The Berea College Alumni Association enjoys hearing from Bereans from all over the world. The “Class Notes” section of Berea College Magazine reports verifiable news you wish to share with your alumni friends and associates: careers, weddings, retirements, births, and other items of importance to our alumni. Please include your class year and name used while attending Berea. Notes may be edited for style and length. While we will make every effort to put your information into the next issue of BCM, some delays may occur. We appreciate your understanding.
Submit class notes and photographs via email: alumninews@berea.edu.
1940
Kathleen Kincaid Shaw is 102 years old, in fairly good health, and using a walker most of the time. Her son, James, lives with her. She goes to church when the weather permits. She is not driving after turning 100 years old. She said, “Love all of you!”
1943
William E. Christy celebrated his 104th birthday on January 20, 2017. A story about William’s life, “William E. Christy: Celebrating 104 years of change,” was published in the January 15, 2017, edition of The Daily Independent (Ashland, Kentucky) and at www.dailyindependent.com.
1949
Mary Alice Neal moved into assisted living at Winslow Court in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She does personal sewing repairs for other residents, is active in a singing group, and conducts a storytelling and song program once a month.
1952
Dorothy Alexander moved to Morning Pointe Assisted Living in July 2016.
1959
Dr. Janice C. Wilson retired and is living in Xenia, Ohio. She stays busy volunteering, serving on boards, and entertaining her grandchildren.
1960
Gloria Calfee Martin and Everett L. Martin are proud of all the good that comes forth from Berea graduates and appreciate the ones who have helped make it happen.
1961
Jack Blair and Thelma Moore Blair ‘68 are both retired from the Lincoln County (Kentucky) school system and reside on their farm in Stanford, Kentucky. They like to travel and stay very busy with church and volunteer work.
1964
Dr. Bobby Howell returned to campus March 2, 2017 to lead a chemistry seminar for students. Dr. Howell recently celebrated 40 years of teaching at Central Michigan University.
Rita Watson Johnson retired from teaching in 2003. She and her husband, Dr. Raleigh Johnson, Jr., stay busy. They are both members of their church choir. Rita is a member of the Assistance League of the Bay Area. Raleigh retired in 2012 after 40 years as a medical physicist in the department of radiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He serves as an elder at Bay Area Presbyterian Church. The couple resides at 1711 Gunwale Road in Houston, Texas.
1965
Elba “Bo” Gillenwater, Jr. retired as a lawyer on December 20, 2015.
Linda Shafer Myers retired in 2009 after 20-plus years teaching English at Clarksville High School, Clarksville, Tennessee.
1968
Thelma Moore Blair and Jack Blair ‘61 are both retired from the Lincoln County (Kentucky) school system and reside on their farm in Stanford, Kentucky. They like to travel and stay very busy with church and volunteer work.
Paul Chappell, a business owner, retired after many years working for public service agencies and later in private service businesses. Contact him at PO Box 4734, N Ft. Myers, FL 33918 or paulchappell47@gmail.com.
1969
Voe Frances Hines Morris continues to work for the Department of Mental Health in Missouri. She and nine friends enjoyed a cruise to Maine, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia last fall and found it to be wonderful!
1970
Rob Neal wrote to the editor of the Berea College Magazine that his obituary in the Winter 2017 issue was premature. He wants his classmates to know that he is alive and well in Jefferson, Kentucky and all are welcome to contact him at robneal48@yahoo.com.
Retired historian and archivist Edward Smith has published his memories of the earliest beginnings of the Black Student Union on the Berea College campus. The book is titled All Black Students Meet: The Rise of the Black Student Union at Berea College in Kentucky, 1968-1970, A Memoir. The foreword is by his wife, Claudette Schmidt Smith ’72. He describes the book as one man’s memories of how a small group of students made lasting cultural changes at a small southern Appalachian college. Published February 24, 2017, the 183-page book has 100-plus illustrations, and sells for $15. Smith is accepting orders at smithed9@aol.com, or by mail to his home at 5601 Joyce Place, Bladensburg, MD 20710-1645.
1971
Parke Carter retired from his farm management position with Farmers National Company on January 31, 2017. He continues to work as a real estate broker in Kentucky associated with Farmers National Company.
Vaden R. “Pete” Tabor, Jr. retired after 40 years of public school teaching. He loves gardening and canning. He is very active in the United Methodist Church and volunteers to read at a local school.
1975
Mary Margaret McCoy Lutes retired on June 30, 2016, after 26 years with Abbott Laboratories/Hospira/Pfizer Injectable drug companies. Mary Margaret currently lives in Clay City, Kentucky, and would love to reconnect with her many friends and reflect on the “good ole days” they all shared during their years at Berea College. Contact her at marymargaret.lutes@outlook.com.
1979
Judy Rafson semi-retired from Potash Corp/Vidant Beaufort Hospital in February 2016. She works two days a week as a primary care provider at MERCI Clinic in New Bern, North Carolina. The free clinic provides care for the medically indigent in three counties.
1981
Becky Arbogast taught preschool for 20 years before becoming disabled in 2010. She was blessed with her first grandchild, Amberlynn Rose Arbogast, on May 17, 2016. She does not have internet but would enjoy hearing from old friends from Berea.
1982
Bryn Gabriel is the director of the International School of Myanmar. He has been married to Zulema Margoth Rodriguez Gabriel for 29 years and they have two children, Taryn Ricardo and Kylynn Andrea.
1985
Shelley Boone Ward began her position as director of philanthropy with the University of Kentucky College of Public Health in August 2016. She and her husband, Steve, live in Lancaster, Kentucky.
1986
Jennifer Zimmerman Little completed a master’s degree in human nutrition at the University of Alabama in May 2016. Jennifer and her husband, Scott Little, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in July 2016. Jennifer is the experience coordinator for Bluffton University’s Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway (ISPP) Dietetic Internship. Scott is the bridge technician and inspector for the Allen County (Ohio) Engineer’s Office. He also serves as president of the Ohio chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association.
1992
Joe Spires was promoted into the Senior Executive Service as a federal employee. He serves as the Deputy Division Counsel for Operations in the Small Business and Self-Employed Division of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. He also recently completed an executive leadership program offered by Cornell University.
1993
Jerry Houck owner of Cue on Main and Nellie Burton’s Steakhouse & Sports Bar in Danville, Kentucky, received the Restaurateur of the Year Award from the Kentucky Restaurant Association during its gala held in Louisville in January 2017. Both of his restaurants were featured in an April 2 airing of the television show “Secrets of Bluegrass Chefs.” News about the television filming and Jerry’s award was featured in the article “Food worth filming: ‘Secrets of Bluegrass Chefs’ visits two Danville restaurants” published in the January 20, 2017, edition of The Advocate-Messenger newspaper and online at www.amnews.com.
1994
Jeremy Heidt was selected to be an instructor for the National Public Affairs Academy (NPAA) at Argonne National Laboratory’s Public Affairs Science & Technology Fusion Center. NPAA offers workshops that address a wide range of communications and emergency public information topics, such as leadership, spokesperson, media relations, and social media training. Workshops are held in Madison County, Kentucky; Pueblo, Colorado; and Chicago, Illinois, as training for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program—a partnership between FEMA and the U.S. Department of the Army. The program provides emergency preparedness assistance and resources to communities surrounding the Army’s chemical warfare agent stockpiles. There are 10 counties in Kentucky that are affected by the chemical stockpile: Madison County, where the Blue Grass Army Depot is located, and Estill, Clark, Fayette, Garrard, Jackson, Powell, Rockcastle, Jessamine, and Laurel Counties.
1997
Anne E. Kinton started a new job as a physician assistant at Community Occupational Medicine in South Bend, Indiana.
Vivian W. Overall travelled to South Africa on four separate occasions to serve as a volunteer missions worker.
2002
Rev. Samuel Weddington graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary with a Master of Theology in spring 2014. He is the pastor/head of staff at the First Presbyterian Church of Maywood, New Jersey.
2004
Emily LaDouceur was selected to be a fellow for the Kentucky chapter of the New Leaders Council (NLC). The 501(c)(3) public charity is dedicated to educating a new generation of leaders and to providing those leaders with the tools they need to succeed. Learn more at www.newleaderscouncil.org/kentucky_2017_fellows.
2005
Married: Dr. Ashley Miller Anderson to Derek L. Anderson on January 1, 2017. The couple resides in Louisville, Kentucky.
2008
Birth: a daughter, Charlotte Jane I’Aboni, to Trish Brown and Daniel I’Aboni on September 11, 2016. Trish works for a nonprofit called Creative Work Systems that serves adults with developmental disabilities and brain injuries. The family resides in South Portland, Maine.
Birth: a daughter, Roslyn Dillard, to Amber Meadows-Dillard and Kelvin Dillard on August 24, 2016. The family resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
Birth: a daughter, Adalyn Jean, to Hope Bullock Patterson on August 6, 2016. The family resides in Jacksboro, Tennessee.
Birth: a daughter, Shelby Marie, to Kimberly Camp Sherrod and Terrance Sherrod on February 21, 2017. Terrance and Kimberly were married November 10, 2012. Terrance is a pharmacy tech at Huntsville Hospital and a graduate of the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Kimberly is the operations planning manager at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.
Joshua Sparks was selected to be a fellow for the Kentucky chapter of the New Leaders Council (NLC). The 501(c)(3) public charity is dedicated to educating a new generation of leaders and to providing those leaders with the tools they need to succeed. Read more at www.newleaderscouncil.org/kentucky_2017_fellows.
2011
Tia Davis served as a visiting professor in the Berea College Theatre Program during the 2016-17 academic year. Before that, she served as an AmeriCorps Kentucky College Coach at Berea Community High School. She earned her MFA in Theatre Arts and Certificate in African American Theatre from the University of Louisville. She has toured with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, performed regionally with the University of Louisville Repertory Company, and was a member of Kentucky Shakespeare. As a teacher and performing artist, Tia plans to use her skills and knowledge to create theater-based programs that uplift individuals and communities.
2012
Married: Danielle Goldman-Musser to Justin Musser of Delta, Colorado, on September 10, 2016. The couple resides in Montrose, Colorado.
Carl Stanton completed a master’s degree in industrial design at Philadelphia University in May 2016.
2013
Carol Brobeck visited campus in November 2016 to speak with students in Dr. Jackie Burnside’s (’74) classes about urban planning, something she learned about after leaving Berea. After graduation, she worked on a farm and became certified to teach English as a Second Language. Carol is currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, where she studies urban planning
in the country’s third-ranked master’s program. She is focusing her studies on community economic development with the goal of working to revitalize neighborhoods and downtowns without gentrification. She was selected to intern over the summer with the Village of Mount Prospect, Illinois.
Derek Matthews, a fashion designer based in Birmingham, Alabama, partnered with another designer to build their own brand, Splashed by DKG (splashedbydkg.com). They were selected from hundreds of emerging designer applicants to present a 15-piece collection at the 7th Annual Nashville Fashion Week on April 5, 2017. Splashed by DKG is a fashion brand that exists to make every day look and feel like a runway. “We firmly believe that when you look your best, you feel and can perform your best,” said Derek. Their vision is “To popularize. To impact. To cause a stir. To make an impression. To make a splash.” While a student at Berea, Derek participated in and coordinated the annual Black Student Union Fashion for a Cause fashion show all four years he attended. He said his foundation in fashion presentations started at Berea College.
