"I’m happy to report that all of our retirement centers are healthy, alive and functioning well.”
Billy Austin said he thought those were the best words that could come out of his mouth just before he gave the next bit of news to messengers Nov. 14 — Austin, who has served Alabama Baptist Retirement Centers (ABRC) for more than two decades, announced his retirement from the presidency effective the end of July 2013.
He became manager of Clara Verner Tower in Tuscaloosa — an Alabama Baptist facility until 2007 — in 1988 and served there until becoming president of ABRC in 1991.
“I enjoyed my time immensely — it’s been one of the best experiences a person could have,” Austin said.
Ray Burdeshaw, chairman of the board for ABRC, expressed “deep appreciation” for Austin’s leadership.
“A search committee will be appointed to find his successor,” Burdeshaw said.
All of ABRC’s facilities — Baptist Village and Hutto Tower in Dothan, Eastview in Montgomery and Knollwood in Roanoke — are doing well, Austin said.
“We have outstanding managers at those facilities. We always have had, and we do today,” he said.
He also said that, to flesh out a longtime dream to expand, ABRC has purchased the property formerly owned by Faith Baptist Church, Fairhope.
“God laid on our heart to look into the area of south Alabama,” Austin said. “We now have that property, and we are looking forward to it being a first-rate retirement community in that area.
“We ask your prayer that it will become a monument to God’s work among senior adults.”
For more information, visit albrc.com.
(TAB)
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