By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Don Shipp has been putting his voice to good use for a long time.
“I’ve been singing in church choirs since I was 10 years old,” he said. “I just enjoy singing generally.”
Most recently he’s sung in the choir at Lakeside Baptist Church, Birmingham. He’s received feedback from music directors and fellow choir members through the years and tried to get better at singing.
“I love singing, even if it’s just to the radio,” he said.
But one year Shipp decided to try something a little different.
“I did a little narration, and I decided I liked it,” he said.
He liked the challenge of making words engaging and understandable, pacing them and using inflection well. He was good at technical things — he served in the Air Force and Air National Guard, and he worked for about 50 years designing software and hardware for different companies.
Now retired, Shipp floated an idea one night over dinner with his wife, Iris — he had thought about calling The Alabama Baptist/TAB Media to inquire if they would be interested in some guest readers for their podcast.
“On my wife’s encouragement, I gave them a call,” he said.
He’s now been reading on the weekly TAB News podcast since April 2019. It’s something he really enjoys. He said activities like that are “informative and exercise a person’s ability to think and present himself to others.”
That’s something Shipp values in life — his mother instilled that in him from when he was small.
“My mother stressed to me about using the Golden Rule — she told me you never have to apologize for using the Golden Rule,” he said.
‘Dignity and respect’
So he tries to use his words well when he talks about anything — religion and politics included.
“People should be treated well in every conversation you have,” Shipp said. “My wife and I try to live by that — that you should treat others always with courtesy, dignity and respect.”
Share with others: