Samford chooses homecoming court, celebrates lives of alumni

Samford University alumni enjoyed a weekend of reunions and festivities during Homecoming 2005 Oct. 28–30. 
   
Three outstanding alumni were saluted, a queen was crowned and the 2,600-seat Wright Center concert hall was almost sold out for two shows by comedian Bill Cosby. 
   
To top it off, the Samford Bulldogs defeated Tennessee State University 31–11 in Seibert Stadium. The campus quadrangle was bustling as alumni and families lined up for hot–air balloon rides, reconnected with old friends and professors and reminisced about college days.
   
“Every tree holds a memory,” mused 1985 graduate Ben Styles as he walked across campus with his wife, Jeanne.  
   
The former Samford Ministerial Association president, now pastor of New Canaan Baptist Church near Huntsville, recalled that many of his best times took place in Reid Chapel. 
   
Styles even regularly broke a rule after finding a way to gain access to the chapel’s padlocked pipe organ. “Every night I would go in the chapel and play the organ,” he confesses 20 years after the fact.
   
Graduates from three decades  — Betsy Box, William E. Hull and L. Durwood McAlister — were recognized as Alumni of the Year at the traditional candlelight dinner.
   
Box, a 1971 graduate, is director of The Bedford School, a day school in Fairburn, Ga., for children with learning disabilities. She pioneered the program in the early 1970s and expanded it into a summer camp before opening the school in 1985.
   
Hull, a 1951 graduate, research professor and retired Samford provost, is a renowned Baptist educator, minister, author and lecturer. Before being named Samford’s chief academic officer in 1987, he was provost at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and pastor of First Baptist Church, Shreveport, La. Hull is minister in residence at Mountain Brook Baptist Church, Birmingham.
   
McAlister, a 1949 graduate, is retired editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was a reporter for The Birmingham Age-Herald and The Anniston Star before joining The Atlanta Journal staff in 1954. 
   
Emily Morris, a senior sports medicine and premed major from Memphis, Tenn., was crowned homecoming queen during football game halftime festivities. 
   
Jacob Simmons, a senior business management major from Hendersonville, Tenn., was named honor escort. They were chosen by vote of the student body. 
   
The homecoming court also included: Seniors — Brian Cook of Decatur, Brandon Foltz of Nashville, Olivia Keaggy of Nashville and Ann Claire Vaughn of Paris, Tenn. Juniors — Suzie Hornor of Germantown, Tenn., and Chad Robison of Knoxville, Tenn. Sophomores — Stephanie Elliott of Birmingham and Bobby Smith of Pensacola, Fla. Freshmen — Paul Anderson of Jacksonville, Fla., and Lauren Smith of Brookhaven, Miss.
   
Worship services book-ended the three-day celebration. A memorial choral evensong service  Oct. 28 honored the life of Andrew Gerow Hodges, 1942 Samford graduate and longtime trustee who died Oct. 13.
   
Alumnus Philip Wise, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas, spoke at a service the morning of Oct. 30. The 1970 graduate observed that although Americans live in the most prosperous, most democratic and safest country in the world, most are not content. 
   
“I believe what every human being wants is the kind of contentment that lasts,” he said.
   
In order to find contentment, Wise said, “Jesus says to look around you and don’t worry, seek God’s Kingdom, and live your life today, not tomorrow or yesterday.” (SU)