Liberty Journal Spring 2012

SPR IN G 2012

New building projects are signs of growth Dean hired for medical school Filmmaking classes launch this spring

L E T T E R F R O M T H E C H A N C E L LO R

Spring 2012 EXTREME CAMPUS MAKEOVER — 4 One of the national credit rating agencies recently released an article that detailed the difficulties many smaller Christian colleges in the United States are experiencing in recruiting new students.

The senior rating analyst quoted in the piece visited Liberty’s campus to rate Liberty University’s proposed bond issue the same week I read the article. In our meetings with the analyst, I explained how Liberty’s mission among Christian colleges and universities had always been unique. I explained how the colleges referenced in the article all were founded with the expectation that they would remain relatively small and would provide a very focused educational experience for their students. Liberty, on the other hand, was founded with the vision and goal of becoming just the opposite — a comprehensive world-class university for evangelical Christian young people.

By distinguishing itself as the only conservative evangelical Christian university that provides a wide variety of academic offerings, NCAA Division I athletics, a great number of student activities and world-class facilities, Liberty has avoided the recruiting challenges now being faced by many smaller Christian colleges that all offer very similar academic programs and student experiences. Liberty’s unique blend of diverse course studies, online and traditional education delivery methods, NCAA athletics and a strong Christian mission have even attracted students of other faiths who share similar values.

Many universities that were founded to promote and teach Christian principles (among them, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) have strayed from their original mission statements over time for a myriad of reasons, including faculty tenure and a tendency to bow to the pressure of donors who did not share the founding Christian values of the institutions.

I believe that Liberty’s uniqueness among universities, in that it is primarily funded by a sound business model instead of dependence on donor gifts and public subsidies, will insulate it from undue pressures and will allow Liberty to retain its Christian foundation for generations to come. Liberty is blessed to be solidly positioned to avoid the path followed by so many American universities over the last few centuries.

Repeated surveys tell us that the two main reasons students choose Liberty University are its strong Christian mission and its affordability (Liberty’s tuition and fees rank it in the bottom 25 percent of all private colleges). Liberty’s Board of Trustees and administration are committed to doing whatever is necessary to keep the university true to these two defining characteristics.

Sincerely,

Jerry Falwell, Jr. Chancellor and President

A campus transformation is under way, spurring new growth and exciting opportunities.

NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY — 8

City and university officials work together to promote business in the region.

MEDICAL SCHOOL — 14 New dean hired for new School of Osteopathic Medicine.

AIRPORT CAMPUS — 20

School of Aeronautics acquires new facilities to form its own campus near Lynchburg Regional Airport.

CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT — 22

Read some inspiring stories from around campus.

MOVIES IN THE MAKING — 26

Center for Cinematic Arts launches its first classes.

ACADEMIC NEWS — 28

Highlights from the classroom and beyond.

WELCOME, COACH GILL — 32

Turner Gill is the Flames’ new head football coach.

ATHLETIC NEWS — 34

NCAA and Club Sports programs show success.

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE ... — 36 Liberty honors its 2011 generous supporters.

On the cover: The new Hancock Welcome Center PUBLISHER Jerry Falwell, Jr. S E N I O R M A N A G I N G E D I TO R Mitzi Bible CO N T R I B U T I N G E D I TO R S Becki Falwell Amanda Stanley CO N T R I B U TO R S Ron Brown Christi Gee Rachel Pickle Olivia Witherite GRAPHIC DESIGNER Carrie Bell

For more information about the Liberty Journal, call (434) 592-4955 or write to: Liberty University News Office 1971 University Blvd.

Lynchburg, VA 24502 Copyright 2012 by Liberty University.

Liberty University’s new center-hung video scoreboard was installed the first week of January in the Vines Center. The four-sided board, with LED high-definition video screens, debuted Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the first convocation of the Spring 2012 semester. Here, Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. addresses students at convocation on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

Extreme

Campus Makeover Liberty Edition

BY RON BROWN

LES SCHOFER

4

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

fter a decade of financial prosperity, Liberty University is embarking on a quarter of a billion dollar makeover of its core academic campus.

Over the past year, Liberty has sold $220 million in bonds to finance the project. The proceeds of the first bond sale, which included $120 million of tax-free bonds, must be used in the construction of educational related facilities. The latest sale included $100 million of taxable bonds, which can be used at the university’s discretion.

The bond sales were rated AA by Standard and Poor’s and A1 by Moody’s, the two most prominent rating agencies.

“S&P rated Liberty among the 80 highestrated and most financially secure universities nationwide. We are extremely proud that such a young university was rated so highly,” said Chancellor and President Jerry Falwell, Jr. While Liberty’s campus makeover is expected to begin full bore this Spring, the reshaping of main campus actually began three years ago when a new campus bookstore was built.

That project was followed by renovations to the university’s outdoor track and soccer facilities and major additions to the Arthur L. Williams football stadium, which included a second deck on the home side of the field and a 110-foot-tall enclosed tower with VIP suites, conference rooms and press boxes.

Over the past year, the university has added a new Welcome Center adjacent to the football stadium. All new facilities are being based on a Jeffersonian architectural model, which was a favorite of the university’s founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

“The goal is to ‘put our best foot forward’ and create the best possible first impression with every prospective student, their families and other visitors to campus,” Falwell said.

“One of our slogans at Liberty over the years has been, ‘If it’s Christian, it should be better,’ and we want our visitors to experience that at the new front door of our campus.” PA G E 6 LIBERTY JOURNAL

5

“All the moves and relocations will be a challenge but these growing pains will pay huge dividends over the long term.”

-Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr.

CO L I N M U K R I

(Top) The Hancock Welcome Center nears completion. (Bottom) Plans are under way to expand the Vines Center, now home to the Liberty Flames basketball and volleyball teams. An upper deck will be connected to the ring that supports the dome portion, increasing seating from 9,000 to 14,000.

Originally built in 1990, the Vines Center currently serves as the primary location for campus concerts, indoor sporting events, and large community events. Convocation, North America’s largest weekly gathering of Christian students, is also held in the Vines Center three days a week.

D AV I D D U N C A N

6

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

The crown jewel of this year’s construction projects will be the commencement of construction on the new $50 million Jerry Falwell Library, which will pay tribute to Liberty’s late founder.

“It will be so exciting to watch the transformation of this campus through to its completion. The 1970s-era metal buildings will be replaced with modern academic and residential structures of the highest quality,” said Charles Spence, Liberty’s Director of Planning and Construction.

Several years ago, the university decided to level off the growth of its residential enrollment at around 12,000 students.

Online enrollment will continue to grow to nearly 80,000 students. Over the next few years, just the opposite will happen. Online enrollment will level off and, with the new improvements, residential enrollment will begin to move toward 20,000 students.

Construction is scheduled to begin on the new library on March 1. The new building

will include state-of-the-art features, such as a robotic book retrieval and delivery system that will quietly bring the selected book to the student’s desk.

The new retrieval system will allow the library to store a collection of a half-million volumes in about 10 percent of the space used by traditional library stacks.

By reducing the amount of space devoted to book storage, the new library will have more space for quiet study, group study and learning labs. Dr. Carl Merat, Library Dean, and his staff have worked with a number of architects and consultants to design the new library.

Construction of the library will begin after a portion of the once essential Schilling Center is razed to clear the way for construction.

In planning for the library construction, university officials had to hurriedly decide what current offices and gyms located in the Schilling Center will be relocated.

“New gyms for Kinesiology classes are now under construction adjacent to the LaHaye Student Union and the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center at Green Hall,” Falwell said.

“These gyms will serve as the replacement for the northern section of the Schilling Center when it is demolished to make way for new academic buildings in the next two years.”

In similar ways, the university will be continuously shuffling the deck when seeking accommodations for employees and students over the next several years.

As Liberty demolishes and replaces academic buildings over the next few years, some academic departments will have temporary homes.

R O B E R T L L E W E L LY N

VMDO ARCHITECTS CO L I N M U K R I

Liberty has decided to purchase the In another area of the campus, the university old Thomas Road Baptist Church/Liberty will build two new vehicular tunnels under Christian Academy campus on Thomas the railroad tracks to Wards Road at Harvard Road in Lynchburg to house certain Street. This will eliminate a dangerous Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect departments temporarily. at-grade vehicular crossing that leads on and Liberty University Baptist Theological off campus near Sonic. The University plans Seminary and Liberty’s New Media to build a fence to prohibit students from Communications Center will be two of the walking or driving across the railroad tracks. first functions to move to the church campus, Falwell said history tells us that Liberty will probably this spring. accomplish its campus makeover in a costThe Center for Worship will share the efficient and time-efficient manner.

Elmer L. Towns Religion Hall with the “Liberty’s construction team has repeatedly School of Religion temporarily and Towns amazed other universities with the speed they Hall will become the permanent home of the are able to complete new projects,” Falwell said.

Center for Worship when a new permanent, While the campus makeover may create freestanding academic hall for the School of temporary hassles for students and employees, Religion and the Seminary will be built on Falwell said the need for construction is a new spacious lawn near the Jerry Falwell ultimately a gift from God. Library in the next 18 months.

“As our nation experiences difficult economic “All the moves and relocations will be a times, I think we need to reflect on how Liberty challenge but these growing pains will pay huge has been blessed,” he said. dividends over the long term,” Falwell said.

This early rendering (left) shows the new Jerry Falwell Library. The building will incorporate more Jeffersonian elements than shown here, but will be a blend of Jeffersonian features and modern architecture. The new law school at the University of Virginia (top) used a similar architectural blend.

(Top) Construction began in August 2011 on a new rooftop patio on Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center. The spacious veranda will provide a beautiful view from the heart of the academic campus. The project is expected to be completed in May. (Bottom) New gyms have been added to the LaHaye Student Union next to the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center.

LIBERTY JOURNAL

7

A New Era

of community cooperation

BY RON BROWN

Liberty University Chancellor and President Jerry Falwell, Jr. said the 40-year-old school serves as a pivotal factor in the financial growth and health of Central Virginia’s retail, construction and real estate markets.

With more than $1 billion in assets and more than 7,000 acres of undeveloped land, Liberty’s economic impact on the Lynchburg region is substantial.

8

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

Liberty has a stated goal of enrolling 20,000 residential students in the near future, a projection that is having a positive ripple effect on collateral businesses in the region, particularly at a time that the national economy is struggling.

This spring, Liberty will begin about a quarter of a billion dollars in facility upgrades that will provide jobs for the region’s construction workers and skilled tradesmen.

Liberty itself employs more than 6,000 workers (3,591 FTE), who provide support services for the current 12,560 residential students and more than 65,000 online students who are paying tuition and fees that pump millions of dollars each year into the local economy.

The explosive growth of Liberty is a key reason that Lynchburg, Va., is seen as an emerging community among Virginia’s cities.

In the past decade, primarily because of the growth of its online student body, Liberty has rocketed past the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech in student enrollment.

Liberty is now the largest four-year university in Virginia and the eighth largest private university in the country.

Over the past several years, Liberty University’s planning team has worked diligently to improve professional relationships with local and state governments. As a result,

critical infrastructure improvements that will have significant positive impacts on vehicular and pedestrian safety have been completed or will be completed in the near future.

Liberty and the City of Lynchburg shared the cost of building a pedestrian bridge over heavily traveled Wards Road. Liberty also paid for a pedestrian tunnel under Norfolk Southern’s railroad tracks, where students once crossed at an at-grade crossing.

Since 2007, Liberty has made several decisions that are mutually beneficial to the university and the Central Virginia community. Liberty has agreed to move its indoor athletic events to a regional civic center if that facility is built. A feasibility study done of the project indicated that Liberty’s participation as a primary customer greatly enhances the prospects for the civic center.

Liberty also made a decision several years ago to use the Greater Lynchburg PA G E 10

CARTER WINGFIELD

LIBERTY JOURNAL

9

JOSH RICE

Liberty has proposed the construction of a new Amtrak train station near Lynchburg Regional Airport, which could be updated to a regional air travel hub.

Transit Company as the primary bus service for the campus, a move that provided the once struggling bus company with about 65 percent of its ridership.

Primarily because of Liberty’s involvement, GLTC has gone from a company with dilapidated buses and frequent breakdowns to a company with dependable, eco-friendly, fuel-efficient buses.

THE AMTRAK PROPOSAL Falwell believes that enhanced transportation services could provide a critical spark for Lynchburg’s economy and garner vastly improved flight and train travel opportunities for the region.

Falwell said both Roanoke and Danville are only an hour away from Lynchburg and are connected by major arterial highways

10

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

(U.S. 460 and U.S. 29).

In keeping with his thinking, Liberty has proposed to Amtrak and the City of Lynchburg that it will provide the land and pay for the construction of a new Lynchburg train station adjacent to the Lynchburg Regional Airport, which could be upgraded to a regional air travel hub.

“It makes perfect sense,” Falwell said. “The location is much more convenient for all the residents of Central Virginia than the existing Amtrak station on Kemper Street. It is also about 15 minutes closer to Roanoke. Bus service was recently established for Roanoke residents using the Amtrak service in Lynchburg.”

The advantage to Liberty is that its students would be a short bus ride away from both the region’s air and train hub.

“Many of our students live in the eastern

United States, most of which is served by the current daily Amtrak service,” Falwell said.

The benefit to Amtrak is that it has a potential 20,000 student customers delivered to its doorstep.

“I suspect student ridership on Amtrak would double if the train station was closer to campus,” Falwell said.

Falwell said local business owners think the concept has merit.

If the new Lynchburg civic center is built as proposed, it will contain a hotel and convention center adjacent to the airport and the proposed train station.

ODD FELLOWS ROAD EXCHANGE Liberty’s land holding also could provide a financial windfall if a proposed interchange is built connecting U.S. 460 and

CO L I N M U K R I

CO L I N M U K R I

Odd Fellows Road in Lynchburg.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has put the project in the state’s six-year transportation plan in hopes of giving industrial businesses along Odd Fellows Road direct access to the U.S. 460/U.S. 29 corridor, the major arterial highways leading in and out of Lynchburg, both east and west and north and south.

Liberty could benefit because it owns all the land for a four-mile stretch along the southside of the U.S. 460/U.S. 29 corridor from Wards Road on the west to Campbell Avenue on the east.

Liberty could sell some of the land to support businesses that crop up around the proposed interchange.

The project is expected to be one mile long and cost $30.5 million. It could be under construction as early as July 2014.

CO L I N M U K R I

The new pedestrian tunnel connecting the Liberty University campus to Wards Road opened on Jan. 20. The tunnel was built to accommodate the needs of the nearly 7,000 students who live on campus, giving them easy and safe access to restaurants and stores along the busiest corridor in the City of Lynchburg. Pictured at top right is the entrance on the Wards Road side. From campus, the tunnel is accessed from a walkway across from Residence Hall 8 and from the intersection at Reber-Thomas Drive. Access from behind the Vines Center will not be available until later this fall, due to construction planned for the Vines Center and the new Jerry Falwell Library. A fence (top left) has been built near the railroad tracks on the Liberty campus to prevent students from crossing.

LIBERTY JOURNAL

11

A C A D E M I C E XC E L L E N C E

FINANCING THE FUTURE EXPANSION

BY CHRISTI GEE

VMDO ARCHITECTS

T

he comprehensive plan of new construction and renovation under way at Liberty University requires equally solid financial planning. After careful consideration and with construction costs at historical lows, the administration decided to issue bonds to fund the expansion.

“Our Board of Trustees decided that Liberty should take advantage of its strong financial condition and historically low interest rates to finance its ambitious building plans over the next few years,” explained Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. “We believe it would be unwise to use our cash reserves for capital improvements. Liberty is blessed. We are thankful for how Liberty continues to thrive when many universities are struggling.”

Liberty made its initial public offering of $120 million of tax-exempt

12

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

education facilities bonds in December 2010. On Jan. 11, 2012, the university announced its second IPO, this time in the corporate bond market selling $100 million of taxable bonds. Both bond sales allow the school to pay off construction costs over time, with the most recent issue not maturing until 2042.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a financial services company that publishes research on stocks and bonds, rated Liberty’s bonds “AA” in both 2010 and 2012. Qualifying for this rating places Liberty among the nation’s elite universities for financial stability and credibility.

In the latest report, S&P noted Liberty’s “exceptionally strong operating surpluses driven by continued growth in online enrollments and growing financial resources.”

Another company rating Liberty for the first time, Moody’s Investors Service, gave the university’s taxable bonds an “A1” rating and cited Liberty’s “uncommonly strong operating performance.”

The Moody report explained that its stable outlook on Liberty was based in part on “expectation of steady student demand, strong operating cash flow, maintenance of a sound base of financial resources.”

Whereas the 2010 non-taxable bonds allowed only for construction of facilities not used for religious worship, the bond sale this year will provide more flexibility since the funds can be used for any projects deemed most beneficial to Liberty’s purpose and mission.

The recent bond sale will support a full slate of capital projects,

including the new Jerry Falwell Library, the new medical school and additional student housing to accommodate the anticipated growth in residential enrollment to over 20,000 students. Renovations of several academic facilities will make the most efficient use of existing space and provide optimal learning environments.

Now is a financially opportune time for these projects.

Having grown to be the world’s largest Christian university, Liberty strives to maximize its use of funds, resources and physical space to ensure academic excellence for every student. The facilities and renovations afforded by the issued bonds will enable the university to maintain its high standards and place of prominence for current students as well as future Champions for Christ.

LIBERTY JOURNAL

13

MEDICAL SCHOOL

Moving forward

BY RON BROWN

J O E L CO L E M A N

14

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

iberty University has taken its first step toward establishing its new School of Osteopathic Medicine by hiring a dean who has years of experience practicing medicine as well as navigating all the procedures necessary to build a fully accredited school of medicine.

Dr. Ronnie B. Martin, a past president of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, comes to Liberty from the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, where he served as a professor, Associate Regional Dean, Associate Dean for Clinical Education and Vice Dean for Post Graduate Affairs.

He was a practicing physician for more than 20 years before primarily, but not exclusively, turning his attention on medical education in 2003.

As a practicing physician, Martin served as an emergency room doctor, a family physician and a director of medical clinics.

As a medical educator he played a leading role in founding, building and achieving accreditation for a fledgling osteopathic school in Colorado, but has also served in the role of an accreditor of osteopathic schools.

Liberty’s School of Osteopathic Medicine will eventually seek accreditation through the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation where Martin himself previously served. Liberty University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

The medical school will train doctors capable of providing world-class medical care in keeping with Liberty’s stated mission of global service. Because of the diversity of interests and global origins of Liberty’s student body, Liberty-educated physicians will likely be found practicing in communities around the world, in America’s military and, certainly, in Christian missionary service.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said students will be rewarded financially if they choose to practice medicine in Southside Virginia.

PA G E 16 Falwell said, “Liberty will

LIBERTY JOURNAL

15

“...the new Liberty University Center for Medical and Health Sciences will dramatically enhance our reputation as not only a distinctively Christian but also a world-class university.”

-Dr. Ronald S. Godwin

encourage its medical students to begin their medical careers in underserved communities in Southside Virginia and is strongly considering student loan forgiveness as an incentive in that regard.”

The Virginia Tobacco Commission approved a $12 million grant for the project in October 2011. It was the second largest grant ever authorized by the commission, which dispenses money obtained by the federal government in a landmark settlement with tobacco companies. The settlement money is intended to offset lost revenue to local tobacco farmers by providing grants to entities that accept the commission’s mandate that they help create jobs in those counties formerly so

16

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

dependent on tobacco-related jobs.

The medical school is eligible for the grant because it will be built on a site in that part of Liberty’s campus located just inside Virginia’s Tobacco District in Campbell County.

According to an impact study commissioned by the university, health care is the only growing employment sector in the tobacco region; in fact, in 2010, health-related jobs increased by 5.5 percent while employment as a whole decreased by 5.4 percent. A 27 percent increase in the number of available jobs in health professions is projected between 2008 and 2018. Currently, 2,169 healthrelated jobs remain unstaffed every year in the region because of a lack of trained personnel

to fill them. A certain number of the health professionals moving into Virginia’s Southside will themselves become employers and creators of even more jobs.

In addition to the medical school, Liberty will launch an expanded School of Health Sciences to train nurses and other skilled health and medical personnel. The School of Health Sciences is expected to enroll several thousand students from its inception, making it one of the largest schools on the Liberty campus. Both the medical school and the Health Sciences school will be led by their own deans.

Classes at the schools are set to begin in Fall 2013.

A growing interest by a number of

Dr. Ronnie B. Martin is the dean of the new School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Liberty students in studying medicine prompted the university to explore starting the medical program.

While the Tobacco Commission grant helps with startup cost, raising the lion’s share of the $40 million price tag for the new

100,000-square-foot facility will fall to the university. The new building will be originally named the Liberty University Center for Medical and Health Sciences, but could be renamed if a significant donor is found.

The schools are expected to create an additional 400 new jobs over the next five years. Liberty University is already one of the region’s largest employers with more than 6,000 employees (3,591 FTE).

The School of Osteopathic Medicine is expecting 140 students in its first year, growing to 600. The School of Health Sciences may eventually accommodate 5,000 students.

Students who live in qualified tobacco indemnification communities will receive a 5-percent tuition discount as part of Liberty’s agreement with the Tobacco Commission.

“The School of Health Sciences and The School of Osteopathic Medicine housed as they will be in the new Liberty University Center for Medical and Health Sciences will dramatically enhance our reputation as not only a distinctively Christian but also a worldclass university,” said Dr. Ronald S. Godwin, Liberty’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The new Liberty University Center for Medical and Health Sciences will be located in Campbell County, near Liberty’s paintball fields on Campus East.

LIBERTY JOURNAL

17

J O E L CO L E M A N

Making an impact Student Voting Critical To Liberty’s Future

By Ron Brown

Student voters are already having a positive impact on Liberty University’s future.

“We have registered a lot of students who have voted locally over the past several years,” said Mark Hine, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs.

Since students started voting locally, university representatives have found that local government officials seem more responsive to

18

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

local issues that could impact students.

Recent discussions between Liberty and Lynchburg officials about a zoning designation for the University seem to be concluding without public contention.

The city has essentially agreed to designate Liberty with an institutional zoning status that restores many of the freedoms and property rights the University had when it first relocated near Liberty Mountain.

J O E L CO L E M A N

Liberty argued that it is uniquely located because it does not border residential communities like other colleges in Lynchburg.

While many university officials support Republican candidates personally, Liberty as an institution is not concerned about the party affiliation of City Council candidates.

“Our objective was not to put in Republicans over Democrats,” said President and Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. “Our objective was to have students participate and for the City to have an incentive to address Liberty student needs. Fortunately, that is exactly what has happened.”

Falwell said student voter participation helped garner the new pedestrian bridge over Wards Road and a new pedestrian tunnel underneath the railroad tracks, two projects that will greatly enhance student safety.

“What matters is that our students are voting,” he said. “When our students vote, Council is responsive to their concerns. This proves that representative democracy works and, if our students stay involved, they will be treated as first-class citizens.”

The political reality is that the bulk of the city’s sales tax revenue has been generated in and around Liberty for years. Students pay a hefty portion of the sales and meals taxes authorized by City Council.

Before students started voting, there was a lag of urgency in addressing infrastructure improvements in key corridors, such as Wards Road, that surround the University.

The City recently paid Liberty $1.3 million after agreeing to join Liberty in constructing a pedestrian bridge over Wards Road.

“The students have benefitted from voting in a big way,” Falwell said.

In addition to the infrastructure improvements, Liberty students have benefitted from structural changes, such as Council’s decision to place a new voting precinct on Liberty’s campus. Liberty’s offcampus students also have an opportunity to influence the decisions of council members citywide.

As Liberty students actively vote, their influence is also felt by representatives at the state level, who are key decision makers in infrastructure improvement, such as roads.

J O E L CO L E M A N

LIBERTY JOURNAL

19

KEVIN MANGUIOB

Aviation Maintenance Technician students take classes at the new A&P Center.

BY MITZI BIBLE & OLIVIA WITHERITE

Liberty University School of Aeronautics students now have their own campus.

It was the vision of Dean Dave Young just two years ago, when the university looked to expand its aviation facilities after purchasing a charter aviation jet center at Lynchburg Regional Airport, just five minutes from Liberty’s main campus.

Soon thereafter, a 24,000-square-foot building adjacent to the property became available for purchase and opened as the university’s Aviation Academic Center last fall. The university also acquired a nearby building last year for its aircraft maintenance technician program — the School of Aeronautics A&P Center. Together with the flight operations center (now named Freedom Aviation and including a fully functional aviation business), the three facilities total close to 100,000 square feet.

20

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

“We’ve been very blessed in many ways,” Young said.

Freedom Aviation provides transportation for many of Liberty’s special guests, including convocation and commencement speakers.

From its humble beginnings of four students in 2002, Liberty University School of Aeronautics has expanded to about 400 students training to become missionary pilots, commercial pilots, flight attendants, aircraft technicians and other professionals in aeronautics-related fields.

The School of Aeronautics is the largest flight school in Virginia and one of the two largest Christian aviation programs in the United States.

During the school year, the program is responsible for about 55 flights out of Lynchburg every day. This spring, 178 students will take to the skies three times a week.

Bryan Strathdee graduated in May 2011 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Aviation from Liberty and is currently a flight instructor at the school, with a long-term goal of following in some

of his fellow alumni’s shoes and becoming a pilot for a major airline.

“I believe Liberty has been a huge help in preparing me for an aviation career,” he said.

“A number of the instructors have a large amount of experience in very different areas of aviation and are an excellent source of information about the aviation industry.”

One of the school’s recent successes is the Aviation Maintenance Technician Program (AMT), a one-year program that allows students to get hands-on experience working on airplanes. Originally started to meet the demands of missionary pilots, students earn their maintenance license with both airframe and powerplant ratings and are qualified to work on small single engine aircraft to airliners and helicopters in corporate and commercial aviation. Now in its third year, the program has expanded from one class to three, with 24 students training and performing aircraft repairs eight hours a day, five days a week at the new A&P Center.

“Statistics are that only 30 percent of students that enroll in a program like this

SON OF MISSIONARIES TAKEN HOSTAGE SOARS FROM LIBERTY TO AFRICA

Jeff Burnham, 2009 School of Aeronautics graduate, is serving in Botswana, Africa, where he lives with his wife, Sarah, and son, Tristan.

following year serving with Flying Mission Services, which provides air ambulance service to the critically ill. His wife, Sarah, and 4-month-old son, Tristan, joined him.

“Once I got here, I realized how well Liberty actually prepared me to be (in Africa) not only in my aeronautical knowledge, but also in how prepared I was for cross-cultural interaction,” Jeff Burnham said.

“I look back on my time at LU as the best of my life so far. The phenomenal education quality, practical experience, and Godly examples of professionalism and integrity displayed by my professors have been the foundation for my career

hired in the next 20 years.”

Also new to the School of Aeronautics is a concentration in unmanned aerial systems, launched last fall.

“We think of them as drones,” Young said, adding that the program allows them to keep up with the latest technological advancements in the aviation industry.

The school is currently partnering with Liberty’s School of Engineering to create its own system.

Liberty University School of Aeronautics offers a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics, with majors in Commercial/Corporate Aviation, Military Aviation, Missions Aviation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). An aeronautics minor is also available, along with an associate’s degree in flight attendant training.

in aviation. I am eternally grateful to those men who spent so much time helping me to grow spiritually and professionally over the years. I am convinced that no other college in the world has better faculty than LU.” When he graduated, he not only left behind his mentors — he left his plane, too.

The Burnham family donated it to Liberty.

“I have hundreds of hours flying that airplane and it is very dear to my heart. I hope the LU students who fly it now are loving it as much as I did.”

Follow the Burnhams on their family’s blog, jeffandsarahburnham.blogspot.com

J O E L CO L E M A N

graduate, but we’ve had almost 100 percent since we’ve started because we have a different mission,” said Bob Howell, AMT chair. “We take seriously the mentoring side of this and the spiritual development of the students, so we attract a higher quality student applicant, and consequently we’ve had a high level of success graduating students and licensing students.”

Job placement is 100 percent for graduates of this program, according to Ernie Rogers, Associate Dean for Academics at Liberty University School of Aeronautics.

“The job openings are getting so heavy, all these companies are coming to us now and offering jobs to students upon graduation,” he said. “It’s going to be that way for many years now. Industry experts are expecting 650,000 new aviation maintenance technicians to be

J E N N Y L AW

Flying your family airplane is not the typical way a student gets to college for the first time. Then again, much of missionary pilot Jeff Burnham’s life may seem atypical.

As a high school senior, Burnham first heard of Liberty University from his mother, Gracia Burnham, after she told her family’s story during Missions Emphasis Week at the school. Gracia and her late husband Martin were missionaries in the Philippines when they were taken hostage by the militant Abu Sayyaf Group for 376 days from 2001-2002 before Martin was killed in a firefight.

At the time of Gracia Burnham’s visit, Liberty had just started an aeronautics major with an emphasis in missions aviation, and she encouraged her son to check it out. He attended a College for a Weekend and was sure Liberty was the place for him. He flew his father’s plane to Liberty from his home in Kansas in 2005, with his family following by car.

Jeff Burnham graduated with an aeronautics degree in May 2009, with hopes of working for a major airline. But God had other plans. He answered the call to missions and was in Botswana, Africa the

The new Aviation Academic Center opened near Lynchburg Regional Airport last fall. Wayne B. Booth, a Liberty University donor and Board of Trustees member, conveyed the building to Liberty in early 2011 at close to half of its value. The building was appraised at more than $2.8 million.

LIBERTY JOURNAL

21

Christian Commitment

Champions for Christ As Liberty celebrates 40 years of Christian Commitment, students, faculty, staff and longtime supporters of the university continue to make their mark as Champions for Christ. Below are excerpts of stories from around campus. To view the full versions, including more photographs and some video interviews, go to www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal.

ACCELERATING THE COMPLETION OF THE GREAT COMMISSION Liberty University’s Center for Global Engagement plans to do everything they can “to reach the world in this generation” and especially so through an innovative and newly revised curriculum that will be launching this year.

The Global Studies degree program, which was previously deemed Intercultural Studies, will now provide special training to students who intend on living as Christians in different cultures while also maintaining a secular occupation.

The program, which will encourage a double major or minor in an “occupational skill” (such as business, education, teaching English as a second language or nursing) will equip Liberty University alumni to live and work in the heart of the world’s least reached places.

Like the Apostle Paul, who often made tents for a living, these Liberty graduates will be able to go to places and reach people who have been typically inaccessible to traditional missionaries, and do it without being tethered to financial supporters in their home country.

STUDENT’S RECOVERY FROM NEAR-FATAL CAR WRECK EMPOWERS HER MINISTRY

(TOP) Graduate student Julie Stillwagon traveled with a Liberty team to Rwanda in November 2011 to aid genocide victims. (ABOVE) Liberty students work at a camp for orphaned children in the Middle East last year.

22

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

Jennifer Barrick, a 20-year-old Women’s Ministry major, has had the opportunity to share her testimony of God’s grace in her life at Liberty and around the country.

After surviving a near-fatal car wreck on Nov. 5, 2006 in which Jennifer and her parents, Andy and Linda, and younger brother Josh were hit head-on from a drunk driver going 80 miles per hour a mile from their home, Jen’s life drastically changed. Not expecting to live through the night, she was in a coma for five weeks.

Jennifer, 15 years old when the wreck occurred, suffered brain damage, but her spiritual side was not affected at all.

While for a time she couldn’t even understand what a shoe or toothbrush was used for, she could recite all the Bible verses

K I M W I L S O N - W O L F C R E E K P H OT O G R A P H Y

she ever learned and sing her favorite praise songs.

Through a long and continuing recovery process, Jen’s memory is improving daily and she is becoming more independent, though she still struggles with impaired vision.

Being a student at Liberty University has helped her in the healing process.

Linda Barrick co-wrote the book “Miracle for Jen,” which details their family’s story. It will be released this March.

Jennifer Barrick speaks at a Bible study at Thomas Road Baptist Church with her mother, Linda, while being filmed for the Joni and Friends TV show.

CARING FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

J E N N Y L AW

Dr. David Wheeler, an evangelism professor, shares his own testimony of raising a daughter with disabilities who is now a bright and thriving student at Liberty. To promote further understanding in his classroom, he uses some practical interactive demonstrations to help his students identify with the disabled community.

Kara Wheeler is pictured with her father in December 2011.

HEART FOR HAITI is what we would like for these young people who are here at Liberty – [to take] the message and the actions of Liberty University to become a bold expression out in Haiti … They’re not going to accept it [the world’s view of their country] and speak out and work out against it.”

KEVIN MANGUIOB

Wallace and Eleanor Turnbull meet with Haitian students in the International Student Center.

KEVIN MANGUIOB

Sixty and counting. That’s the number of years Wallace and Eleanor Turnbull have served the Lord as missionaries in Haiti, making a huge impact on what has traditionally been called the poorest country in the Americas. We can say “and counting” because now, as residents of Lynchburg, Va., the Turnbulls’ work continues in the lives of Haitian students at Liberty University.

Through financial assistance and support from the Turnbulls, more than 13 Haitian students have studied at Liberty in all different majors, with seven currently enrolled, all promising to return to their homeland armed with the career skills and Christian values so desperately needed there.

“With the way the world has painted Haiti – economically, intellectually and socially and morally – we believe the inside of Haiti has a different look and a different possibility,” said Eleanor Turnbull. “That

LIBERTY JOURNAL

23

Christian Commitment ROOTING FOR THE FLAMES COMES EASY FOR LIBERTY ‘GREETER’ If you call Terry Falwell on the phone, the first thing you will probably hear on the other end is, “You going to the game?” Falwell, second cousin of Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., is the community liaison for the Visitors Center at Liberty University, and has only missed one Liberty home football game since the program’s inception.

Terry Falwell credits his father’s first cousin and Liberty founder, Jerry Falwell, Sr. for his love of sports, recalling him often coming over to help him practice baseball.

“I grew up with Jerry Senior. He had a vision for Liberty sports and used to really talk about it so much and what they were planning on doing. I believed in what he was saying, and I never missed but one football

game at home. … The day Jerry Falwell died, he also had never missed but one. So, he was dedicated.”

Keeping Dr. Falwell’s love of sports and support of the Flames going strong, Terry Falwell raised his children to make Flames sports a family event. He and his wife, Barbara, have four children, ranging in age from 13 to 36, and four grandchildren.

KEVIN MANGUIOB

Terry Falwell is the community liaison at the Visitor’s Center and one of the Flames’ biggest fans.

24

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

I

BY RACHEL PICKLE

n its tradition of supporting the Christian message in media, Liberty University hosted a special January screening at the School of Law for select students, faculty and university leaders of the new film October Baby from award-winning directors Jon and Andrew Erwin.

Scheduled to open in theatres on March 23, October Baby is a life-affirming movie of adventure, romance, truth and the choice – the power – to forgive.

Hannah, played by newcomer Rachel Hendrix, is a 19-year-old college freshman who suddenly collapses on stage during her theatre debut. Rushed to the hospital for numerous tests, Hannah learns that her epilepsy, asthma and depression are all the result of one thing: her traumatic birth experience. Although her protective parents try to shield her from the truth, Hannah discovers she was actually adopted after surviving a failed abortion attempt. Confused and angry, she sets out on a Spring Break road trip with an unexpected collection of friends and enemies in a classic Volkswagen mini-bus to find her hidden past.

Hannah’s search leads her to the abortion clinic’s attending nurse poignantly played by Jasmine Guy (of A Different World). Jason Burkey (of For the Glory) portrays Hannah’s best friend and Chris Sligh (of American Idol 2007) adds laughter at just the right moments.

Featured as Hannah’s father, John Schneider (of Smallville and Dukes of Hazzard) delivers

an authentic response of love and pain to his daughter’s life-shaking discovery and his own personal loss from the past.

This fictional story is drawn from hundreds of actual attempted abortion survivors’ stories.

October Baby marks the feature film debut of the Erwin Brothers, multiple Dove Award winners for music videos featuring Christian artists such as Casting Crowns, Michael W. Smith and Francesca Battistelli. Jon Erwin and Theresa Preson co-wrote the film. The movie is distributed by Provident Films (associated with Courageous and Fireproof), and Samuel Goldwyn Films (distributor of Fireproof, Amazing Grace and Facing the Giants) will market and distribute the film.

In an exclusive interview with Liberty University writers, actress Shari Rigby, who plays Hannah’s birth mother, shared her personal story of forgiveness and healing through the film’s production.

Having worked with the Erwins in an earlier Casting Crowns video, Shari was excited to join such talented directors again.

Upon first reading the script through very real tears, she knew God was leading her to share her own story of abortion from 20 years ago. “I knew it was my moment, my ‘I forgive you.’ moment. God met me right there,” she said of her brief though powerful time in front of the cameras. For Rigby the tears of release and healing for her character Cindy were even more her own tears of freedom and

forgiveness. She recalled, “I was right in the lap of God.” Her hope is that October Baby will be “life transforming” for audiences just as it was for her.

Rigby talked candidly about her perception of Christians in media and specifically in Hollywood. Making a career move to Los Angeles in 2009, Shari stressed that Christian filmmakers, “must create really great products … the best possible redeeming value pictures.”

The honest characterization, depth of story, and fair portrayal of human weakness gives October Baby’s audience reason enough to experience the film. But the recurring stream of forgiveness and hope will spark conversation and personal reflection long after leaving the theatre.

To view the trailer and early reviews, visit

www.OctoberBabyMovie.net

LIBERTY JOURNAL

25

D AV I D D U N C A N

Stephan Schultze is director of the new Center for Cinematic Arts.

BY MITZI BIBLE

Liberty University’s new Center for Cinematic Arts was launched this spring, with courses in screenwriting, motion picture directing and cinematography. This new program offers students the opportunity to gain real-world experience in a hands-on, product-driven education model.

Executive Director Stephan Schultze is actively involved in the film industry and remains in high demand, particularly in cinematography and screenwriting.

Schultze did his undergraduate work at Appalachian State University and graduate studies at Northern Arizona University. Before coming to Liberty, he was the founding director of The Zaki Gordon Institute, a film school in Sedona, Ariz., that trains hundreds of new filmmakers for careers in the industry.

26

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

After a short-lived career in advertising, Schultze decided to pursue his real passion for making movies. His desire to develop his writing and photography talent naturally fit within the structure of the film industry. His first job was in Gaffney, S.C., working on The Abyss. He started as a Production Assistant, but by the time the filming was completed, he had moved to Los Angeles and into the camera department. He quickly moved up the ranks to become Director of Photography. In between films, he began focusing on screenwriting.

Schultze learned filmmaking from the best while working on projects directed by James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Ron Underwood. He has worked in every possible aspect of the industry, including major motion pictures (Tremors, The Abyss, and

Henson Productions), television (Drew Carey Show, HBO, and Showtime), music videos, commercials, industrial videos and countless independent films, including The Lesser Evil (1998), which he co-authored and co-produced with Jeremy Levine (MGM).

As an educator, Schultze holds high expectations for Liberty’s new film school. His passion for art and for spreading the Christian message drives him to put forth his absolute best and expect the same from students.

“God’s first action was to create. He is creative and so arts should represent the spirit of creativity and the beauty of God, and in so doing it ought to represent the qualities that exist in that relationship, and that quality ought to exceed the expectations of the marketplace.

Simply put, the stories, technology, production,

sound design and deliverables should be competitive with mainstream media.”

The program is designed using a cohort system that will allow students to make contacts, creating a lifetime of support in their film career. Students take three core courses in filmmaking as part of their GNED (general education) requirement in their first two years at Liberty. At the end of the students’ sophomore year, they start the application process to continue in the Cinema major.

Candidates will spend their junior and senior years fully immersed in filmmaking.

“The most important connection you’ll make here, at Liberty, is the relationships with the people you’re with,” Schultze told students at an information session last fall. “If I was

“

doing this in a business curriculum, those are your contexts – if not for life, for the start of your career. It’s important to form those relationships and make them work for you.”

All Cinematic majors will graduate with their own short film, a polished screenplay, a business plan for their script, and production experience using all the technology currently being employed in the industry.

“It’s important to remember that students are entering into the film ‘industry,’ a very competitive industry where they will need to be businesspeople as well as filmmakers,” Schultze said.

Students will learn a wide range of practical knowledge to use in the field, gaining experience in testing and choosing

equipment, casting, music and sounds, screenwriting and pre- and post-production.

Schultze said $1 million of equipment has already been ordered to jumpstart the program.

Liberty will eventually have three sound stages and the program will be fully high-definition in both production and post-production.

“For me, I’m seeing a great opportunity,” Schultze said. “I’m not looking at retro-fitting a film school that exists ... I’m looking at those ideas and players that have a futuristic vision of what a film school ought to be. We have designed a curriculum that helps student outcomes reach that marker.”

For more information, visit www.liberty.edu/cinematicarts

God’s first action was to create. He is creative and so arts should represent the spirit of creativity and the beauty of God, and in so doing it ought to represent the qualities that exist in that relationship, and that quality ought to exceed the expectations of the marketplace.

”

LIBERTY JOURNAL

27

Academic News SCHOOL OF LAW RECOGNIZED FOR SUCCESS OF GRADUATES:

PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR MAKES TOP BOOKS LIST:

Liberty University School of Law was recognized by U.S. News & World Report for being in the top 17 percent of all law schools for placing graduates as law clerks for federal courts. Usually one- to two-year programs, federal clerkships are highly competitive and can help launch many into successful law careers.

“Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality,” by Dr. David Baggett, was selected for Christianity Today’s list of top books of 2011. The magazine received 390 submissions, which were narrowed down to 12 winners. The book was co-authored by Jerry Walls, and he and Baggett are currently under contract with Oxford University Press to write a follow-up book.

Dr. David Baggett’s book, “Good God,” was published by Oxford University Press in March 2011.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS NAMED FOR LONGTIME SUPPORTERS:

Ben Walton (’10) is a law clerk for Chief Judge Batchelder, Court of Appeals of Virginia.

ONLINE M.B.A. ONE OF TOP PROGRAMS NATIONWIDE: Liberty University Online’s Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) ranked among the top 25 M.B.A. programs nationwide in the first annual Smart Choice ranking.

SuperScholar, an online education database, researched all the regionally accredited online M.B.A. programs in the United States, basing the rankings on the institutions’ recognition and awards, accreditation, cost, admissions selectivity and market reputation. Liberty was ranked No. 1 in cost-effectiveness.

The rankings also showcase the quality of programs at non-profit schools, as all but one school on the list are non-profits.

28

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

In late October 2011, Liberty named its Graduate School of Business the A.W. and Lois Overton Graduate School of Business. Alton Woodley (“A.W.”) Overton was a successful businessman who owned one of the largest independent grocery store chains in Virginia in the 1940s and 1950s and who also had success in the real estate business. The Overtons traveled from Chesapeake, Va., once a month to attend Thomas Road Baptist Church and became friends with Liberty’s founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell.

A.W. passed away in 2003 at the age of 97; Lois died in 1999. Several members of the Overton family were present to accept the honor when the announcement was made at convocation.

Liberty offers four graduate degrees in business, and there are currently 4,500 students in Liberty’s graduate business programs.

The Graduate School of Business has been named for A.W. and Lois Overton.

PROFESSIONAL THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCED: In January, the Department of Theatre Arts announced the creation of the Alluvion Stage Company. Not only will the professional theatre company bring more shows to the university’s Tower Theater, it will also bring more national exposure to Liberty. Professional guest artists will be part of the cast and crew, which will also make the audition process (which features in-house and external auditions) much more competitive. The costumes and sets will meet professional standards, and because of the new company, some students will be able to graduate with professional experience and credit. The company’s first show will be Peter Pan, opening April 13.

Read the full versions of these stories at www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal

MATH EMPORIUM LAUNCHES THIS SPRING: In an innovative style of learning, Liberty’s new Math Emporium is allowing students in lower-level math courses to take computer-guided lessons, with teachers and tutors steps away. Students are required to attend a weekly class and then spend a minimum of three hours per week at the Math Emporium, which is open 80 hours a week. The emporium, located in Green Hall, features 252 computers in which assignments are delivered through “MyMathLab” software. The program allows students to work at their own pace and see immediate results and feedback.

Math instructor Estela Altamirano helps freshman Jordan Williamson in the new Math Emporium in Green Hall on Jan. 18.

NURSING PROGRAM GROWS WITH ADDITION OF COHORT:

QUIZ BOWL SWEEPS BIG SOUTH TOURNAMENT:

Liberty University’s nursing department added a new cohort program in Fall 2011 for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

According to Assistant Professor Shanna Akers, many nurses who are already in the field with either an associate or a hospitalbased degree are now required to return to school for a bachelor’s degree. The nurses in the program, many with more than 10 years of experience, meet at Lynchburg General Hospital once a week, in addition to their other coursework. The program takes about two years, allowing nurses to complete their degree while still working in the field. Akers has experienced the opportunities, both professional and educational, by earning a B.S.N. “The B.S.N. takes it up a notch and really makes it professional. The differences of an associate’s and a B.S.N. is you learn more about leadership, management, communication, and community health,” she said.

Liberty University’s Quiz Bowl team captured its sixth Big South Conference win in seven years at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., on Saturday, Jan. 28.

The team competed against six schools and walked away undefeated for the second year in a row. The average margin of victory was 190 points; they won their closest game by 140 points. In its out-of-conference

schedule last semester, the team defeated Duke University, University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, University of Pittsburgh, George Washington University and Western Kentucky University. The Quiz Bowl team is part of Liberty’s rigorous Honors Program.

The team has 18 players from a variety of majors, and six are National Merit Finalists on a full academic scholarship at Liberty.

Quiz Bowl team members are, left to right, Kaity Shondelmyer, Andrea Teachout, Dr. Jim Nutter (coach), Corbin Payne, Catherine Hardy and Jake Rogers (captain).

LIBERTY JOURNAL

29

Tragedies hit Liberty community In the last few months, the Liberty University community has lost some of its champions. Liberty continues to lift the families of these men and women up in prayer. time during convocation the day after the accident and taking up a special offering to help underwrite the remaining funeral expenses and to establish a scholarship fund in her memory.

They collected more than $12,000.

foundation for a school, then before dawn in Thailand we were boiling over 200 chickens to feed the hungry later that day. We sat on the bow of an old destroyer searching the horizon of the South China Sea for survivors.

The real Roscoe Brewer had dirty hands, and tired feet, and a broken heart for the lost.”

Read Town’s tribute and view pictures from those mission trips, along with a video interview with Brewer filmed in September 2011, at www.liberty.edu/libertyjournal.

Hannah Williams Liberty University student Hannah Williams, 18, was killed Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011 in an accident on a train trestle in Amherst County.

Chancellor and President Jerry Falwell, Jr. spoke at her funeral on Nov. 22 in her hometown of Sanford, N.C. He shared how Williams, a freshman, touched many lives at Liberty in her short time there. She had already been on a mission trip with the school, volunteering to help flood victims in the Northeast.

Falwell read some messages he had received from her friends, who spoke of her as “strong and outgoing,” “a beautiful woman of God,” “a born leader,” and someone who “loved people with a heart that was purely of God.” Also attending the service were Falwell’s wife, Becki; Liberty’s Senior Vice President for Student Affairs, Mark Hine; campus pastor Dane Emerick; and several Liberty students.

Williams had planned to study government and journalism at Liberty.

A memorial service was held on Nov. 29 at the nearby Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Students have shown their support for the Williams family, by holding a special prayer

30

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

Roscoe Brewer Roscoe Brewer, former chairman of Liberty’s missions department, ended his two-year battle with cancer on Dec. 8 at his home in Canton, Ga. Brewer served as a youth pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church, and later was named the director of missions at Liberty shortly after it was founded in 1971. Brewer hired several qualified professors with doctorates to teach in the program and led the department to regional accreditation.

“Rather than just offering college classes in missions and academic experience, Brewer pointed students to the mission field and went with them,” said Liberty co-founder Dr. Elmer Towns.

Towns recalled some of those trips in a tribute he wrote for Liberty’s website after Brewer’s death.

“I sat in a ditch in Haiti, pouring a

Robert DeVaul Robert E. DeVaul, Sr., 66, of Concord, died Jan. 21 after a battle with cancer. He was a photographer at Liberty for 12 years, from 1978-1991. From his campus studio, he documented news and events at Liberty, ranging from construction to sports to drama productions and dignitaries. DeVaul has photographed four presidents.

Les Schofer, friend and current senior photographer at Liberty, said DeVaul took about 170,000 images in his 12 years at the university.

His wife, Carol, worked with him in the studio, numbering and referencing every photo.

DeVaul arrived at Liberty at the end of the

first year of classes held at the current campus on Liberty Mountain in1978.

“Either Bob or I shot the pouring of concrete of every building erected on campus,” Schofer said.

Schofer spoke at DeVaul’s funeral. He said his friend “inhaled the dust, slugged through the mud, ran up and down the sidelines, and waded through the crowds with a couple of cameras and several lenses around his neck … all to ‘get the shots.’”

DeVaul had recently returned to work at Liberty, importing his images into Liberty’s digital archive.

“Tom flew my father and some of Liberty’s earliest student singing groups around the country to spread the word about the new college in a World War II vintage DC-3 airplane,” Chancellor Falwell said. “I learned in 2008 that Tom had become a successful businessman and I asked him to serve on Liberty’s Board of Trustees. He agreed and provided important leadership and wise counsel to the university in recent years.”

Coble earned his instrument, commercial and multi-engine ratings while he was a student at Liberty (then Liberty Baptist College). He graduated in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in church history.

Coble had more than 40 years of flying experience.

He lived in Burlington, N.C., with his wife, Debby. He was the president of Coble Trench Safety, a construction firm headquartered in Greensboro and specializing in underground equipment and training. He was the cofounder and treasurer of the Coalition of Concerned Christians Political Action Committee and Foundation located in Burlington.

Tom Coble Liberty University Board of Trustees member and alumnus Tom Coble died in a plane crash in Alabama on Friday, Jan. 20.

News reports say the crash occurred Friday evening at a small airport northeast of Birmingham, Ala. Coble was flying his L-39 fighter jet to Burlington, N.C., and crashed on departure.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said Coble will be remembered at Liberty for his work on the Board, for his support of Liberty’s School of Aeronautics and for being his father’s personal pilot. From early 1976 to mid-1979, Coble flew Liberty founder Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr. to speaking events all over the country.

in Lynchburg. The Rev. Anderson is Dean of Students at Liberty.

Stacia’s friend, Breanna Boyd, also died in the crash. The friends were seniors at Liberty Christian Academy.

Stacia had planned to attend Liberty and pursue a health-related career.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. spoke at Stacia’s funeral. He said it was difficult to understand why God would allow something so tragic to happen to such a wonderful daughter and sister, but he said it reminded him of a similar tragedy in his own family.

He told how, in 1931, his grandparents, Carey and Helen Falwell, had three children.

Their middle daughter, Rosha, was like Stacia; she had a winning personality and everyone loved her because of it. When she was 11, she became ill with appendicitis and died. Her parents were devastated. They were in their late 30s and had not planned to have more children but, after Rosha’s death, they decided to have one more child. After a miscarriage in 1932, Falwell said his father and twin brother were born in 1933 and that his father, Jerry Falwell, Sr., was named after Rosha (her middle name was Geraldine).

Falwell, Jr. explained that, in a way, his father was a living memorial to Rosha all his life. “The twins became the delight of my grandparents’ lives but they never stopped grieving for Rosha. I remember my grandmother still had a huge framed picture of Rosha on her wall when she died in 1977.”

He then told the Andersons, “I’m not saying you should now have twins, but I do believe that, despite all the pain, God has a plan for the Anderson family like He did for the Falwell family. It may be decades before that plan is revealed but there is a plan.

Romans 8:28 promises that all things work together for good for those who love God.”

Stacia Anderson Stacia Anderson, 17, the daughter of the Rev. Keith and Renee Anderson, died Friday, Jan. 6 in a car accident on Mayflower Drive LIBERTY JOURNAL

31

ACADEMIC LIFE

TURNER GILL named new head football coach

Turner Gill, 49, was named Liberty University’s new head football coach in December 2011. Gill has an extensive football résumé, from a standout quarterback at the University of Nebraska to the head coach at University at Buffalo-The State University of New York, and at the University of Kansas.

“I am both honored and grateful to be able to coach and mentor young men at a university which supports Jesus Christ as the personal Lord and Savior,” Gill said in his introductory press conference at Williams Stadium on Dec. 15, 2011.

Along with the announcement of the hire, Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. reported that Liberty is conducting a study to determine if it should reclassify its football program to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The school currently competes at the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in the Big

South Conference. The study is expected to be completed this spring.

“Given the unexpected turn of events, we believe the time is right for Liberty to conduct the FBS feasibility study, which is so important for our program to move to the level it was originally envisioned it would go,” Falwell said.

And Gill may be the one to take it there.

The Flames’ eighth head coach came highly recommended by coaches and athletic directors across the country. “(Gill’s) experience is at the level where we would like to take our football program,” Falwell said. “His Christian faith is strong and sincere and what any new recruit would expect to see in a Liberty University head football coach. I think Liberty University and Turner Gill were made for each other.”

Athletics Director Jeff Barber worked with Carr Sports Associates on the search

for a new head coach, immediately after the announcement in early December that former head coach Danny Rocco had accepted an offer at the University of Richmond.

“We had a strong amount of interest in the opening from individuals from all over the country. But when it came down to it, there were only a few individuals that had the strong Christian testimony, the character and the experience we were looking for,” Barber said. “We were looking for an individual who had coaching experiences at a higher level than where our football program currently plays, plus we wanted a man of strong personal character to continue to lead our program. … Once we identified Turner as one of these individuals and he expressed his interest back to us, that is when things started moving quickly.”

Gill received his first head coaching position in 2006, when he took over a struggling

Jesus Christ as the personal

D AV I D D U N C A N

32

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

(1980-83), Gill guided the Cornhuskers to a 28-2 record and an unblemished 20-0 record in conference play. He led Nebraska to threestraight Orange Bowl appearances.

Gill was a three-time Big Eight allconference selection, earned second-team AllAmerica honors and was a Heisman Award finalist, where he finished fourth in the voting in 1983.

Gill also played collegiate baseball for one season at Nebraska and earned All-Big Eight honors at shortstop. Following his collegiate career, Gill played two seasons in the Canadian Football League with Montreal (1984-85) and three years as a baseball player in the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers minor league systems (1986-88).

Gill comes to Liberty after serving two years as head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks. During his time in Lawrence, Kan., Gill coached 10 players who earned All-Big 12 honors.

Now at Liberty, Gill said he aims to “bring championships through Christ

by preparing young men academically, athletically and spiritually.”

“It is a great time to be a Liberty Flame, and it is time to lead forward to have an unparalleled future,” he said.

Gill completed his bachelor’s degree in behavior analysis at North Texas in 1990. The Fort Worth, Texas, native and his wife, Gayle, have two daughters, Jordan and Margaux.

K A N S A S AT H L E T I C S

University of Buffalo Bulls program. During his second year at Buffalo, he was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. In 2008, he led the Bulls to their first-ever postseason bowl appearance in the International Bowl.

Gill’s longest coaching tenure has been at his alma mater, where he served as an assistant coach from 1992 to 2004. He served as the Cornhuskers’ quarterbacks coach from 1992 to 2003 and wide receivers coach during his final year with the program. Gill instructed two All-America quarterbacks at Nebraska, including Heisman Trophy winner Eric Couch (2001). He was part of a coaching staff that guided Nebraska to 13-straight bowl appearances and three national championships (1994, 1995 and 1997).

Gill was honored himself in 2002 when he was a finalist for the Frank Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach.

During his playing career at Nebraska

GILL’S HIRE AS COACH DRAWS NATIONAL ATTENTION Liberty’s announcement of Turner Gill as the program’s eighth head football coach not only drew attention from the greater Lynchburg and Central Virginia area, but it also helped put the Flames in the national sports spotlight.

National sports web sites like ESPN.com and CBSSports.com were quick to pick up the story about the former Nebraska standout quarterback and Buffalo and Kansas head coach taking over the reins on Liberty Mountain.

In addition, some well-known collegiate and professional football coaches and administrators from around the country told LibertyFlames.com their personal thoughts on Liberty’s decision to hire Turner Gill to lead the Flames’ football program: I love Turner Gill! His integrity, class and leadership will bring success to Liberty University. He has a great football mind, is a great leader of young men and he leads by example which is what you are looking

for in a head coach at Liberty. I am thrilled for Turner and Liberty University!

Tony Dungy Former Super Bowl Champion coach of the Indianapolis Colts Current television analyst for NBC’s Football Night in America Turner Gill is a quality human being. He will fit the mission and goals of Liberty University perfectly. He relates very well to his players and will develop men of character that fit the unique mission of your institution. I am delighted that Liberty University has showed confidence in Turner Gill and given him the opportunity to lead the program to greater heights.

Tom Osborne Former Nebraska Head Football Coach Current Nebraska Athletics Director

and then the desire to implement those values through football, for me, there was only one candidate who fit perfectly and that is Turner Gill. I have known Turner since he was in high school, through the time he has been a player and coach and throughout all the success he has enjoyed in the game of football. He has a great approach to dealing with young people and teaching them how to be men of character. Without question, Coach Gill will take Liberty University where they want to go.

Grant Teaff Executive Director, American Football Coaches Association Congratulations on a terrific hire at Liberty University!

Ian McCaw Baylor Athletics Director

When the athletics director from Liberty University explained the goals, plans and commitment for the institution LIBERTY JOURNAL

33

Athletic News WRESTLING

FOOTBALL The football team finished with its fifthstraight winning season and landed in the top 25 in the FCS coaches’ poll. Three players earned All-America honors.

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY The Lady Flames earned a top-two finish and a Big South Conference Team Sportsmanship Award. Redshirt junior Jennifer Klugh won her second-consecutive Big South women’s cross country individual title.

LES SCHOFER

WOMEN’S SOCCER The Lady Flames were selected by the conference’s student athletes to receive the Big South Conference Team Sportsmanship Award. The team reached the semifinals of the Big South Women’s Soccer Championship and finished the season with a 9-8-3 record.

VOLLEYBALL

34

W W W. L I B E R T Y. E D U

The team finished the season first in the Big South. It was led by redshirt junior Zac Edwards who was named 2011 Runner of the Year.

RACQUETBALL In its first season, the men’s racquetball team has seen growing interest in the sport and has hosted two tournaments on its home courts at The Sports Racket, bringing in colleges from across the East Coast. A women’s team is being formed and will begin competing in Fall 2012.

MEN’S SOCCER The men’s soccer team had a successful season on and off of the field. The team won both the Big South title and the Big South Conference Team Sportsmanship Award, as voted upon by other student athletes. The team went 11-6-3 with huge wins over No. 10 University of Virginia and No. 9 Coastal Carolina. Two former players were selected in the Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft in January.

FIELD HOCKEY In its inaugural season, the field hockey team finished 6-11. Since the season came to a conclusion in November, the team has spent much time volunteering in different organizations, such as Operation Christmas Child and the Liberty Godparent Home.

Head coach Jodi Murphy also founded and runs Pathfinder Hockey, a non-profit organization that uses field hockey as a platform to bring change to young people around the world, specifically in Uganda.

M A N N Y G A E TA N

The volleyball team broke a conference record by winning its sixth Big South tournament title, which earned them an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship. Three players were named to the Big South Volleyball Championship AllTournament team: Loren Thomas, (MVP), Lillie Happel and Kelly Haseman. Coach Shane Pinder was named the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) State Coach of the Year.

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

LES SCHOFER

Liberty’s wrestling team took home the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) National Duals trophy in Dalton, Ga., on Jan. 28. The Flames took down Lindenwood-St. Charles in the final to win the two-day tournament. The win marks the first national title the Flames have won after being reclassified from a NCAA Division I program to a club sport at the end of last season. During the weekend, the Flames joined other schools in a NCWA service project, volunteering at City of Refuge, a homeless shelter in Atlanta, Ga.

PAINTBALL

CREW

MEN’S HOCKEY The Flames have posted huge wins this season, including over No. 1 Penn State at home. Because of its success, the team has been ranked high throughout the season by the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

The crew team had an exciting season, including a trip to the Boston Regatta to row at the same event as many professionals.

The men’s and women’s teams ended their season at the Head of the South in Augusta, Ga., where they finished second overall.

CHEC

The paintball team is working toward Nationals in April and along the way has beaten many top teams, including last year’s champion, the University of Tennessee.

TRIATHLON The men’s team placed second overall and the women’s team placed third in the MidAtlantic Conference. Earlier in the season, two members and the coach qualified for the world championships in New Zealand this year. A member of the team, Jaime Azuaje, competed in a separate event, a triple-iron triathlon, which consisted of a 7.2 mile swim, 336 mile bike and 78.6 mile run.

B A R N E Y D AV I S

S COT T H I L L

WOMEN’S HOCKEY The team has pulled off significant wins this season, including over last year’s champion, Michigan State, and Colorado State University. The team has been ranked highly during the season and will compete through March.

ARCHERY

DISC GOLF In its first year, the disc golf team qualified for Nationals, which will be held in midApril. The year-round team will host the National Collegiate Qualifier for National Championships in March on its newly designed course.

The team won national titles at the U.S. Collegiate Archery Association’s 3-D Archery National Championships Oct. 21-23, 2011, in Ohio. The men’s and women’s teams practice on Liberty’s 10-acre, 3-D target range.

JOSH RICE

LIBERTY JOURNAL

35

The President’s Circle 2011

The President’s Circle

Champions give of themselves and their resources and Liberty celebrates this partnership.The President’s Circle is a listing of those whose giving to Liberty University qualifies for one of the following categories. This list recognizes donors from Jan. 1, 2011-Dec. 31, 2011.

$1 Million and above Individual Donors

T. Sherwin Cook Philip Garvin Pou, Jr.*

$500,000 - $999,999 Individual Donors

Evelyn R. Gerling * Walter Russel Horner Jr. * Mr. & Mrs. Glen Nelson Thomas Mr. & Mrs. Jimmy N. Thomas Jr.

$100,000 - $499,999 Individual Donors

Margaret Ashman * Lora Cook * H. Glenn Esbenshade Wanda S. Frantz Elliott * George Marshall Guill Jr. * Mr. & Mrs. J. William Luurtsema Mr. Richard M. Osborne Marion Helen Richardson * Floyd W. Smith * Albert R. & Nancy J. Suehrstedt * Margaret B. Virkkunen * Dora I. Whaley *

Organizations Bailey Family Trust, Inc.

$50,000 - $99,999 Individual Donors

Kenneth Beard Melvin W. Buster * A. Mark Dooley * Helen Hermestroff Mr. Gordon Easton Smith Charles Redford Stone Charlotte Stone * Mrs. Margie Parker Woodhouse

Organizations A. L. Williams Jr. Family Foundation Inc. Joel D. and Clara John Family Foundation

$25,000 - $49,999 Individual Donors

Niki A. Canciki Orkenith S. Crisp * Mr. Richard M. Cundy Jerry Falwell Jr. L. T. Falwell Frances M. Fletcher * Mr. Edward F. Gage Esther Guy William W. Hanlin Barbara Hanshew Mrs. Nedra H. Hendricks Miss Frances Bevier Hiller Charles McCrary Lynn O. Schickling Sr. *

36

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

Miss Pauline Van Meter Adrian C. Vandenbosch * Pete Vann Archie W. Wilson M.G.W. Communications Inc. The John Calvin Bible Foundation

John & Linda Muckel Foundation ProVantage Corporate Solutions, L.L.C. The Clemens Family Corporation The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. Timberland Mulch and Tree Farm Inc. West Cabarrus Church, Inc.

$10,000 - $24,999

$5,000 - $9,999

Verne Bedwell Jeffrey F. Benson Roberta A. Boyce Mr. Henry Gleen Bridges Gene Cahill Mr. Ralph E. Campbell Jack Carter Worth Harris Carter Barry Clarkson Mr. & Mrs. Thomas L. Coble Evelyn Dotson Paul F. Eagle * Jeff Gaura Mr. & Mrs. Louis W. Hebener Mr. Leslie F. Hildreth Bryant Hilliard Sylvia Vesta Hodge * Norman K. A. Hoffer Barbara Horton Mr. & Mrs. Carroll Hudson Mr. Harmon Hale Johnson Mr. Dwayne J. Kamphuis Thomas W. Kirkpatrick Phyllis J. Leggett * Linda Gaye Martin Mrs. Helen M. Minor Melvin M. Minor * Mr. Richard Mohler Mr. & Mrs. Paul A Morrell Wesley E. Olson * Mr. & Mrs. Ben M. Patterson Rev. & Mrs. Edwin R. Patterson John Earl Poche Chester W. Province * Mr. David S Rochkes Mr. & Mrs. Karl C. Salz Mrs. Madge R. Scharber Dwight L. Sebert * Mrs. Marlene Senner Geroge Shank George R. Spriggel * Mr. Arthur W. Sutton Mr. L. Jack Swertfeger Mr. & Mrs. John Taylor Fred R. Waugh James L. Weaver * Paul Wills I

Anonymous Dr. & Mrs. Gregg R. Albers Ms. Jean W. Anderson June Billingham Mr. Jennings Bryan Birtch Faye Booher Frederick D. Bornman * Anthony E. Brown Gregory Allen Clendenin Mr. Daniel Paul Copp Edith Davidson Mrs. Bernice Dudley Mrs. Virginia L. Ecker Maude L. Freehauf * Monty Fritts Carey Green Keith Kreft Mr. Jon Henry Lienemann Ingeborg Marcum Mrs. Mildred S. Martin Kenneth J Mase Barbara Metzler Frank Miller Mary Irene Miller Mr. Stephen Garrett Mock Mrs. Yvonne S. Oshima Mr. Earl Lloyd Redding Daniel C. Schuster Mike Scranton Mr. Jesse Benjamin Stephens Mr. Edward Frances Sweeney Terrance J. Tigges Roy Unsin * Robert J. & Eva M. Vanerschuur * Carey Wrenn

Organizations

Individual Donors

Organizations Benham Foundation ExxonMobil Foundation Herr Family Foundation

Individual Donors

Organizations Agape Embassy Ministries Amity Christian Church Fair Oaks Church First Baptist Church of Oviedo Go Tell Ministries Inc. H.J.H. Foundation Messmaker Foundation Morningside Evangelical Friends Church Inc. North Metro First Baptist Church of Gwinnett Inc. The Surtman Foundation Venture Church Wells Fargo Foundation Yorktown Baptist Church

$2,500 - $4,999 Individual Donors

Anonymous Alvick Acevedo Mrs. Anna Alajajian Imran Ali Catherine Allen Justin Amos Kathy Anderson Miss Georgiana L. Arakaki Helen P. Arnold * Ashley Bagwell Mr. S. Claude Baker Timothy Baldree David Bell Avis Bennett Patricia Bennett Mr. William E. Berg Matthew Bingham Ginger Blacksmith Kassie Booker Mr. Andrew Walter Bowling Kelly Boyer John Boyle Marshall Brainard Joan Bream Mr. John S. Brill Alva Brown Mr. & Mrs. Dave Brown Mr. & Mrs. William Philip Brown Joseph Cantrell Brad Carlson Sylvia Carnell Erma H. Christensen * John Clack Adam Clark Dominique Claros Lori Compton Cynthia Copp Nakia Crawford Mr. Jerry Craycraft Marsha Crowder Diane Curley Russell Davis Tracey De Blank Mrs. Mary M. Deacon Daniel Deig Debora Durden Linda Ebert Donna Greene Edwards Mr. Louis M. Edwards Tim Edwards William K. Emmanuel Thomas W. Eppes Teri Faucette Natalie Flake Roger Flynt Colleen Frackleton Mr. Joseph A. Furry Ms. Florence Galaska * Estate Gift

Ruth A. Gardiner Mr. & Mrs. Keith S. Gilroy Steven Glover Nancy J. Good Dean Goon Pamela Green Sandra Grimes Mrs. Betty J. Grimm Brenda Griswold Cory Hallett Mr. Robert Handwerker Mr. Kenneth Jay Haven Mrs. Elizabeth Hay Mrs. Wanda Harper Henry Victoria Hernalsteen Michael Herndon Mr. Scott M. Hicks Don Holder Mrs. Chrys S. Holley Michael Dana Horsley Mr. & Mrs. Brian Hufhand Mr. James Larry Ingram Phillip Jamerson Mrs. Leah J. Jeffries Eric Johnson Ray Jones George Joyner Ronald Justice Elizabeth Kargbo Megan Kelton Mr. William C. Kemp Jeffery Michael Klann Susan Klingensmith Brian Landry Mrs. Dormea Lee Lindsey Mr. Eric Nathaniel Lingenfelter Tabatha Lipscomb Robert Lunger Todd M. MacDowall Mr. Homer Massey Susan Matherlee Mr. William F. Mausolf Lauren McEachin Mr. Karl D. Miller Mr. Mark Gene Minar J. Arthur Moore * Richard Morgan Larry Moxley Christina Musser Joyce Myers Mark C. Nazigian Mrs. Julia J. Neal Kristina Olson Mark Overbeek Mr. & Mrs. Bill Parker Patricia Pearce Mr. & Mrs. Galen Edward Peel Mr. Gregory Zane Pendell Dr. & Mrs. Craig Petry Miss Helene Susanne Pilz

Denise Pointer Nicole Powers Mr. & Mrs. George L. Rabine Alwyn Rapose Mr. & Mrs. Jack S. Reid John Reisig Mrs. Karin Renner Kamryn Reynolds Brandy Reynolds Brandon Rhodes Miss Margaret E. Richardson Rebecca Rivers Thomas A. Rogers Clarence Perry Rutherford Greg Sarchet Mrs. Fredia D. Schnure Mr. David A. Smiley Archie Smith Elizabeth Smith Lauretta Smith Tony Spangler Charles Starbuck * Sarah Strohman Mrs. Marian D. Sullivan Mr. Bruce Allen Summers Jodi Tarnstrom Robert Theodore Jenny Tollison Bonnie Torrence Robin Trott Paul Tucker Darryl Updike Claresa Venson Mable Weatherby Mr. Brett E. Weiss Emily Wenger William Floyd White Mrs. Wilma P. White Mr. & Mrs. Don Widener Keith Williams Mr. Harry C. Wilson Jewel E. Wilson Mr. Warren L. Witschey Mr. & Mrs. Scott Wolf Mrs. Laura Yockey Sandra Young

Organizations Abundant Life Christian Fellowhip Bank of America Matching Gifts Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Bee Line Transport Inc. Believers Bell Shoals Baptist Church INC. Cleveland Community Church Inc. Cornerstone Chapel Deep Creek Baptist Church E.C.P L.L.C. Emmanuel Baptist Church-Johnstown First Baptist Church of Rockville First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel

First Baptist Church-Milan First Baptist Church-Pikeville Foundation for Hope, Inc. Fragra-Matics MFG Co. Inc. Franklin Heights Baptist Church Grace Baptist Church-Bowie Grace Bible Church-Mena Grove Hill Baptist Church Iglesia Bautista Central De Greenacres Ironbridge Baptist Church Lebanon Community Fellowship Lloyd Concrete Services, Inc. Lynchburg Ready Mix Concrete Co Inc. Maplewood Baptist Church Moore’s Electrical & Mechanical Construction, Inc. New Life Church-Gahanna Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia Powell’s Truck & Equipment/ Idealease, Inc. Seay Construction LLC Simventions Inc. The Tabernacle Inc. Thriving Churches International Total Packaging Services L.L.C. Tunecore United Technologies ValleyDale Church Wincare Chiropractic Center

$1,000 - $2,499 Individual Donors

Dr. Eugene G. Adams Mr. Jon Adams Peter Agnoletto Edwin Allen Mrs. Elizabeth Allen Lorena M. Allen Mrs. Sara H. Almes Bryan Richard Anderson Robert Anderson Steve Andrews Sandra Armstrong Mr. & Mrs. Tom Arnold Miss Teena Atchley Mr. Doward Austin Margaret Austin Philip Eugene Ayers Spencer Ball Sue Banks Chelsey Barba Jeff Barber Arnold Barnes Earl Barnett Ryan Barr Mr. Gilbert C. Bartel Earl Baynard Jimmy Jack Beale Mr. & Mrs. Fred N. Beason Benny Bennington

Mr. James D. Berens Mr. John A. Berg William Bevens Anna Biddison Mark Bilger Mr. David Bingham Betty Birtch Gary Bixby Paul Bloomfield Sallie Blosser Douglas Blumenthal Gary Wayne Boardman O. H. Bobbitt Thomas Boderck * Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Bonheim Neal Bosche Mr. Darin Bowers Natalie Bowie Mr. & Mrs. James E. Brandt Barbara Braun Shannon Bream Mr. Sheldon Arthur Bream Mr. & Mrs. John Brennan Mr. Ralph Brigman Mr. & Mrs. Fred F. Bryant Joel Bullock Michael Burton David Byrnside Russell Calfee William & Helen Campbell * Tara Cantrell Mr. & Mrs. Philip A. Captain Mr. Berton E. Card Blake Carl Mr. & Mrs. Brian Carter Mr. Robert Elliott Carter Mr. David E. Carwile Mr. & Mrs. Alberto Chalmeta Ashley Cheshire Leandro Chico Dr. Hyun David Chung Jason Cobb Carolyn Coburn Wayne Cocke Mr. Charles N. Cole C. Peter Cole Eileen Colein William Collins Kurt D. Cornfield Mr. Kevin Corwin Mr. Gene Cox Mr. Kenneth Cox William Cox Jacob Crawford Michelle Crivella Mr. John F. Cross Jane Crouchman Dan Crumley Anna Cruz Tina Cruz * Estate Gift LIBERTY JOURNAL

37

The President’s Circle 2011

Mary Cyrus Gerard Dache John Darnall Mr. William Darr John Dateo Charlotte David Mr. & Mrs. James Frank Davis Robert Davis Sharon Davy Mr. John Kenneth Day Deborah DeCindio Marline Delara Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Delisle Martha Delrosario Rhonda Denardo Sean Dennerlein Ray S. Detwiler * Christopher Devlin Gerrit Devries Mr. & Mrs. Douglas F. Diedrichsen Sheryle DiFernando Jackie Dingess John Dorminy Ms. Evelyn M. Dorrer Miss Carole L. Douglas Gordon Douglas Lois Dowdy Lisa Duckett Brandon Dyer Mr. Gary Eastman Karen Edward Lavonda Edwards Deborah Elder James Elrod Sandra Elrod Mr. & Mrs. Glenn Enderud Mark Estepp Miss Michelle A. Evans Mrs. Shirley Evans Jodi Everist Mrs. Anne Fairchild Linda L. Farver Mr. Robert E. Faulkner Pascal Fenasse Mrs. Lois E. Fergerson Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth E. Ferry Eric Fletcher Mr. & Mrs. Oswald Forsee Kathryn Frankfurt William Fray Kevin Frye Rosie Gantt Kelly Garber Max Gasser Dr. John D. George Anna Gervasi HebatAllah Ghali Janet Gilliland Catherine Goddard Dr. Ronald S. Godwin

38

W W W . L I B E R T Y. E D U

Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Good Martha Gosliga Amanda Gregory Peggy Griggs Debra Groeneveld Aaron Grosch Stephen Grow Carol Hadley Richard Halstead Jordan Hamblen Mr. Eugene Wilson Hamby Vic Hamer Mr. Robert A. Harris Lucas Hartman Teresa Hathaway Donna Hedger John Hedger Jeffrey Helgeson Tammy Hendren Madeline Hendrickson Tyler Hester Emily Hiatt Rhonda Hill Mr. Timothy Alan Hill Rosa Hirst Geraldine Hoffman Melanie Hoggard Emily Hokrein Gina Holloway Mr. & Mrs. Charles M. Holmes Mr. & Mrs. Paul E. Holmes Mr. Carl Andrew Holt Andrew Horner Mary Hudson Colleen Hughes Brent Humberson Thomas Humphries Garald Hunt Mr. & Mrs. Jim Jackson Victoria Jacob Paul Jenkins Trent Jenkins Jonathan Jimmerson Adaljira Johnson Ashley Johnson Ranford W. Johnson John H. Jones Dave Joseph George Justice Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Keating Patricia Kelleher Kristin Kemmerer Mark Kenchel Scott Kennedy Kevin N. Keys Gerald L. Kimble Jeff King Katrina King Mr. & Mrs. Brian Klock Raymond Klotz

Alison Knights Mr. & Mrs. Harold L. Knowles Mr. & Mrs. Arlus Ray Kramer Joel Krautter Therese Kwiatek Mr. & Mrs. Louis R. Lamay Mary C. Landon-Peterson Mr. & Mrs. Jay B. Larsen Mr. & Mrs. Dale Richard Layer Richard Leitz Jr. Sarah Lenzen Lindsay Lewis Sarah Lewis Mrs. Verna Lohmann Mrs. Luella D. Lohr John Loving Cynthia Lowery Miss Deloris Ilene Loy Joseph Lutz Shannon Madara Kathleen Magnuson Gretchen Mahoney Steven Mahoney Allen Martin Frieda Martin Kati Masters Mr. & Mrs. L. Stanley Mauger Mr. Douglas K. May Martin May Mary May Mr. Michael Alan McCleery Terrance McCloskey Mr. Greg L. McClure Kayla McDaniel Raymond McFadden Daniel McGarvey Christine McGourty Thomas McGourty Jr Dr. & Mrs. Frank H. Meyers Paul G. Miller Dianne Mills Bliselda Miranda Kevin Mirner James W. Mitchell Mr. P. H. Mitchell Beverly Mock Mrs. Lorine D. Monk Buddy Moore Hal Moore Mr. Phillip Michael Morris Donna Moss Lauren Mosset Christine Nelms Gary Nelson Audra Nelson Scott Nentwich Arthur Nicholson * Mrs. Martha Nunnally Janice Obrecht Mr. Clyde E. Ott

William J. Overton William S. Overton Pamela Owen Jeffrey Pardine Ms. Trudy G. Parker Erin Passmore Peggy Payne W. C. Payne * Jasmine Pearson Meredith Peed Joe Perez Michael Vaughn Pogue Mr. Andrew J. Prantner Samantha Previs Diane Price Mary Pritchard Felice Procaccio Mr. Robi Quick Stephanie Raj Mrs. Fran JoAnn Randall Suzanne Raulli Mr. Rodney M. Reeser Bradley Regnaert Mr. Edward Renner Brenda Renshaw Arlene Rice Mrs. Dottie Jean Rice Mr. & Mrs. Phillip Calvin Rine Benjamin Ritter Mr. & Mrs. Reed Robbins Emily Roby Mr. & Mrs. Dale Roede Jon Rogers Frank Rojas Mr. Ray Romine J. Gorman Rosenberger Mr. Thomas I. Rosenberger Mrs. Cheryl A. Runyan Dale Russell Julia Sager Barbara Sain Mr. & Mrs. Melvin C. Sand Dr. & Mrs. Earl Sargeant Jessie Sargent Daniel Sargent John Albert Sarver Martin Saurr Leonard Schaeffer Mr. & Mrs. Robert Schmidt Carey Schott Adam Schwenk James Scolet Kiersten Sechrist Amy Shane Mr. & Mrs. James Shaner Jacob A. Shellenberger Gary Shepard Dianne Sheridan Mr. Russell Thomas Shipp Charles Shock * Estate Gift

Mr. Paul Sjogren Darin Skilling Danny M. Smith Leanne Smith Richelle Smith Mr. & Mrs. Willard T. Smith Mr. James Morris Snedigar Kim Snyder Mr. Hoyt Sparks Mr. David Spear Keith St Clair Marlene Stacy Joshua D. Stamm Elizabeth Stamp Mr. Arthur Sterrett Mr. Gilbert R. Stetson Gary Stevens Dorothy Stout Mr. Robert John Straub Scott Suddreth Martha A. Sudholt Robert Sullivan Barbara Sundheim Whitney Sweat Michael Swiger Mr. Douglas Taylor Dr. & Mrs. C. J. Terrana Donna Thedford Holly Theodore Dinah Thompson Irene Thompson Mr. & Mrs. John Thompson Mr. & Mrs. Philip C. Tillman Carl Timmer Jim Toman Elizabeth Toone Stephen Truitt Audrey Truskett Charles Upchurch Charles Upjohn Dr. Richard D. Urwiller Gerry Valera Mr. & Mrs. G. Nick Van Belkum Mazy Van Kleek Serena Varley Stephanie Vaughn Mona Wagner Thomas Wang Daniel Ward Darrell Alan Wargo Victoria Warner Philip Allen Watkins Andrew Webb Phil Wegner Carolyn Weyant Stanton Mr. Thomas R. Whittaker Joanne Wible Raymond Wilhoit Ann Wilkins Mrs. Amy L. Williams

Mr. Anthony James Williams John Williams Nancy Williams Miss Triniti Williams Mr. & Mrs. George W. Wilson Patricia Wilson Wendell O. Wilson Mark Edward Wise Mr. & Mrs. Paul E. Wolpert Kendra Wood G. Woodward Debbie Wright Randolph Wright Mr. Gary Thomas York Patricia Young Walter Young Lisa Zimmerman

Organizations 316 Church Able Enviromental Safety and Health Alfred & Rosemary Giumarra Foundation Allegheny Bible Church Amelia Baptist Church Amsted Industries Foundation Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church Bank of America Barnabas Foundation Bayside Church/Thrive Communications Bayside Community Church Inc. Berean Baptist Church Bethel Christian Center Inc. Betty and Bob Foundation Inc. Bible Baptist Church Bible Mission International Inc. Biltmore Baptist Church Brushy Creek Baptist Church Burke Community Church Calvary Baptist Church Inc. Calvary Baptist Church-Connersville Calvary Baptist Church-Dothan Calvary Baptist Church-Onslow Calvary Baptist Church-Woodbridge Calvary Baptist Tabernacle-Vestal Calvary Church-Charlotte Carmel Baptist Church Central Baptist Church Chesapeake Christian Fellowship, Inc. Child Evangelism Fellowship of Bucks County Chiquita Brands Christ Chapel Mountaintop Christian and Missionary Alliance Church Church at the Crossroads Colonial Heights Baptist Church Community Baptist Church of Richmond Inc. Community Bible Church - Beaufort Cornerstone Church of Maiden Country & Town Baptist Church

Cox Realty Cross Church Crosspointe Baptist Church - Millington Crosspointe Church D.R.L. Camps Daystar Worship Center Denbigh Baptist Church D.F.W. Plastics Inc. Discovery Alliance Church Dominion Foundation eAdvisor Compliance, Inc. Emmanuel Baptist Church of Hartsville, Inc. Faith Baptist Church of Knightdale NC Faith Christian Fellowship of Halfway Fellowship Baptist Church Fincastle Baptist Church First Baptist Church - Roanoke First Baptist Church of Alpharetta First Baptist Church of Euless First Baptist Church of Grove City First Baptist Church of Naples Inc. First Baptist Church of Norfolk First Baptist Church of Snellville First Baptist Church of Turnersville NJ First Baptist Church-Rogers First Baptist of Ellijay Flowers Foods Fox News Network L.L.C. Genoa Baptist Church Gjovik Auto Group Good Hope Baptist Church Grace Bible Church-Rockwell Grace Brethren Church of Powell, Ohio Grace Brethren Church-Wooster Grace Life Community Church Greenway Baptist Church Harvest Ministries Hebron Baptist Church Hephzibah Baptist Church Heritage Baptist Church Hickory Grove Baptist Church-Charlotte Hope Baptist Church Huff Stuart and Carlton Iglesia Luterana Principe De Paz Immanuel Bible Church-Springfield J. M. Smith Foundation J.N.H. Partnership L.L.C. Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Inc. Jubilee Christian Center Liberty Baptist Church Lifepoint Church Lifepoint Church-Fredericksburg Lorry’s Island End Motel, L.L.C. Master’s Inn Ministries Inc. Maysville Baptist Church McCoy Memorial Baptist Church Inc. Mercy Community Church Metropolitan Baptist Church Metrowest Ministries Inc.

Midway Macedonia Baptist Church Millers Creek Baptist Church Inc. Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Nashville Baptist Church National Christian Foundation New Covenant New Life Community Church New River Baptist Association Oak View Baptist Church-High Point Olive Grove Baptist Church Otterbein United Brethren in Christ Parkway Baptist Church Providence Baptist Church-Raleigh Purcellville Baptist Church Reedy Branch Baptist Church Rejoice Ministries Inc. Riverside Baptist Church Rocks Baptist Church Sharon Baptist Church-Savannah Smith Memorial Baptist Church Snow Hill Baptist Church Southside Baptist Church Speed The Seed Spotswood Baptist Church Spout Spring Ruritan Club State Farm Companies Foundation Tektronix Foundation The EC Glass Class of 76 The Kalsch Christian Education The Scholarship Foundation The Terry and Connie Begley Charitable Gift Fund Thomson Reuters Trawick International Inc. Trinity Gospel Church Verizon Virginia Church Of God Youth Fellowship Wakefield Central Baptist Church Warren Baptist Church Watermark Church West County Line Baptist Church Westside Church-Simpsonville Word of Life Family Church of Burlington Inc. Working Faith Ministries

If we have omitted, misspelled or misplaced your name, please accept our apologies and notify our office by calling toll free (866) 602-7983. * Estate Gift

LIBERTY JOURNAL

39