Hometown: Lubbock
Present town: Edgewood
Education: BA Texas Tech, Social Work; Southwestern Seminary, MSSW; and PhD, UTA
Profession: Social Worker, retired
Tell us about your family.
I live on “Dragonfly Farm” near Canton, with my wife, Vy, two standard poodles and two donkeys. Every morning after breakfast I read my Bible aloud to the poodles, then we walk to the road gate, feed carrots to the donkeys and welcome our neighbors’ 40 Barbados sheep through their gate to graze in our pastures. I feed the donkeys, muck out the barn, repair fences, trim trees and mow about 10 acres. Vy and I enjoy the peaceful country where we see birds and woodland animals, walk through groves of trees, listen to the bubbling creek, watch the turtles at the pond by day and listen to the frogs at the pond by night. We garden together. She imagines and plans. I make it happen. We have two children. Emily and her husband live near us. Adam was a cradle roll baby at Wilshire. He died in 1987 at age 9 in a skateboard accident, and at Wilshire there are several memorials. The RAs gave an oak tree to shade the children’s play area. Compass Class commissioned a carved bench that sits in front of McIver Chapel. In 1989 Adam’s Baskets ministry started and receives nonperishable food for Wilshire’s food pantry.
What about your volunteer life?
At Wilshire I volunteer in Friday Friends and coordinate weekly Spanish conversation classes. In 2023 and 2024, I worked with disaster relief teams in Puerto Rico and plan to return in 2025. I am a board member for Our Hanna’s House, a nonprofit aiding abused women.
What are your favorite places?
Vy and I love Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, where we lived 11 years at 8,300 feet in a remote mountain home.
What brought you to Wilshire and when?
We joined Wilshire in 1973 for the sound preaching, uplifting music and the coed class now called Compass. We took our children to Sunday School, “big church” and on church-building missions in Colorado and South Dakota.
What about Wilshire are you thankful for?
I am thankful that we welcome and include everybody.
Tell us about your faith journey.
I grew up Baptist, was baptized at age 7, called to ministry as a teen and found my calling in social work during college.
What’s something interesting about you most people would not know?
I lose myself in the process of turning clay into pottery.
What adjectives describe you?
Tenacious, patient, helpful, loves talking to people.