (Hines ’87 M.F.T.) Eager, Ross and Valinda (McAlister ’81) Bacon, Tom (’80) and Dee Brite, and Chris (’06) and Danielle (Lough ’07) Lair.

• More than 60 people attended a Send-Off Party for 16 ACU freshmen Aug. 11, 2012, at the home of ACU trustee Alan Rich ('86) and his wife, Janice (Harris ’88). Hosts were Steve Mack (’82), Preston Woolfolk (’10) and Chris (’87) and Mary Beth (deSteiguer ’88) Cuevas.

• Each Saturday at 2 p.m., Christian Guerra (’06) and Hunter Woolfolk (’09) co-host San Antonio Rising Stars, a radio show on KLUP 930 AM highlighting the best and brightest professionals under age 40 in San Antonio. Their program has featured ACU alumni Jennifer (England ’85) Allen and Leon McNeil (’93).

SAN ANTONIO AREA

Freshmen practice the WC while getting ready for ACU at Send-Off Parties in (from top) Austin, Houston and Waco.

facebook.com/ACUSanAntonio • Ross and Valinda (McAlister ’81) Bacon’s generosity made the Greater San Antonio Builders Association the dinner site for the Wildcat Caravan on July 17, 2012.

Others present included ACU trustee Alan Rich (’86) and daughter Addie, ACU trustee Steve Mack (’82) and his son Will, Jaime Arizpe (’08), Kerry Cole (’87), Chris Cuevas (’87), Joy (McAlister ’84) Dillenbeck and her son Wade, Ken and Linda Duke, Cecil (’71) and Judi (Hines ’87 M.F.T.) Eager, Larry Hobbs (’69), Doug and Teri McKenzie, Jim (’83) and Debbie (Dorsey ’83) McKissick, Ronnie Nipper, Terri Roewe, Doug Sehres, Tyler Truax (’10), Andrew Voiles (’09), Robert Saenz and his daughter Katherine, and Preston Woolfolk (’10).

• Recent monthly Wildcat Wednesday luncheons have featured alumni speakers such as Tim Johnston (’80), assistant dean of ACU’s College of Business Administration and School of Information Technology; Dr. Lynn Anderson (D.Min. ’90), author, minister, ACU adjunct professor and founder of the San Antonio-based Hope Network Ministries; certified financial planners Russell Harrison (’86) and Randy Boggs (’82), both vice presidents at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney; Steve Mack (’82), ACU trustee and CEO of Texas Heritage Bank; and Cecil Eager (’71), former ACU tennis coach and athletics director.

• ACU Moms in South Texas were hosted by Beth (Scantland ’88) Woolfolk and Cheryl (George ’77) Green, meeting together to fellowship and pray for their students. In November, San Antonio Moms prepared care packages for students that were hand-delivered to campus by mom Dayna Cartwright. Attendees have included Leslie McFadden, Joanna (Gomez ’87) Anderson, Lori Davis, Lisa (Gomez ’89) Powell, Angie Ramseur, Gina (Gomez ’85) Harrison, Sonya

dents rode a ch Fifty-one future stu

tion to Abilene on and College Sta arter bus from Houst r-day ACU Bound visit as VIPs. fou in November for a

HOUSTON AREA facebook.com/ACUHouston • The Wildcat Caravan featured lunch and dinner meetings July 16, 2012. At Canyon Cafe

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1968 Sherry Chessir Irvin climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in January 2012. 6329 Sewanee Avenue, Houston, TX 77005. sherryclimbsmountains@gmail.com

1969 Scott Waltman retired Feb. 29 from full-time ministry after 40 years, 25 of which were spent at the RiverWalk Church of Christ in Wichita, Kan. His wife, Jana (Van Eaton ’70), retired from her job as a legal administrator in December 2011. They plan to move to South Carolina. 244 N. Summitlawn, Wichita, KS 67212. swaltman@cox.net

Jon-Michael and Allison Clark. 3209 Bridlegate Drive, Arlington, TX 76016.

1975 Karen (Lykins) Fitzpatrick earned her M.A. in marriage and family therapy from Amridge University in August 2011. She works as a therapist for elementary school children in Asheville, N.C. 44 W. Fairway Drive, Etowah, NC 28729. karen@beverly-hanks.com Claudia (Tabor) Williams retired in May 2011 after 34 years of teaching and moved from New Mexico to Colorado. 24841 E. Ontario Drive, Aurora, CO 80016. ctabwill@gmail.com

1976

1971 Ron (’69) and Sharon (Lucas) James have a new address. 121 Silverado Drive, Georgetown, TX 78633. esjames@kingwoodcable.com James (’72) and Millie (Herbert) Clark have a new grandson, Jude Thomas Clark, born April 20, 2012, to

Coleen (Moran) Meyer was named a distinguished administrator by the Texas Music Educators Association for her work in preserving music education programs in her school and district. She is a principal in the Leander ISD. 311 S. Kings Canyon, Cedar Park, TX 78613. michialm@sbcglobal.net

1977 Dr. Darla Smith retired Aug. 31, 2011, as a professor and department chair at The University of Texas at El Paso. She continues to work part time. 11105 Aragon Drive, Austin, TX 78759. darsmith@utep.edu Denise (Reagan) Goode is a special education teacher in the Newport Special School District.

401 E. Booth Road, Searcy, AR 72143.

1979 Luann (Lambert) Golden is executive director of the Association for Independent Living, a life skills campus for young adults with cognitive disabilities in Dallas. She and her husband have one daughter, Darah Eberle, and a grandson, Jacob. P.O. Box 112445, Carrollton, TX 75011. luann.golden@afildfw.org

1980 Jeff and Sharon (Hale) Grady have moved.

Jeff continues to work for Hess Corporation.

‘Hell and Mr. Fudge’ explores theological journey of alumnus and his hot topic of study Author, teacher and theologian Edward Fudge (’67) is accustomed to discussing hell, a topic he has exhaustively researched. So when he was interviewed for a documentary on the subject a couple of years ago, Fudge was surprised when the discussions turned personal. e filmmakers wanted to do a movie about his life.

“His story is so good that it just came to us that it would make a great movie,” says Pat Arrabito, CEO of LLT Productions of Napa Valley, Calif., and executive producer of Hell and Mr. Fudge. According to her, LLT Productions is a non-profit 501(c)3 Christian organization dedicated to producing quality films on a variety of Christian subjects. e producers, director, screenwriter, wardrobe director and art director met with Edward and Sara Faye Fudge over the course of several months. ey requested to see photos from the past to get a sense of the time period, visited sites from Fudge’s upbringing, and put out casting calls.

In the summer of 2011, Hell and Mr. Fudge filmed in Fudge’s hometown of Athens, Ala., with an $800,000 budget. e movie stars Mackenzie Astin as Edward, Keri Lynn Pratt as Sara Faye, John Wesley Shipp as Edward’s father Bennie Lee Fudge, and Eileen Davidson as his mother, Sybil Fudge. is past April, the production received the 2012 Platinum Award in the eatrical Feature Film - Christian category at the Houston International Film Festival. e film debuted in June in Houston and Athens at special invitational showings for the Fudges’ family, friends and movie extras in Athens. Still waiting for a distributor, the movie played in June at the omas H. Olbricht Christian Scholars Conference in Nashville, Tenn., and is being test-marketed in at least three cities around the country. It has been entered in film 72

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festivals in Chicago and Indianapolis, and was shown Sept. 17 at ACU’s Summit.

So what makes Fudge’s story so compelling that someone would want to make it into a movie?

Raised by a preacher and publisher in Alabama, Fudge became a serious Bible student at a young age. After earning his master’s degree and taking a preaching job, he wrote then-ACU Bible professor Dr. Tom Olbricht in 1969, asking for subjects that needed further study.

According to Fudge, Olbricht said, “I find it interesting that the word gehenna is only found in a limited context. I wonder how the rest of the New Testament writers talk about the end of the wicked.” Not long after, Fudge was invited to speak on the subject at an event in Illinois.

“I didn’t really have a lot to say on hell at that time. I noted that the word gehenna is found only 12 times in the Bible,” Fudge says. So he delved into researching New Testament passages referring to the saved and the lost in the same verse, and the historical significance of the statements. After he wrote his presentation, he repackaged it as an article and submitted it to Christianity Today, which published it in August 1976.

Across the world in Australia, Christian publisher Robert Brinsmead read Fudge’s article. Wrestling with his own beliefs about hell, Brinsmead offered Fudge $2,500 if he would spend time studying the topic.

“He said, ‘Here’s what I need. I want you to tell me everything in the Old Testament about the end of wicked, everything in

the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, between the testaments, everything that Jesus says, everything you can learn about it from the cross and the death of Christ, Paul, the rest of the New Testament writers, the apostolic fathers, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, the Latin fathers, the Greek fathers, medieval theologians, the Reformers, and modern theologians.’

“I said, ‘OK, sounds like I will be busy,’” says Fudge with a chuckle.

“Busy” is an understatement. For the next year, Fudge spent countless hours reading and comparing copious writings, commentaries, articles and, of course, the scriptures dealing with hell. Although he claims it is overplayed, the movie portrays his obsession with the research as a strain on his marriage and family life.

In the end, his own beliefs about the doctrine of final punishment underwent upheaval when he concluded that, in a nutshell, hell is a place of total destruction, rather than eternal torment, for nonbelievers – a concept known as annihilationism.

“I will tell you this – with no desire to exaggerate or to be controversial – that no one before or after could have been more astounded at the things I found throughout the Bible during the course of my study,” Fudge wrote later.

In the movie, as in real life, Fudge struggled with what to do with his groundbreaking and ground-shaking conclusions about hell. “If this is what the Bible teaches, then it’s what I should say, whatever the consequences should be,” he says. “So I debated with myself – this is part of the tension in the movie – can I say this

217 South Mill Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550. jeffdgrady@hotmail.com David Burnett earned his doctorate in business administration from Argosy University in 2012.

He presented an award-winning paper April 21 at the International Association of Business and Public Administration Disciplines (IABPAD) meeting.

3610 86th Street, Lubbock, TX 79423. dburnett@x8environmental.com

1981 Dr. Allen H. Rose was promoted to operations and site director for Alstom Grid’s optical and digital

instrument transformer factory in Phoenix, Ariz. He and his wife, Joanna K. (Austin ’82), have two children.

6751 E. Peak View Rd., Cave Creek, AZ 85331. ajaarose@mac.com

1985 Kim (Bush) Baldwin earned her Psy.D. from Wheaton College in August 2011. She is assistant professor of psychology and counseling at Lincoln Christian University. Her husband, John (’84), is professor of human communication at Illinois State University.

400 Orlando Avenue, Normal, IL 61761.

PAT ARRABITO

In a scene from the movie, the real-life Edward Fudge (seated) makes a cameo appearance, greeting actor Mackenzie Astin, who plays him in Hell and Mr. Fudge.

if I write a book? I’ve got to write a book and say this, because nobody’s saying it.

But if I say that, what will happen? Well, I’ll probably get stamped out. But it needs to be said anyway, because it’s right.”

So Fudge presented his findings in the book e Fire at Consumes: A Biblical and eological Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment, published in 1982.

Since then, two revised editions have been published, the latest in 2011. Christianity Today has labeled it as “the standard reference for this rapidly growing evangelical viewpoint.” In addition, Fudge wrote Hell: A Final Word, a less technical, mass-market version released this year.

Hell has become a hot topic in theological circles in the past couple years.

About the time the third edition of e Fire at Consumes came out, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Whoever Lived, written by pastor Rob Bell, hit bookshelves and received media attention for taking a stance that all people will eventually be saved.

Fudge’s and Bell’s books represent two of the three current views on hell.

Fudge’s falls in the “conditionalism” or “annihilationism” camp, and Bell’s in the “universal restorationism” camp. e third, and most common, view, “traditionalism,” believes that hell is a place of endless, conscious punishment for sin. Several books, past and recent, support the traditional theory. Fudge also has co-authored Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and eological Dialogue with Robert Peterson, who takes the traditional approach.

Arrabito, whose faith background is Seventh Day Adventist, feels strongly about the conditional view. “It’s personally offensive to me that people would believe a God of love could torment anyone for an eternity. I think that a lot of honest people throw God out because of that belief. ey can’t put it together.

“So what we hope to accomplish [with the film] is to draw attention to the truth about the fate of the lost and the truth about the goodness of God versus what so many people believe about him. You know, even the worst parent with the naughtiest child could never purposely

1986 Curtis Powell is a faculty member at Shanghai American School (Puxi) in Shanghai, China. He teaches Asian history and also teaches in the International Baccalaureate program. Building 10, Apartment 201, 55 Jing Feng Lu, Shanghai, China 201107. curtispowell@email.com

MARRIED Samuel James West IV and Suzann Lowe, April 21, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. suzann.west@att.net

1988 Ryan Snuffer, son of Mike and Carol (McCarley) Snuffer, graduated from the Disney College Program in Orlando, Fla. He earned his associate’s degree from John A. Logan College in August 2012 and transferred to Southern Illinois University. 3001 Teakwood Lane, Herrin, IL 62948.

condemn him to torture for a short time, much less for an eternity. For people to believe that about God is horrible,” she says.

While the movie’s main focus is Fudge’s study of hell, the story also portrays the tumultuous years he and his family endured. Although the film takes some liberty with timelines and combines some real-life people into composite characters, Fudge’s differences with his fellow brethren are not downplayed. As a young preacher he is fired after he calls upon an African-American man to pray in a public worship service. After Fudge’s father dies, his family’s publishing business is bought by people who believe he is wrong in his beliefs that God’s grace applies to all who trust in Jesus and that believers are in unity and should fellowship with each other (what he calls his grace-unity-fellowship teaching). He is fired from his job at the company and vilified in several publications. He is also asked to defend his beliefs in doctrinal “debates” set up to disprove them. e movie ends at one such meeting.

Now 68, bald, and battling Parkinson’s disease, Fudge is pleased with how the movie turned out. “Even in places where it’s not literally true, it’s in keeping with the spirit of what really was true,” he says.

An attorney of counsel with the Lanier Law Firm in Houston, he has written more than 20 books and distributes gracEmail, a semiweekly email ministry to subscribers around the world. When his health allows, he maintains a schedule of lectures and preaching opportunities throughout the country and at Bering Drive Church of Christ, his home congregation in Houston.

He is currently working on his next book, which has nothing to do with hell.

Meanwhile, LLT Productions is accepting donations toward getting the film distributed. If they’re successful, Hell and Mr. Fudge could soon be coming to a theater near you. 䊱 – TAMARA THOMPSON

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Laura Dillman teaches health and physical education courses and directs faculty and staff wellness at Kaua’i Community College. P.O. Box 662224, Lihue, HI 96766. dillman@hawaii.edu

To Charles and Christina (McLain) Selstad, a boy, Caleb David, Sept. 2, 2011. 1920 E. Almond Drive, Anaheim, CA 92805. christinaselstad@hotmail.com To Colin and Lela (Sadler) Thorne, a girl, Mavry Arden, Feb. 6, 2012. 13111 Yockey, #317, Garden Grove, CA 92844.

To Aaron and Carrie (Kerr ’99) Starck, a girl, Savannah Jewel, Feb. 25, 2012. 360 D Promontory Lane, Wauconda, IL 60084. acstarck@gmail.com To Josh and Amy (LeBus) Jackson, a girl, Emilie Kathleen, June 20, 2011. The family has a new address.

8 Chameleon Court, Austin, TX 78738. alebusjackson@gmail.com To John and Elizabeth (Shirel) Fortune, a boy, Samuel Miles, April 13, 2011. They have two other children.

13612 Bluestone Court, Clifton, VA 20124.

To Doug and Jill (Lemponen) Horn, a boy, Trevor Douglas, Nov. 18, 2011. The family lives in Austin.

1994

1999

Amanda Boswell Davis was reappointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve on the board of directors of the Trinity River Authority. She is a principal in the Buffalo ISD. 3209 WCR 212, Buffalo, TX 75831. davisal@buffaloisd.net Todd Wilson is a principal at McCord Elementary School in the Vernon ISD. 11009 CR 128 W, Vernon, TX 76384. todd.wilson@vernonisd.org

Heather (Long) Smith earned her Master of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas-Pan American in May 2012. 3621 Sun Country, Harlingen, TX 78552. drewnlaurensmom@yahoo.com Kevin Parker is principal consultant and information management practice lead at T. White Parker. 12721 Hitchcock Court, Reston, VA 20191.

David (’99) and Kimberly (Westbrook) Winter have purchased a farm and are are raising Black Angus cattle. 3700 W. FM 476, Poteet, TX 78065. kimberwinter@yahoo.com

1992 Michael Greenwalt earned his doctorate in education administration from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2012. michaelwgreenwalt@yahoo.com

BORN To Tim and Denis (McGinnis) Thomas, a girl, Zadie Ann, Jan. 2, 2012. They also have two sons. 183 Red Lane, Gray, TN 37615. denisannthomas@yahoo.com To Robert and Rhonda (Hill) Martin, a girl, McKenna Alexander, Feb. 13, 2012. 801 Snapdragon Lane, Plano, TX 75075.

1993

ADOPTED

By Tim and Sherri (Pilkington) Kasberg, a boy, Benjamin McCray, born Sept. 9, 2010. 331 Rocking M Lane, Belton, TX 76513. skasberg@hotmail.com

1995 Tanya (Evell) Crockett earned her M.S. in nursing from Vanderbilt University in August 2011.

She is a pediatric nurse practitioner at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. 608 Brasher Street, Wilmore, KY 40390. crocketts6@yahoo.com

BORN To James Bowlin and Marty Reves, a boy, Bennett Reves Bowlin, Feb. 21, 2012.

1996 MARRIED Matthew Donley and Sybil Johnson, July 14, 2012, in Oregon. sybilnjohnson@gmail.com

BORN To Eric (’94) and Susan (Hinds) Guild, a girl, Elizabeth Joelle, Oct. 19, 2010. They have two other daughters and a son. 325 Haven Hill Drive, Abilene, TX 79601. guilds@missionmwanza.org

1997 Rebecca “Bex” Allen Hale appeared on the HGTV show “Design Star” in summer 2012, competing with 11 other designers for her own HGTV show. 1292 N. 1st St., Abilene, TX 79601. friends@relicshome.com

BORN To Gary and Winona (Cook) Sitlinger, a son, Xavier Lee, June 14, 2011. 133 Lighthouse Drive, Jonestown, PA 17038.

To Donnie (M.A. ’02) and April (Ewing) McBride, a girl, Julianna Joy, March 23, 2011. The family lives in Norman, Okla. aremcbride@yahoo.com To Tim and Cheryl (Berry) Grove, a girl, Hannah Elisabeth, Oct. 12, 2011. 1005 Texas Star Court, Euless, TX 76040. grove.cheryl@gmail.com To Britt and Shannon (McDonald ’00) Hadley, a boy, Britton Laine, March 27, 2012. They have another son, Harris Ayres. 1701 Woodmont Drive, Flower Mound, TX 75022. britt@ahblaw.net

1998 Clifton Nunnally earned his Ph.D. in oceanography from Texas A&M University. He is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, studying deep-sea trenches. 180 Forest Ridge Way, Honolulu, HI 96822. cnunn3@juno.com

BORN To Rustin and Joy (von Heimburg) Honeycutt, a girl, Laurin Grace, Feb. 21, 2012. The couple were married June 26, 2010. 604 Durango Circle, Hewitt, TX 76643.

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MARRIED Den Davis and Dr. Kristina Campos, Dec. 10, 2011, in Buffalo Gap. 1702 Smith Drive, Abilene, TX 79601. kristina.davis@acu.edu

BORN To Justin and Julie (Thigpen) Grimsley, a girl, Jacqueline Kate, Oct. 20, 2011. They have another daughter, Jordan Kaylene (2). 3762 Hollow Creek Road, Fort Worth, TX 76116. julie_anne48@hotmail.com To Nathan and Dr. Shelly (Weed) Sanders, a boy, Heath Nathan, Oct. 4, 2011. 2580 Garfield Avenue, Abilene, TX 79601. shelly.sanders@acu.edu To Kevin and Jessica Rickard Mullins, a girl, Kaiya Terrelynn, Sept. 14, 2011. They have three other children: Jayda and twins Brody and Taya. Kevin is an art director for Accredited Members, Inc., and Jessica is a speech-language pathologist. 4122 County View Way, Castle Rock, CO 80104. jrickardmullins@yahoo.com To Sean (’01) and Linda (Petty) Sandefur, a girl, Skye Evelyn, Dec. 2, 2011. 364 Creek Bend Drive, Aledo, TX 76008. linda.sandefur@fnf.com To Wayne and Samantha (Sparks) Allen, a girl, Abigail Sarah, Dec. 27, 2011. The family has moved. 11114 Verbena Path, Helotes, TX 78023. samandwayne@att.net To Greg and Sarah (Bettis) Jones, a boy, Mathis Luke, Feb. 8, 2011. 1631 Lookout Point, San Antonio, TX 78260.

To Jason and Diane (Moulder) Wilhite, a girl, Allisa “Bryleigh,” Jan. 2, 2012. 2302 Fuqua Road, Rowlett, TX 75088. dianewilhite77@gmail.com To Martin and Robyn (Little) Baird, a girl, Reichley Morgan, Feb. 18, 2012. 13254 Veronica Road, Farmers Branch, TX 75234. robyn@robynlittle.com To Andrew and Beri (Denman) Deister, a girl, Honor Elizabeth, July 16, 1999, and a boy, Ethan Andrew, Oct. 26, 2011. 5964 Madison Drive, The Colony, TX 75056. deisterbl@mac.com To David and Michelle (Bush) Simpson, a girl, Danica, April 20, 2012. 45 Allegheny Drive, Stafford, VA 22556. michellesimpson77@gmail.com To Scott and Heather (Zimbal) Bedichek, a boy, Judson Scott, May 25, 2011. 12728 Connemara Lane, Fort Worth, TX 76244.

2000 MARRIED Adrian Aguilar and Laura Mann, June 23, 2012, in Dallas. 3103 Royal Gable Drive, Dallas, TX 75229. gringalaura@yahoo.com

BORN To David and Jenna (Roberts) Sprott, a girl, Brynleigh Elizabeth, June 4, 2009, and a boy, Holden David,

Sept. 11, 2011. 68 Woodland Trail, Belton, TX 76513. das@linzythigpen.com To Ashley and Aubrey (Matthew) Parrott, a boy, Keegan, July 16, 2011. 1028 Garland Avenue, San Jose, CA 95126. aubrey.parrott@chevrolet.com To Joe Don and Jamie (Bankes) Ridgell, a boy, Austin James, August 9, 2010. 803 Kodiak Circle, Euless, TX 76039. jamieandjd@hotmail.com To April Guykens, twin girls, Jan. 3, 2011. 3 55 N. Post Oak Lane, #735, Houston, TX 77024.

To Regan and Natalie (Scott) Gradke, a girl, Chloe Kate, Jan. 17, 2012. 26910 N. 21st Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85085. regangradke@gmail.com To Matt and Kacy (Swindell) Baker, a girl, Kate Elizabeth, Dec. 10, 2011. The family has moved.

913 Meadow View Drive, Richardson, TX 75080. kacydb@gmail.com To Will and Sherry (Mueller) Walker, a boy, Lexington, Feb. 10, 2011. 1217 Iberis Road S., Tuscola, TX 79562.

To Marc and Lisa (Greenlee) Rietvelt, a girl, Paige Elisabeth, Oct. 4, 2011. 2624 Bolton Street, Austin, TX 78748. Lgreenlee78@hotmail.com To Jacob (’99) and Michelle (Unger) Smith, a boy, Israel Aaron Ezekiel, Sept. 8, 2011. 4926 Grey Hawk St., San Antonio, TX 78217. smithbunch98@gmail.com To Joshua and Amber (Stewart) Smith, a boy, Jack Noble, June 20, 2012. 713 Finch Court, Crowley, TX 76036.

To Kevin and Erin Anglin, a girl, Madison, June 2, 2012. 27213 Pyeatt Lane, Conroe, TX 77385.

To Jason and Leigh Ann (Hess ’02) Booker, a boy, Tate James, April 27, 2012. 11407 Coral Hills, Dallas, TX 75229.

To David and Jenifer Susann Zeigler Roland, a girl, Viola Faye, Aug. 31, 2012. 5938 De Giverville Ave., St. Louis, MO 63112. libertyand justice@gmail.com To Jody and Jane (McNeill ’02) Clayton, a girl, Campbell Jean, Oct. 7, 2011. 4113 Drexmore Rd., Keller, TX 76244. janeclayton08@gmail.com and jody@c-o-equip.com

2001 Matthew Shaw earned his M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in May 2012. 1457 Salvia St., Golden, CO 80401. matt.r.shaw@gmail.com David Morris has opened his own law office, practicing in the areas of estate planning, probate and business formation. 6303 John Chapman, San Antonio, TX 78240. david@davidmorrislaw.com

BORN To Doug and Lana (Litton ’00) Page, a girl, Alivia Grace, Sept. 27, 2011. The family has moved. 25 Oak Creek Drive, Kaufman, TX 75142.

To Chad and Lindy (Benham) Bankes, twin girls, Juliette Nicole and Katherine Marie, Nov. 28, 2010.

4901 N. Bentwood Drive, San Angelo, TX 76904.

To Barrett and Cambra (Cameron) Koczkur, a boy, Daniel Sebastian “Dash,” Oct. 25, 2011. 5245 Cody St., Arvada, CO 80002. barrettandcambra@gmail.com To Kevin and Emily (Mitchell) Broome, a boy, Benjamin Michael, May 22, 2012. 1003 Ward St., Midland, TX 79701. bulldogbroome@gmail.com To Carl and LaTrisha (Lee) Spain, twin girls, Hannah Bryce and Margaret Elizabeth, April 10, 2012.

103 Wind Chimes Lane, West, TX 76691.

To Andrew and Jenny Kelly, a boy, Noah David, Nov. 22, 2011. 1781 University Boulevard, Abilene, TX 79603. akellyukraine@gmail.com To Steven and Mendy (Wilson) Standridge, a girl, Shelbie Faith, Dec. 14, 2011. 1405 Pacific Avenue, Midland, TX 79705.

To Timothy and Nancy (Whitt ’05) Spain, a boy, Brennan Wesley, July 30, 2012. 226 N. Cochran Street, Troy, TN 38260. timspain@gmail.com

ADOPTED

By Angie Winkler, a boy, Nathaniel Sterling, June 21, 2012. He was born May 8, 2008, and has lived with Angie since 2009. 6442 N. Leavitt Street, Chicago, IL 60645. awinklerlpc@yahoo.com

THE POWER OF INTERNSHIPS

Hutton Harris works for the Texas Rangers Baseball Club.

JEREMY ENLOW

SAVANNAH SMITH

2002 BORN To Laney and Laura (Bair) Sweatt, a boy, Landon Parker, June 28, 2011. 830 Cypresswood Bend, Spring, TX 77373. laurasweatt@gmail.com To Greg and Adrianne (Esparza ’03) Glass, a boy, Broderick Cannon, Nov. 17, 2011. 1550 S. Indiana Ave., #506, Chicago, IL 60605. greg.glass@gmail.com To Aaron and Tamara (Head) Hatch, a girl, Evelyn Marie, Aug. 8, 2011. 3701 Quick Hill Road, #13308, Austin, TX 78728.

To Daniel and Sarah Webb, a girl, Anna Lee, Aug. 24, 2011. Daniel is board-certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and was honored in March 2012 by Texas Monthly as a rising star in the legal community. 106 S. Jones, Granbury, TX 76048.

To Joshua and Holly (Dyer) Davis, a girl, Ashlyn Presley, Dec. 29, 2011. 14415 Twisted Canyon Drive, Cypress, TX 77429.

To Brandon and Deanna (Wilburn) Pierce, a girl, Emma Jane, Aug. 7, 2011. The family has moved.

10993 Wild Rose Lane, Anna, TX 75409. dee.brandon@gmail.com To Charles and Katie (Russell) Cassady, a girl, Lily Belle, Sept. 6, 2011. 1703 Woodoak Drive, Richardson, TX 75082. lkcassady@yahoo.com To Cody and Debbi (Orr) Petersen, a boy, Clyde Matthew, June 14, 2011. 316 Tanglewood Drive, Tahlequah, OK 74464.

To Will and Lindsey (DeHoff) Brewer, a boy, William Louis III “Tripp,” Dec. 8, 2011. 4433 Springside Lane, Dallas, TX 75214.

To Justin and Stephanie (Wilkens) Pasher, a boy, Caleb William, April 21, 2011. 6917 Clarendon St., Rowlett, TX 75089.

2003 Stephanie (Wakley) Lee graduated from The University of Texas School of Law in December 2011.

She and her husband, Jared, live in Midland, where Jared is the dean of academics at Midland Christian School and Stephanie is a litigation attorney with Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson, PC. 2507 Stanolind, Midland, TX 79705. jaredolee@gmail.com

MARRIED Donny Ott and Carissa Spatz, July 15, 2011, in Jamaica. 4361 Red Clover Lane, Crowley, TX 76036. ott_carissa@yahoo.com Ryan Thuston and Melissa Bailey, June 9, 2012.

1212 Wood Hollow Drive #16102, Houston, TX 77057. mdb102380@gmail.com

Whether around the block or around the world, ACU students are on the job each day, learning valuable skills through internships, many of them made possible by alumni.

Hutton Harris (’08) earned a B.A. in broadcast journalism and a master’s degree in communication. Today, he serves as assistant in-game video and graphics producer for Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers – a position he has held since February 2011.

He honed his skills at ACU, serving as public address announcer for the Wildcats during baseball, basketball and softball games from 2006-11.

But his big break came as a student intern for Lance Barrow (’77), coordinating producer for football and golf at CBS Sports. While an ACU student, Hutton helped cover 55 PGA Tour golf tournaments and worked on location with CBS at games involving the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans. Barrow, an Emmy Award-winning producer, got his start in the business while an ACU student in the late 1970s, interning for broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, and is returning the favor.

Savannah Smith, a junior on the ACU women’s basketball team, served an internship for the USA men’s and women’s basketball teams this summer at the London Olympics.

An advertising and PR major, she worked with the Olympic Committee on allocating tickets, shadowed NBC sportscaster Ann Meyers-Drysdale, and organized private tours of London for the team and their families. 䊱 To arrange an internship, visit acu.edu/careercenter or call 325-674-2473.

(Inset) USA Olympic Team star LeBron James and ACU intern Savannah Smith

BORN To Dustin and Sarah (McCullough) Swart, a girl, Brynna Paige, May 30, 2011. 8004 Juliette Drive, McKinney, TX 75071.

To Todd and Brittany (Fry) Barnes, a boy, Cohen Aaron, Jan. 31, 2012. The couple were married Oct. 2, 2010. 1404 Navaho Street, Arlington, TX 76012. curliefry22@yahoo.com To Toby and Amanda (Crawford) Williford, a boy, Tate Gregory, Nov. 29, 2011. 4820 Larkin Road, Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755. amanda.k.williford@gmail.com To Jeff (’02) and Hayley (Legler) Webb, a girl, Madeline Kate, Dec. 27, 2011. 134 Sunburst Road, Abilene, TX 79602. hal99a@acu.edu To Chad and Missy (Freeman) McConnell, a girl, Sydney Grace, Jan. 20, 2012. 3800 Jade St., Keller, TX 76244. chadmcconnell78@gmail.com To Justin and Elise (Golightly) Welborn, a girl, Allison, May 3, 2011. The family lives in North Richland Hills, Texas.

To Cory and Elizabeth (Lang) Pritchard, a girl, Hannah Mae, Oct. 7, 2011. 1910 Cedar Glenn Way, #4201, Atlanta, GA 30339. epritcha@hotmail.com To TJ and Holly (Lewis) McCloud, twins, Ian Thomas and Isla Jane, Aug. 8, 2011. 2917 Dobbs Avenue, Nashville, TN 37211. tjmccloud@gmail.com To Ali and Anna (Kaminski ’01) Chaudhri, a girl, Farah Alisa, Nov. 28, 2011. 1548 Silver Spur Drive, Allen, TX 75002. chaudhrifamily@hotmail.com To Greg and Jennifer (Mason) Jones, a girl, Abigail Grace, Dec. 14, 2011. 3578 Cherry Lane, Medford, OR 97504. jen.mason.jones@gmail.com To Beau and Allison (Jackson ’04) Trujillo, a boy, Jax Brayden, Nov. 2, 2011. 1617 Woodmont Ave., Rowlett, TX 75089. beau.trujillo@gmail.com To Jerry and Rebecca (Weyand) Carver, triplets, Kayla, Drew and Emma, July 19, 2012. 5080 Uravan Court, Colorado Springs, CO 80922.

To Arthur (’05) and Leslie (Espinoza) Scott, a boy, Arthur Nicholas V “Nick,” May 29, 2012. 10104 Morgan Meadow Lane, Dallas, TX 75243. ans00a@gmail.com To Logan and Mary (Larrabee) Bunnis, a boy, Zachariah Randall, June 14, 2011. Mary teaches at Legacy Preparatory Christian Academy in Magnolia. 29514 Winton Wood Way, Spring, TX 77386. mbunnis@gmail.com To Beau and Erica (Thomas ’05) Ballard, a boy, Jack Alan, May 31, 2012. 523 Brint Lane, Robinson, TX 76706. eat00a@hotmail.com To Ronnye and Jazmine (Caple) Farmer, a boy, Scout, July 6, 2011. The couple also has another son. 2505 Ridgewood Drive, Moore, OK 73160. jlcfarmer@gmail.com

To Cory and Elizabeth (Lang) Pritchard, a girl, Hayley Elizabeth, Sept. 16, 2012. The couple also has another daughter. 1910 Cedar Glenn Way, #4201, Atlanta, GA 30339. epritcha@hotmail.com

ADOPTED

By Casey and Tenille (McDonald) Miles, a girl, Audrey Ruth, Dec. 19, 2011. She was born Aug. 10, 2011.

2313 Ashland Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76107.

2004 Rance and Stacy (Teague) Bland have moved to Belgium to work with SportQuest, which uses sports to open conversations about faith. 65 Gordunakaai, 9000 Gent, Belgium. rancebland@yahoo.com

BORN To Joseph and Elizabeth (McElwain) Dennis, a boy, Jacob Andrew, Feb. 18, 2011. Joseph works as a physical therapist and Elizabeth has taught special education, kindergarten and ESL math and science.

She is now a stay-at-home mom. 8722 Mansion Creek, Tyler, TX 75707.

To Josh and Courtney (McInnis) Parrott, a girl, Olivia Joy, Feb. 7, 2012. Courtney is a regional sales manager for cars.com and Josh is a freelance sportswriter.

He won five writing awards in 2012. They have a new address. 21615 Maggie Mist Drive, Richmond, TX 77406. cparrott@cars.com To Paul and Jennifer (McMichael) Anthony, a girl, Haven Emily, Jan. 20, 2012. They have two other daughters, Jocelyn Rebecca and Grace Elisabeth. Paul is the communication coordinator in ACU’s Advancement division. 1633 Partridge Place, Abilene, TX 79605. paulandjenanthony@gmail.com To Joshua and Angela (Fleck) Greulich, a boy, Nathan Christopher, Dec. 22, 2011. The couple were married Dec. 18, 2010. Angela is a teacher and campus minister at John Paul the Great Catholic High School.

2042 E. State Road 164, Jasper, IN 47546. mrsangiegreulich@gmail.com To Jared and Maddie (Culwell) Powell, a girl, Harper Monroe, March 25, 2011. 8136 Flintrock, Frisco, TX 75034. madelyn_powell@ymail.com To Brandon and Amy (Verett) Booker, a girl, Sloane Emily, Oct. 23, 2011. 5424 Glen Canyon Road, Fort Worth, TX 76137. acb505@hotmail.com To Griffin and Olga (Marusina) Rozell, a girl, Anastasia Tamsin, April 12, 2012. Unit 5010 Nox 30, DPO AE 09730. griffinrozell@gmail.com To James and Annie (Sprott) Drachenberg, a boy, Daniel James, Nov. 12, 2011. 3110 Timber View Court, Sugar Land, TX 77579.

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To Jacob and Lindsey (McCrary) Stokes, a girl, Olivia, June 7, 2011. 402 N. Laurelwood Drive, Unit A, Austin, TX 78733.

To Adam and Jennifer (Blankinship) Brennen, a girl, Adalyn Grace, May 31, 2012. 7526 Ashton Drive, Houston, TX 77095.

To Todd (’03) and Erin (Norton) Faubus, a boy, Brown Overton, April 5, 2012. 1514 N.E. Benjamin Greens, Bentonville, AR 72712. erinfaubus@yahoo.com To Dwayne and Tressie (Williams ’03) Lee, a girl, Aowyn Jewel, June 12, 2011.

To Brian and Leslie (Pickett) Hutchins, M.D., a girl, Talia Piper, Aug. 17, 2012. 7730 Mount Holly Lane, Chesterfield, VA 23832. lesliehutchinsMD@gmail.com To Shawn and Ashlie (Clark) Gleinser, a boy, Grayson Edward, May 23, 2012. 15306-B Gebron Drive, Austin TX 78734. ashliegleinser@gmail.com

2005 Anna (Smith) Collins’ husband, Bobby, is training to become a Texas police officer. They have a son, Robert Collins IV. 8225 N FM 620, Austin, TX 78726.

Garrett McGinn is a manager for capital planning and sales with Yum! Restaurants International. He lives in Plano, Texas. gmcginn@live.com

MARRIED Jesse Usrey and Madison Bowden, May 15, 2011.

8139 Brushy Meadow, San Antonio, TX 78254. jesse.usrey@gmail.com Joel Koepke and Amber Hailey, March 10, 2012, in Dripping Springs, Texas. amberlkoepke@gmail.com Justin Carlile and Melinda Bailey, July 9, 2011.

4803 Teakwood Trace, Midland, TX 79707. mjbailey6643@gmail.com Alex Eichstadt and Andress Boggs, July 14, 2012, in San Antonio. They live in Dallas.

Alex Castro and Whitney Leininger (’09), Nov. 19, 2011, in Boerne. Alex works at JT Hydraulics and Whitney runs an Etsy shop, Sweetly Vintage.

6921 Avenue Q, Houston, TX 77011. abc00d@acu.edu

BORN To Jordan and Laura (Maloney) Pierce, a girl, Autumn Lillie, May 10, 2011. 11856 Vienna Apple Road, Fort Worth, TX 76244. jpoptics@gmail.com To Matthew and Courtney (Emberlin) Bryan, a girl, Brooklyn Reese, Nov. 14, 2011. 100 Lightning Trail, Forney, TX 75126.

To Welsey and Jacquelynn (Bruce ’00) Ballard, a boy, Kaden, Sept. 16, 2011. 602 Lone Star Drive, Abilene, TX 79602.

To Bryan and Celena (Corbell) Goodger, twin girls, Blythe Ann and Blaire Elizabeth, Dec. 12, 2011. They also have two sons, Britton and Brody. 4625 NW 157th Street, Edmond, OK 73013. celena.goodger@gmail.com To Wade and Wendi (Watterson) Holmes, a boy, Jake Louis, June 20, 2011. 9314 Russeff Field Lane, Rosenberg, TX 77469.

To Clint (’04) and Kat (Graham) Burns, a boy, Graham Clinton, Sept. 21, 2011. 304 Mockingbird N, Altus, OK 73521. klg00e@acu.edu To Cody and Cayla (Monk) Ables, a girl, Brynn Elyse, Dec. 12, 2011. 3424 Iberville Drive, Tyler, TX 75701. cody@ablesland.com To Landon and Aja (Newhouser) Speights, a boy, Aedan Hugh, June 25, 2011. 4522 Laurel Green Court, Missouri City, TX 77459.

To Brad and Anna (Dismang) Collier, a girl, Camille Catherine, April 22, 2012. 8790 Wildrye Circle, Parker, CO 80134. annacollier2@gmail.com To Hunter and Jennifer (Hathorn) Hanner, twin boys, Caleb Chase and Clayton Zachary, March 7, 2011.

246 CR 661, Abilene, TX 79606.

To Larry and Julee (Byram) Isenhower, a boy, Liam Davis, May 18, 2012. 1735 Norman Way, Madison, WI 53705.

To Steve (’03) and Chelsie (Fletcher) Sargent, a girl, Cora June, Dec. 20, 2011. 4823 Sanford Road, Houston, TX 77035. chelsie.sargent@gmail.com To Brandon and Brittnie (Wright) Blackburn, a girl, Clara Anne, May 2, 2012. 2002 Courtshire Lane, Sugar Land, TX 77478. bmb00d@gmail.com To Jameson and Danae (Rhodes ’03) Winn, a boy, Jameson Mart Jr., May 19, 2012. 6012 Fern Meadow, Arlington, TX 76017.

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To Benjamin and Tiffany (Torres) Williams, a boy, Asher James, Jan. 10, 2012. 318 Luby Lane, Florence, MT 59833. tnt00b@gmail.com To D.J. and Allison (Barnett) Hammond, a boy, Caleb Richard, July 22, 2012. 215 Westminster, Forney, TX 75126. hammondbride@gmail.com To Bryan and Kylea (Blake) Hapka, a girl, Leighton Blake, July 28, 2012. 3225 Turtle Creek Blvd., #832, Dallas, TX 75219. kylea2528@aol.com To Jeremy and Adrienne (Forsythe) Fike, a girl, Julianna Elise, July 19, 2012. 4706 Hartrick Bluff Road, Temple, TX 76502. adriennefike@gmail.com To Aaron and Allison (Humphries) Ellis, a girl, Harper Claire, Feb. 23, 2012. 1602 Warrington Way, Forney, TX 75126. aellis1224@yahoo.com To Mark and Chanah (Adkins) Townson, a girl, Audrey Rae, Aug. 20, 2012. 231 Chimney Rock Dr., Waxahachie, TX 75167.

To Matt and Ashley (Bruner) Lee, a girl, Reagan Jane, Aug. 14, 2012. 16111 Charter Rock Dr., Houston, TX 77070. ashleyblee05@yahoo.com To Caleb and Bethany (Knox) Reid, a girl, Parker Gracen, Aug. 6, 2012. 6307 Santee, San Antonio, TX 78240. reid.bethany@gmail.com

2006 MARRIED

BORN To Travis and Hilary (Vick) Crowell, a girl, Bailey Rae, Aug. 31, 2011. 1428 Park Place Ave., #528, Bedford, TX 76022.

To Chase (’08) and Taryn (Chisholm) Cawyer, a girl, Camdyn Grace, Nov. 19, 2011. 4907 14th St., Lubbock, TX 79416.

To Brant and Megan (Nuncio) Greathouse, a girl, Lily, June 5, 2011. They were married May 26, 2007, and also have a son, Cade. 3600 S. Highway 349, Midland, TX 79706. greathouse.megan@gmail.com To Marshall and Kayli (Frederick) Harding, a boy, Marshall “Handley” II, May 2, 2012. Marshall is a senior accountant for the City of Mesquite. 2133 Callahan Drive, Forney, TX 75126. kayli.harding@gmail.com To Mitch and Kayla (Dunn) Halstead, a boy, Hunter Reid, April 28, 2012. 507 Titanium Drive, Hixson, TN 37343.

To Andy and Molly (Paulsen) Parker, a boy, Warren Thomas, Jan. 14, 2012. 8231 Santa Clara, Dallas, TX 75218.

To Brandon and Ashley (Hutto) Royer, a boy, Mason Grant, May 11, 2011. 824 Fox Hunt Trail, Fort Worth, TX 76179.

To Casey and Jayma (Burbank) Carter, a girl, Nolynn, Feb. 13, 2012. 14 Glenbow Court, Simpsonville, SC 29680. jaymabcarter@gmail.com

Chris Lair and Danielle Lough (’07), April 14, 2012, in San Antonio. 147 Pinecrest Boulevard, #5, San Antonio, TX 78209. chris@sunsetridgechurch.org Chad Crouch and Bethany Scroggins, June 11, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn. Chad is a computer programmer for BMI and Bethany works at Lipscomb University.

1205 Scarcroft Lane, Nashville, TN 37221.

Josh (’07) and Allie (Rogers) Massingill have moved to the Washington, D.C., area. Allie teaches fifth grade and Josh works for a congresswoman in the House of Representatives. 1330 S. Fair Street, #1110, Arlington, VA 22202. massingill.allie@gmail.com

BORN

BORN

To Don and Stevie (Hobbs) Jones, a boy, Kamdon Brody, April 28, 2011. 3113 Colony Drive, Dickinson, TX 77539. stevie.jones@gcli.com To Javin and Jaime (Graham) Walker, a boy, Gavin Scott, Dec. 31, 2011. The couple were married March 12, 2011. 1106 Dixon Circle, Copperas Cove, TX 76522. jaimelaurenwalker@gmail.com To Ryan and Lisa (Lynch ’07) Bartholomee, a girl, Carisyn Esther, April 6, 2011. 5504 Grassland Boulevard, Midland, TX, 79707.

To Ron and Heather (Bowman ’07) Zambrano, a boy, William, June 23, 2011. 702 D CR 194, Ovalo, TX 79541. hdb02a@acu.edu To Paul and Kellie (Williams) Edwards, a girl, Ella June, Jan. 19, 2012. 1012 Colbert Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76131.

To David (’05) and Heather (Randall) Hatfield, a girl, Sophie Thomas, Feb. 19, 2012. 5556 Flynn Court, Fort Worth, TX 76137.

To Aaron and Erin (Clardy) Whitaker, a girl, Brynn Lacy, Feb. 28, 2012. 549 Magnolia Parkway, Benbrook, TX 76126. whitakergal@gmail.com To Khalid and Stacia (Barton) Hamidi, a boy, Kyler Jaan, Feb. 27, 2012. 420 S. Forest Avenue, Sugar Creek, MO 64052. stacia_hamidi@yahoo.com To Lance and Taylor (Tuerck) Parrish, a girl, Avery Jordan, March 5, 2012. 1259 Cross Creek Drive, Kennedale, TX 76060.

To Andrew and Julia (Thompson) Belcher, a girl, Perry Lucille, Aug. 29, 2011. 1157 Santos Street, Abilene, TX 79605. julia.t.belcher@gmail.com To Barrett and Cara (Cunningham) Fines, a girl, Kennedy Blair, Sept. 22, 2011. 6869 Round Table, Corpus Christi, TX 78414. cara.fines@gmail.com To Kyle (’04) and Courtney (Mitchell) Mayfield, a girl, Brooke Patton, Feb. 20, 2012. 4200 Blackwater Drive, Nashville, TN 37221.

To Adam and April (Ward) Farris, a girl, Clara May Riley, March 18, 2012. 4711 Spicewood Springs, #235, Austin, TX 78759. libertyandjustice@gmail.com

To Jace (’07) and Randy (Royse) Yeats, a boy, Owen, Dec. 18, 2011. 2807 Glen Hollow Circle, Arlington, TX 76016. randy.yeats@gmail.com To Hamilton and Jessica (McCoy) Doty, a girl, Hannah Kate, April 20, 2012. 1809 Crest Hollow Circle, Lewisville, TX 75067.

To Reagan and Anna (Roempke) Morgan, a girl, Audrey Jan, June 7, 2012. 2505 Evergreen Drive, Plano, TX 75075.

To Benjamin and Bethany (Matula ’07) Klein, a boy, James Joseph, June 24, 2012. 3764 Upland Rd., Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

To Wade and Tabitha (Vail ’07) Pierce, a girl, Aubrey Claire, May 3, 2012. 311 Kathy Drive, Henrietta, TX 76365. tabithapierce@me.com

2007

To Matthew and Kyera (Tabor) Smith, a girl, Kaysalynn Noelle, Oct. 28, 2009, and a boy, Matthew Don Jr., May 26, 2011. 4600 Coachlight Road, #162, Abilene, TX 79603.

To Brandon and Madison Wilson, a girl, Daisy, Oct. 19, 2011. 4930 Slate River Lane, Katy, TX 77494. madisonkay2@yahoo.com

MARRIED Zach Sewell and Rachel Yeakley, Oct. 23, 2011, in Kansas City, Mo. Zach is the minister of adult education and community outreach at the Overland Park Church of Christ, and Rachel is an account executive at an advertising agency. 3515 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. zacharysewell@fuller.edu

2008

2009 BORN To Tyler and Laura (Litalien) Thompson, a boy, Everett Mark, May 22, 2011. 29 Derrick Lane, Stafford, VA 22554. lathompson678@gmail.com

2010 BORN To Danley and Krista (Stuckey) Morrow, a girl, Kiersyn Rayne, Feb. 17, 2011. 705 Melinda Drive, Mesquite, TX 75149. kls05f@acu.edu

2011 MARRIED Colby Day and Chessi Brehm (’09), August 2011, in Palm Springs, CA.

BORN To Aaron (’12) and Ryan (Taylor) Martin, a girl, Taylor Nicole, Oct. 20, 2011. 2401 Church Street, #4, Abilene, TX 79601. amm09a@acu.edu

2012 BORN

IN MEMORIAM 1932 Darwin “Troy” Crockett Sr., 101, died Feb. 12, 2012 in Lampasas. He was born Sept. 10, 1910, in Callahan County and married Maxine Ford June 1, 1935. He is survived by two sons, D.T. Crockett Jr. (’58) and Larry Crockett; 11 grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren.

1934 Earle Robert Brown died Dec. 22, 1999, in Longview. He is survived by a son, Robert Brown (’60).

1940 Roland Johnson, 99, died July 29, 2012, in Abilene.

He was born Oct. 15, 1912, in Laredo and graduated from Arlington High School. He served in the Cavalry and the Army for 24 years, attaining the rank of major. After retiring from the military, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in religious education from ACU. He preached for Churches of Christ in Kansas and Texas, and worked for the Christian Service Center in Abilene. Roland is survived by four daughters, Myrna (Johnson ’59) Johnson, Shirley (Johnson ’67) Evans, Teresa (Johnson ’78) Terry and Pamela Johnson (’82); two sons, Philip Johnson (’64) and Michael Johnson (’93); 12 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

1941 Elmer Womack, 97, died April 30, 2012, in Killeen.

He was born May 12, 1914, in Ratcliff. He ran track at ACU and married Ardis Sprott before serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He taught world history and physical education, and coached tumbling at Killeen High School. His wife preceded him in death. He is survived by two daughters, Bennie (Womack ’64) Manis and Rebecca (Womack ’67) Wilks; a son, Mack Womack (’78); five grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

1943 Dr. James Franklin Cox Jr., 90, died June 4, 2012, in Tyler. He was born Nov. 6, 1921 in Abilene. He served in the Navy and earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He contracted polio from a patient, but recovered and practiced medicine for 54 years. Jim is survived by his wife, Mary Ruth (Pettigrew ’44); two daughters, Phyllis (Cox ’69) Crawford and Donna (Cox ’70) Mullins; two sons, James Cox III and Russell Cox; 13 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

1947 Bert Laviel Powell Jr., 89, died Jan. 18, 2012. He was born Sept. 14, 1922, in Sinton, Texas, and grew up in Freeport. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from ACU and a master’s degree in public health from The University of Texas at Austin. He served as a medic in the Army Air Force during World War II and later worked for the Texas Department of Health. Powell was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Jane (Poe) Powell, and is survived by a daughter, Dena (Powell ’64) Moore; three sons, Bert Powell III (’67), Richard Powell (’70) and Stephen Powell (’75); three brothers, Maurice Powell (’49), Kenneth Powell (’51) and Foy Powell; 16 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

1948 Cecil “Milton” McWhorter, 89, died April 18, 2012.

He was born May 19, 1922, in Westover and graduated from Olney High School. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from ACU, and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He worked as a teacher and school counselor.

Milton is survived by his wife, Geneva (Marshall ’41) McWhorter; two sons; and two grandsons.

1950 Dr. Norman Cecil Whitehorn, 85, died Feb. 22, 2012, in Houston. He was born Nov. 19, 1926, in Myrtle, Miss. He served in the Army during World War II and later attended Freed-Hardeman University and ACU. He earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University. He

worked for Shell Pipeline Corp. for 14 years and at Texas A&M for 27 years, retiring as associate professor emeritus.

He is survived by his wife, Darlene (Emberlin ’51) Whitehorn; two sons; two brothers, Wallace Whitehorn (’50) and George Whitehorn; three sisters; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Johnny J. Johnston, 83, died Sept. 5, 2012, in San Antonio. He was born Dec. 23, 1928, in Farmersville. He played football in 1948 for the Wildcats.

He entered the Army in 1952 and retired in 1988 as commander of the Second Army. He also served as a tactical training advisor to the South Vietnamese Army.

In 1984, he was the leader of an American military training delegation to China, the first such group invited by that nation since it began normal relations with the U.S. in 1979. He was the author of Nec Aspera Terrent: No Fear on Earth, the story of the 27th Infantry Division. Johnston also was an elder for the Sunset Ridge Church of Christ in San Antonio. Among survivors are his wife, Beverly (Hale ’51); a son, Greg Johnston (’77); a daughter, Katherine Pittman; eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

1953 Melvin Lee Atwood, 83, died Jan. 18, 2012. He was born July 15, 1928, in Graham, Texas. He married Marie Hunter (’54) in March 1953. They lived in Carlsbad, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo. He worked as an upholsterer and insurance broker. Melvin is survived by his wife, Marie; five daughters, Rebecca (Atwood ’81) Craddock, Teresa Dodd, Angela (Atwood ’84) Owen, Cynthia Black and Nancy (Atwood ’90) Hawkins; two sisters; 16 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

1954 Arthur “Dean” Morgan, 79, died June 29, 2012.

He was born Oct. 30, 1932, in Liberal, Kan., and grew up in Perryton, Texas. He married Beverly Hale (’54) in 1953 and later served in the Army. He taught Bible courses at ACU, Western Texas College in Snyder and Amarillo College. He is survived by his wife, Beverly; a son, Derryl Morgan; two daughters, D’Lynn (Morgan ’81) St. John and Deneane Morgan (’83); two sisters; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

1956 Dr. Roy Bowen Ward Jr., 77, died May 20, 2012, in Oxford, Ohio. He was born Oct. 10, 1934, in Jacksonville, Fla. After graduating from ACU, Roy received S.T.B. and Th.D. degrees from Harvard Divinity School. He was a professor of religion at Miami University in Ohio from 1964-2007. He published scholarly papers and participated in many community organizations throughout his career. Ward is survived by three sons; a daughter; and nine grandchildren.

1957 James Henry Nixon, 81, died April 3, 2012, in Temple. He was born April 19, 1930, in Llano County, Texas, and served in the Navy during the Korean War. He worked at the Texas State Comptroller’s office, and also taught World Bible School for more than 20 years.

He is survived by his wife, Shirley Nixon; a daughter; a stepdaughter; a son; a stepson; two sisters, Nina Moore and Marjorie (Nixon ’59) Farrar; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

Ted Travis Stewart, 77, died Feb. 22, 2012. He was born May 28, 1934, in Albuquerque, N.M., and earned his B.A. and M.A. from ACU. He married Dorothy “Dot” McAfee (’59) May 28, 1957. He was active in debate and student government and played basketball at ACU. After graduation, he and Dot served as missionaries in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for 13 years. Ted then served as minister of Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene and taught at ACU. From 1976-94, he taught at the Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock. Ted is survived by his wife, Dot; a son, Kevin Stewart (’81); a daughter, Trina (Stewart ’88) Muehring; and a brother, Robert Stewart (’59).

Winston Hamby, 76, died Feb, 25, 2012, in Benton, Ark. He was born Oct. 21, 1935, in Port Arthur. He married Mardell Bittick in 1963. He worked in public accounting and banking before becoming one of the first youth ministers in the Church of Christ. He served several churches in New Mexico and Texas, and volunteered at ACU Leadership Camps. Winston is survived by his wife, Mardell; a son, Brian Hamby (’89); a daughter, Deana (Hamby ’93) Nall; a sister, Ann (Hamby ’52) King; and two granddaughters.

1958 Robert “Bob” Leslie Hays, 76, died April 30, 2011, in Fort Worth. He was born Nov. 20, 1934, in Clyde. He served two years in the Army and married Pamela Sue Wrinkle March 18, 1960. She survives him, as do two sons, Robert Hays II and Terry Hays; a daughter, Kimberly (Hayes ’86) Easdon; a brother, Keelon Hays (’60); two sisters, Peggy (Hays ’55) Norris and Ann Prather; and three grandchildren.

1960 Ima Nadine Chambers Ferguson died Dec. 13, 2011, in Jacksonville, Fla. She was born in Albany, Texas.

Ima is survived by her husband, Jon Ferguson; two daughters; a son; two sisters; and three grandchildren.

Gary Max McKeel, 73, died Jan. 19, 2012. He was born July 30, 1938, in Ada, Okla., and married Mary Vaughn Aug. 15, 1959. She survives him, as do two sons; a daughter; and four grandchildren.

1961 Dr. Kenneth Sherron Brown, 70, died July 22, 2009, in Kilgore. He was born June 9, 1939, in Wichita Falls. He taught business and mathematics courses at several universities, community colleges and high schools, most recently Kilgore High School. He is survived by his wife, Brenda Brown; two sons; a daughter, Shera (Brown ’02) McNeely; a brother, Robert Brown (’60); and eight grandchildren.

1962 Dr. Richard H. “Dick” Mathews, 72, died May 14, 2012. He is survived by his wife, Clovis Terry Mathews (’63); a son, David Mathews (’94); a brother, William Mathews (’65); and other relatives.

1963 Donald “Don” Foster Goodwin, 70, died Aug. 4, 2011, in Conroe. He was born Oct. 1, 1940, in Fort Worth. Goodwin played baseball at ACU and participated in annual alumni baseball games in the 1990s. He served as a minister in the Church of Christ for 28 years, continuing to teach, speak and serve as an elder after his retirement. Among survivors are his wife, Peggy (White) Goodwin; a daughter, Tamaria (Goodwin ’88) Tuttle; and three grandchildren.

1965 Gwendolyn Ruth Brown died June 8, 1998, of complications from breast cancer. She is survived by a brother, Robert Brown (’60).

1966 Marinell (Mason) Watts, 67, died May 14, 2012, in Abilene. She was born Aug. 14, 1944, in Beeville, Texas.

She married James Watts (’66) May 28, 1965. She earned a bachelor’s degree from ACU and a master’s degree in education from Southern Methodist University, and taught school for 27 years in Texas. She is survived by her husband, James; a son, Dr. Paul Watts (’93); two daughters, Heather (Watts ’99) Tidmore and Holly (Watts ’01) Grant; and eight grandchildren.

1970 William Gaston Welborn Jr., J.D., 64, died May 12, 2012, of complications from ALS. He was born Jan. 30, 1948, in Munday and earned his B.S. from ACU, where he won the state championship in debate two consecutive AC U TO D AY

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years. He earned a law degree from The University of Texas at Austin. Welborn served as a Church of Christ minister from 1970-80 and as ACU’s vice president and general counsel from 1974-2005. He was a sponsor of Frater Sodalis, and served on the board of Abilene’s Noah Project from 1985-2005. He is survived by his wife, Julia Linares-Welborn; a daughter, Sherrill (Welborn ’03) Senter; and a son, William Gaston Welborn III (’01).

1972

Lightfoot’s scholarship and teaching leave a distinctive legacy Among the many touching tributes written in memory of Dr. Neil Lightfoot on our website was this from minister Don Anderson (’79) of Alvin, Texas: “As students, we never say ‘thank you’ enough to those who deserve credit for molding us.

His passing serves to remind us the debt we owe to those who labor in love to teach us.”

I earned all the Bible credits my transcript would hold before I transferred to ACU in Fall 1976. But I heard many of Lightfoot’s sermons and sat in his Bible classes at South 11th and Willis Church of Christ, where he eldered for more than 20 years.

“There’s no excuse for a dull sermon or a dull class,” he once said. “If you have a good knowledge of the Bible, you can help make it come alive. I’ve never considered myself a bookworm. I just feel the urgency of what I’m doing – studying the Bible to find ways to help people everywhere better understand it.”

Dr. Ian Fair (’68), his longtime dean in the College of Biblical Studies, visited Lightfoot in a Dallas hospital room a week before his passing.

“As we were about to leave, I asked Neil if I could lead a prayer,” Fair said. “Naturally he said yes, but then proceeded to lead a prayer himself. Haltingly, he thanked God for the Word and for the privilege to be able to study it and be led by God through the Word. That prayer summed up my memories of Neil – he was a man of the Word and prayer. No friend or brother has made a deeper influence on me as a Bible scholar, minister, elder and churchman than Neil. I and hundreds of other ministers owe him more than we can ever repay.

I know of few, if any, Bible professors who prepared and influenced more ministers and missionaries than Neil.

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mentor and role model for all of us.”

The Apostle John never had a more believable frontman than Lightfoot, whose passion for John’s New Testament books made you feel like the two of them were just talking the other day and Neil was here to pass on something the other forgot to tell us before heading down the road to visit another church or two.

One of the enduring memories I have of Lightfoot was being asked to play a round of golf with him and a local man with whom Neil had been studying the Bible. After lunch and 18 holes, where the conversation was more about living the Christian life than reading the greens, Lightfoot asked the man if he was ready to be baptized. He said he was, and we were off to the church baptistry in an empty auditorium, where the master teacher, still dressed in clothes for the back nine, immersed the grateful man in a far better 19th hole than most fellows nursing cold beers back in the clubhouse could appreciate. I’ve never had a round of golf end on a note to top that.

Lightfoot loved to preach from Hebrews, and wrote books about it. I can’t read the 11th and 12th chapters without thinking of him, and hearing the slender, deeply spiritual, gentle man recounting with a melodious voice the list of biblical heroes who modeled lives of faith that inspire Christians even today.

And if I could, I’d add another to the great cloud of witnesses found there: By faith Neil, for half a century, penned books about the Bible he loved, and taught common and uncommon scholars the things they needed to know about Jesus, mentoring them and exhorting all to tell others the Good News. 䊱 – RON HADFIELD

Louis Terry Sandefur, 64, died Aug. 31, 2012, in Georgetown, Texas. He was born Oct. 22, 1947, in Muleshoe, but his family moved to Hollywood, Calif. when he was in high school. He attended Western Christian College and ACU, earning a B.A. degree in mass communications. He married Betty Margaret Fullerton (’71) in 1970. He was a photojournalist for nearly seven years in the Coast Guard before attending Bear Valley School of Biblical Studies and preparing for ministry.

He was a pulpit minister for churches in Moody and Leander, Texas. Late in life, he was a substitute teacher in the Georgetown ISD and volunteered for TexVet, an online resource for Texas military veterans. Among survivors are his wife, Betty; a daughter, Shannon Rae (Sandefur ’96) Miller; two sons, Scott Sandefur and Sean Sandefur (’01); and nine grandchildren.

Linda Joyce Barth, 61, died Jan. 21, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. She was born Dec. 3, 1950, in Cuervo, Texas, and worked for many years as a writer and editor. She is survived by a brother, Dr. Gordon Barth; two nephews; and other relatives.

1976 Dr. Dorothy Lerreet (Ross) Newman, 79, died May 10, 2012, in Chandler, Ariz. She was born Aug. 24, 1932, in Tyler. She earned a B.A. and M.F.A. from ACU and a Ph.D. in child development from Texas Woman’s University.

She was married to George C. Newman for 51 years. She was a certified counselor and also taught at Cisco Junior College. Dorothy is survived by a son; a daughter; two grandchildren; and other relatives.

1977 Sara Ann (Felts) DuBose, 56, died March 31, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. She was born May 17, 1955, in Swindon, England. She taught physical education and was active in her church and community. Sara is survived by her husband, Dr. Clifton DuBose (’76); her mother, Addie Felts (’53); three sons, Clifton DuBose Jr. (’04), Dan DuBose (’06) and Ben DuBose (’09); a daughter, Kara (DuBose ’10) Zimmerman; a brother, Ricky Felts (’80); three sisters, Susan (Felts ’75) Hatcher, Sherry (Felts ’81) Ratliff and Sharon (Felts ’92) Shipley; and a grandson.

1981 Jeffrey Gordon Roberts, 53, died Feb. 20, 2012.

He earned degrees from ACU and Texas A&M, then taught math in public schools in Texas and Alabama. He is survived by his mother, Imogene Roberts; a niece; and other relatives.

1984 Richard Gaines Russell, 49, died July 22, 2011, in Seattle. He was born Feb. 17, 1962, in Wichita Falls.

He graduated from Midwestern State University and enjoyed a career in the technology industry, including eight years at Microsoft. His family has established the Richard Gaines Russell Memorial Scholarship Fund, an award given annually to a senior majoring in engineering physics at ACU or computer science at MSU. Richard is survived by his wife, Jenny (Kile) Russell; two daughters; his parents; a sister; and other relatives.

OTHER FRIENDS Dr. Jimmy B. Throneberry, 78, died May 23, 2012.

He was born Dec. 3, 1931, in Huntsville, Ala., and grew up in Fayetteville, Tenn. He earned a B.S. from Lipscomb University, an M.A. from George Peabody College, and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He taught biology for six years at ACU and for 33 years at the University of Central Arkansas. He co-authored two biology textbooks with Dr. Neal Buffaloe. Jimmy is survived by his wife, Barbara (Miller ’59) Throneberry; two sons; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

THIS IS A CORRECTION OF A PREVIOUS LISTING: Robert J. Hall, 82, died Nov. 27, 2011, in Abilene.

A native of Big Spring, Texas, he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from ACU in 1951. The former president and CEO of Visador Company was deeply involved in public service for 43 years in Jasper, where he was president of his local Kiwanis club, the Chamber of Commerce, the local hospital and the community foundation. Hall was named ACU’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1993, and served as Alumni Association president in 1972-73. He was a member of the university’s Board of Trustees from 1972-2000 and ACU’s Senior Board from 2000-07.

He married Mary Ann (Parker ’53) Dec. 14, 1950, and she died Oct. 28, 2007. In 1995, Abilene Christian established the Robert and Mary Ann Hall Endowed Chair for Psychology and Intercultural Studies to help enhance understanding of the special psychological dimensions of foreign service, especially mission work. Robert married Ruth Heggie, Nov. 1, 2008. He was preceded in death by a brother, Marcus Hall (’65). Among survivors are his wife, Ruth; two sons, Stuart Hall (’76) and Shannon Hall (’86); two daughters, Dianne (Hall ’73) Palmer and Kitty (Hall ’77) Wasemiller; two brothers, Don Hall (’51) and Roger Hall (’63); two sisters, Joella (Hall ’48) Pickup and Lynda (Hall ’57) Gilliam; nine grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.

Lavelle “Dee” Nutt (’50), 84, died April 18, 2012, in Tyler. He was born Dec. 8, 1927, in Tipton, Okla. A standout player for the Wildcats, he led his team in scoring three straight seasons, and to the Texas Conference championship each of the four years he played. He was named NAIA first team all-America in 1949-50. As head coach, Nutt took ACU’s men’s team to its first NCAA regional at the end of the 1958-59 season (with a 20-7 record), followed by five other regional tournament appearances and a trip to the national tournament in 1965-66. Wildcat teams he coached from 1955-69 and 1988-90 won four Texas Conference and three Southland Conference titles. He also coached the Mexican national basketball team at the 1971 Pan American Games and the 1972 Olympics, and served as superintendent and basketball coach at Abilene Christian High School and Westbury Christian School in Houston. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; a brother, Dr. Rex Nutt (’55); two daughters, Deeanne (Nutt ’72) Litton and Barbara (Nutt ’75) Smith; a son, Jim Nutt (’82); 16 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

Wyllis “Leon” Reese (’41), 92, died June 28, 2012, in Abilene. He was born Dec. 19, 1919, in Mineral Wells and graduated from Abilene High School. He was vice president of the student body at ACU and lettered in both basketball and tennis, earning all-Texas Conference honors in basketball and pioneering the one-hand jump shot and free throw. He married Iris Muns (’43) June 7, 1941. She preceded him in death Oct. 29, 2011. Reese served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and the Korean War, then worked in the oil industry for many years. He was an announcer for ACU athletics events for more than 40 years, including the 1960 U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials at Elmer Gray Stadium, and was inducted to the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. He served on ACU’s Advisory Board for 36 years. Leon was a longtime elder at

University Church of Christ and charter president of two local Kiwanis Clubs. He is survived by three sons, Randy Reese (’69), Dr. Jack Reese (’73) and Jim Reese (’76); nine grandchildren, all of whom graduated from ACU; a brother- and sister-in-law, James (’53) and Dr. Betty (Bell ’53) Muns; and 17 great-grandchildren.

Robert Odis Isham, 73, died July 28, 2012. He was born Feb. 6, 1939, in Overton and earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting at The University of Texas at Arlington. He married Jeanne “Sue” Hopper Aug. 20, 1960. Isham was a longtime member and elder of the Decatur Church of Christ. He served on various civic boards and was a member of ACU’s Board of Trustees from 1985-95. He is survived by his wife, Sue; two brothers; a daughter, Angela (Isham ’84) Duncum; two sons, David Isham (’87) and Mark Isham (’93); and six grandchildren.

Dr. Dwain Massey Hart, 80, died July 5, 2012, in Abilene. He was born Aug. 10, 1931, in Calvert. He married Bettie McKnight May 28, 1954. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from Baylor University, and served in the Army for two years. He later earned a Ph.D. from Baylor. Hart worked at ACU from 1955-97, serving as professor and chair of the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation for more than 20 years. He also served as a tennis coach (168-101-5 career record), director of women’s athletics, and dean of the College of Professional Studies, the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Sciences. He was named vice president for academic affairs in 1991 and provost in 1995. He was a longtime elder at Hillcrest Church of Christ and helped organize the Texas Special Olympics. Hart was inducted into the 2003-04 class of the ACU Sports Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife, Bettie; a son, Kent Hart (’82); two daughters, Kembrlee (Hart ’80) Hatch and Dr. Kerri Hart (’86); two brothers; a sister; and seven grandchildren. (See story on page 80.)

Dr. Charles A. Siburt Jr., 65, died July 11, 2012, in Abilene. He was born Nov. 27, 1946, in Denison and graduated from Midland High School. He earned an associate’s degree from Lubbock Christian University and a bachelor’s degree and an M.Div. from ACU. He also earned a D.Min. from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and did post-graduate studies at Colorado State University, The University of Texas at Tyler and The Menninger Foundation, and was a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. He married Judy Bailey (’69) in 1967; they were named Outstanding Family Ministry Couple of the Year in 1998 by the Herald of Truth at the National Family Conference. Siburt served as a minister to Churches of Christ in Texas and Colorado, and joined the ACU faculty full time in 1988. The O.L. and Irene Frazer Professor of Church Enrichment, he taught ministry classes, directed the D.Min. program, directed the Center for Church Enrichment and served as vice president for church relations. He founded ACU’s ElderLink Forum and the Ministers’ Support Network, providing training in communication and conflict resolution to hundreds of elders and ministers. He was well-known as “the church doctor” who helped struggling churches move toward reconciliation. He served on the boards of the Center for Parish Development, Texas Commission for the Blind, Hospice of Abilene and Christian Village of Abilene; on Hendrick Hospice Care’s Community Council; and on Abilene High School’s Campus Consultation Committee.

Siburt also was on national steering committees for the Association for Doctor of Ministry Education, and was a frequent speaker at lectureships, retreats and conferences.

Charles is survived by his wife, Judy; two sons, Dr. John Siburt (’96) and Ben Siburt (’00); two sisters, Elva Devers and Myra (Siburt ’65) Holmans; and four grandchildren. (See story on page 80.)

Grant Feasel (’83), a center for ACU who played 10 seasons in the National Football League, died July 15, 2012, in Fort Worth at age 52. Born June 28, 1960, in Barstow, Calif., he majored in pre-medicine, was accepted to Baylor University's College of Medicine, and was the recipient of a prestigious NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship in 1982.

He was named to the NCAA Division II Team of the Quarter Century. Feasel was inducted with the 1994-95 class of the ACU Sports Hall of Fame, and was voted to the Lone Star Conference Team of the Decade for the 1980s. Feasel was selected by the Baltimore Colts in the sixth round of the 1983 NFL Draft, and went on to play with the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. Family and friends established a scholarship in his honor in 1994, which is awarded annually to a Wildcat lineman. He and his family were longtime members of Richland Hills Church of Christ. Survivors include two sons, Sean and Spencer; a daughter, Sarah; his mother, Patricia Feasel; a sister, Linda (Feasel) Slayton; a brother, Greg Feasel (’81); and his children’s mother, Cyndy (Davy ’82) Feasel.

WIllie Delila “Nonnie” (Waters ’22) Henry, ACU’s oldest alumna, died Aug. 27, 2012, in Dallas at age 107. She was born Nov. 25, 1904, in Baldwin, Miss., and her family moved to Texas in 1908. She married Emmett Preston Henry in 1923, and he died in 1983. She was a resident of Austin, Dallas and Weatherford before returning to Dallas in 2000. Willie was a homemaker, member of the Skillman Church of Christ, and a member of the Daughters of The American Revolution. Survivors include her daughter, RuthAnn (Henry ’57) Cubstead; a son, Robert P. Henry; a sister, Lena Carman; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Dr. Neil R. Lightfoot, ACU’s Frank and Della Pack Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament, died Sept. 21, 2012, in Abilene at age 82. Born Sept. 22, 1929, in Waco, Texas, he earned a B.A. in philosophy (1952) and a M.A. in philosophy (1955) from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in religion (1958) from Duke University. He joined the ACU Bible faculty in 1958 and retired in 2004. He married Ollie Robinson April 7, 1951, and she died in 2003. Lightfoot married Marjorie Floyd (’65) on May 21, 2005. He was ACU’s Teacher of the Year in 1978, a Piper Professor nominee for 1979-80, and a senior associate and distinguished scholar-in-residence at Cambridge University’s Westminster College in 1986. He preached in gospel meetings around the world, and was minister of churches in Waco (Lakeview Church of Christ); Winston-Salem, N.C. (Central Church of Christ); Burlington, N.C. (Vaughn Road Church of Christ); and Abilene (11th and Willis Church of Christ). His books included How We Got the Bible (which sold more than 1 million copies), Lessons From the Parables, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews, The Role of Women: New Testament Perspectives, and Everyone’s Guide to the Book of Hebrews. He was Greek text editor and a translator for International Children’s Version, New Testament; The Word: The New Century Version; and The Everyday Bible. Survivors include a sister, Rita Struessel; his wife, Marjorie; three daughters, Donna (Lightfoot ’75) Thompson, Lu Anne (Lightfoot ’78) Bourland and Michelle (Lightfoot ’84) McElroy; stepdaughters Marilyn (Dodson ’74) Lepard and Andrea (Dodson ’77) Cobb; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. (See story on facing page.) .

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KIM RITZENTHALER

ACU Remembers: Hall, Nutt, Reese, Isham, Hart, Siburt, Feasel, Henry and Lightfoot

Second GLANCE

By Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon

Three for the Ages Three major figures on the ACU campus – Dr. Colleen (Stockburger ’77 M.Ed.) Durrington, Dr. Dwain Hart and Dr. Charles Siburt (’68) – passed away from illnesses this spring and summer. Durrington served ACU as an education professor, college dean and trustee. For more than five decades, Hart was a tennis coach, department chair, college dean and provost. Siburt taught Doctor of Ministry students in the Graduate School of Theology and was a leading voice for ACU in churches around the world. Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon (’76), professor and chair of journalism and mass communication, takes a look at their individual legacies and collective influence upon ACU.

They were young once.

Dr. Colleen Durrington married at 18 and reared a family before starting down the path that led to three college degrees and 22 years as professor, chair and dean of three colleges.

Dr. Dwain Hart often told people that he wound up at ACU because they really wanted to hire Bettie, his wife, so they made a place for him to teach physical education, a place for 56 years.

Dr. Charles Siburt preached in places like Lingleville, Imperial and Fort Collins, Colo., before Dr. Royce Money (’64) went to Tyler – twice – to convince him to join the ACU faculty in 1988. He had not yet retired when he died July 11 after a three-year fight with ImG multiple myeloma. In fact, he taught a graduate Pastoral Ministry Skills course in May and two Doctor of Ministry classes in June, achieving a goal he had willed himself toward for seven months. The latter was accomplished while shuttling back and forth from the hospital for treatment.

That old saw about tragedy coming in threes is a lie.

The truth is that death is pervasive. A promise. We are never so estranged from it that we can’t recall or anticipate three in a row that have touched us. Nonetheless, that hollow homily hangs close this summer after sitting through memorial services for three people whose marks on the university were made more indelible by the marks they etched on our hearts.

We stand wide-eyed in the reality of their absence and we mark their passing in awe of their long service – more than 100 years among the three. We talk about the generations of students, teachers, faculty members and ministers they touched, taught and mentored. Those stories were shared at the memorial services that packed three of Abilene’s largest sanctuaries.

At Charles’ memorial service we heard his booming bass voice echo through University Church of Christ one more time as recordings were played of The Lord’s Prayer, and Just as I Am. Was it just two Christmases ago he sang O Holy Night?

Dwain’s service at Hillcrest Church of Christ included a videotaped interview he did with Dr. Dickie Hill (’67) in April 2012. That sweet, slow voice – so undeniably Texan – telling stories and sharing memories of a time when he coached tennis, was intramural director, taught five classes and chaired a department all at the same time, a load no two people would consider today.

Money spoke at all three services about his friends and colleagues – each of whom he’d hired or promoted to administrative roles. At Colleen’s memorial at Southern Hills Church of Christ, he recalled the ever-present smile in her voice and a meeting where he sought her advice. After she left, he said he was feeling great about the meeting, encouraged and uplifted, “and then I thought, ‘I think she just told me ‘no.’”

He recalled looking for Dwain’s ever-present bucket hat at ACU baseball games and sitting with him a few innings at every game. And he talked about Charles’ decision to leave a comfortable job of full-time preaching for a church 80

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to multiply his ministry by preparing ministers for service.

In part because I teach journalism, and in part because I’ve been at ACU a long, long time, I’m occasionally called on or volunteer to write obituaries. I explain to my students that once, obit writers were the newbies in a newsroom, the flunky job. But those long, gray columns are often the last thing written about a person, and getting it right, telling a person’s story one more time, that’s ministry.

I always learn something I didn’t know, even when I knew the person well. Colleen was her high school’s valedictorian.

Dwain was a quarterback in high school and at Clifton Junior College. Charles was sometimes called “Chainsaw Charlie” because of the painfully straightforward way he spoke the truth to young ministers in troubled situations, or to churches in wrenching conflict. And I get to see them again – or often for the first time – as they were when they were young.

That’s important because universities are not about old people; they’re about young people. They’re about students who can’t decide what they want to do with their lives; about those who arrive with a clear vision, those who marry young or not at all, the ones who move around the world or the ones who go home to the family business. Many of them take on way too much work, but still manage to do it well. Universities, especially this one, are about their future, not about our past.

It was a hard summer. But fall is here, and fall is the real New Year on a campus. And as the New Year begins, we will do well to recall the things these three taught us by example.

They were competent, pervasively, every day, always.

They seemed to know what was the right thing to do and did it, even when it was hard. And they helped everyone around them be better as well.

They were committed to serving Christian higher education, their communities and the church. Just months before she became ill, Colleen was helping to find leaders and faculty for African Christian College. Her service on the Abilene School Board and several statewide education bodies earned broad respect. Dwain’s leadership among the National Christian School Association made him a mentor to teachers and administrators across the country. He began the first Special Olympics track meet in Texas, bringing joy to hundreds of athletes and their families. Charles was educating elders through ElderLink, tutoring ministry couples through the Ministers’ Renewal Network, and serving churches and ministers who had never been in his classrooms on the Hill.

They were faithful in all things, scholars in their fields yet students of the Word. Each one used professional skills and insights to make their communities better and they made the churches where they worshiped and served better.

We are tempted to remember them as giants – aged, wise and all-knowing. But they were young once. And we need to remember that now. Because it would be so easy in our sadness – no, let’s call it what it is, our grief – to believe they can never be replaced, that the university will never be the same without them. They wouldn’t stand for that. They would point us to the freshmen who arrived this August, to a new faculty member in her first class, a ministry student preaching at a tiny church somewhere.

And to a one, they would kindly, but firmly, tell us to pull ourselves together and get back to work. 䊱

The Big Purple was a prelude to love, generosity toward ACU

ommy (‘64) and Kay (Maples ’63) Lyons recognize that Christian higher education requires both opportunity and tools, supported by current gifts and endowment.

True to those principles, they are generous benefactors for ACU programs dear to their hearts – the music department and the Big Purple Band.

The Marguerite and Roger W. Lyons Endowed scholarship honors Tommy’s parents and celebrates their

own 50 years of marriage, a relationship that began while they were in the Big Purple together. Tommy and Kay are proud participants in the Partnering in the Journey Campaign, as well.

The Lyons’ current and endowed scholarships – and assistance purchasing instruments for the symphonic and marching bands – provide a great boost for music students, enabling their participation and enhancing the quality of their educational experience.

Contact The ACU Foundation today for help finding ways to support your interest at the university, and empowering our talented students!

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University ACU Box 29132 Abilene, Texas 79699-9132 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

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57th Annual Sing Song ......................................................... February 15-16 Annual President’s Circle Dinner ................................................ February 16 Wildcat Preview Days ......................................... March 8, March 23, April 8 Spring Break Campaigns .......................................................... March 11-15 ACU Bound Weekend ............................................................... March 22-25 Class of 1963 Golden Anniversary Reunion ................................. April 18-19 May Commencement ....................................................................... May 11

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gplus.to/abilenechristian JEREMY ENLOW

Lovin’ tennis Led by seniors Hannah Kelley, and Julia and Laura Mongin (inset), the women’s tennis team won its 88th straight Lone Star Conference match, a regional title, and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2012. See page 66 for more about the Wildcats’ great season.