My Personal Information:
Graduating from Haywood
High School in 1952, I attended Union University in the 
fall of 1953 before
leaving school to join the US Navy. Travels in the Navy took me to Great
Lakes Naval Training Facility, Portsmouth, VA Hospital Corps School, Camp Lejune
Fleet Marine Training, US Naval Hospital, Millington, TN, Midway, USS
Greenwich Bay, NAVHOSP Guam, M. I., and various stations like independent duty at Key
West, FL Sub base, Norfolk, VA Shipyard, San Diego, CA and Treasure Island, San
Francisco, CA. One of my favorite naval experience was my summer Naval
Reserve Cruise that landed me on the USS Greenwich Bay, which has been coined
"the white ghost" because of its white paint job for service in the Persian
Gulf. I returned to finish Union University in 1962 with a BA in
History and Bible. My first post college work was at Methodist Hospital in
Memphis, TN where I was an auditor of accounts and facilitator for medical
records and patient personnel.
I re-entered college to gain my Masters
Degree from the University of Memphis and my Doctors Degree finishing in 1975.
I have attended post graduate work and seminars at St. Frances College, St.
Josephs College, University of Tennessee, Bethel
College and Union University.
My teaching experience includes Hardeman county schools, Haywood county schools, St. Frances College, Union University,
University of Tennessee at Martin, Cumberland University, and Union University. I retired
from public schools in 1997, but have taught adjunct classes for several of
these schools in the past ten years. Teaching adjunct has allowed me
to have a wonderful class of 9 preachers who wanted to learn World Regional
Geography at Union and 17 technicians at Jackson General Hospital for St.
Francis. Teaching was a joy, but the desire finally floated out to sea for
that field.
I am married to Kathryn Smith and she is a former first grade teacher. She is my friend and love.
My bi-vocational life was as a minister to three churches from 1958 until 1980 in Three Way Baptist at the Clarks community in Haywood County, the Fulton Baptist Church in Lauderdale County on the Mississippi River and at Antioch Baptist Church also in Haywood County. I loved my church members and their faithfulness and putting up with this little "jackleg" preacher proved that they loved the Lord through everybody's shortcomings. God bless them all. It has been my prayer that I was instrumental in helping people find the Lord and make a difference in their lives.
I have
toured
over 60 countries in 5 continents with over 20 visits to Europe tutoring
students. My
student tours have shepherded over 300 kids to the continent
and got them all back safely. My personal experiences include a camel caravan
across the Sahara, treks on bike across Europe, a jaunt on the
Trans-Siberian Railroad, a TGV train ride from London to Paris, summer medical relief in Vietnam prior to the war, a flight in
the navigator's seat on a B58 Hustler, a trans-Pacific Ocean trip in a "Super"
Connie, a backpack trip across Glacier
National Park, a camping trip of 31 days across the west on the continental
divide trail, pre-war tours of Syria, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq doing
some digging and archaeology work. My most enlightening experience was a 21
country jaunt within 19 days
on
an
ocean cruise..."believe it or not Ripley." Pictured in the second paragraph
is a photo taken 100 miles out in the desert headed for Timbuktu which was the
hottest and driest days of my life in which I got sunburn that permanently
scarred the back of my legs and not to mention the rawhide the constant motion
of the camel put on the inside of my thighs. Thank goodness, we traveled
mostly at dusk and up to about 8 a.m. in the mornings, and rested in tents
during the heat of the day which approached 130 degrees. On the left bottom is a hiking trail through
Glacier at about 9,300 feet. This 4 day trip was on the edge with several
encounters with Grizzly bears and spending 8 hours in a tree watching your food
being trashed. On the right is the "Street Called Straight" found in
Damascus Syria where I got the privilege of touring in 1974 with the first group
to enter Syria after President Nixon opened up trade and visits to Syria.
It appeared to me to be an armed camp with most of the people feeling trapped
and imprisoned.
Life is what you make it and it's a lot more fun if you make it exciting by seeing the world. I really want more on my epitaph than just the dash between the date of birth and my death date. Therefore, I hope to have left the world a little better off by my visit of my years. My personal philosophy is "if you don't try you fail automatically, and it is much better to err in trying than to fail by doing nothing." I believe that God judges us harshest on sins of omission rather than commission.
Go with God, and you'll never travel alone.