Class Notes: Nov. 2019

This collection includes news from November 2019. Class Notes are published monthly on The BSC Blog to provide timely updates for friends and alumni of the College.

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1980s

Alan Peeples ’83, manager of hydro operations for Alabama Power Company, was the guest speaker at the Neely Henry Lake Association’s November meeting. Peeples supervises the engineers involved in water management, and, in his 36 years with Alabama Power, has worked in various capacities with the fossil, nuclear, and hydro groups.

Dr. Brian Cole ’86 attended his first United Nations Security Council session this month as a new observer. Cole also serves on the UN Social and Economic Council as an observer on climate change and the environment. With an MD from the Boston University School of Medicine, a Master of Public Health from Yale University, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, he has an impressive background in the medical field as he launches a career in public policy.

John L. Collar, Jr. ’86, founding shareholder of Boyd Collar Nolen Tuggle & Roddenberry, received honors as the firm was recognized in the 2020 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Law Firms” as a “Tier 1” Atlanta law firm in family law. Collar represents clients in high net worth divorce cases and complex custody matters, and he is one of only a handful of Georgia family lawyers who are both lawyers and accountants.

Thomas Waters ’86, owner and agent of State Farm Insurance in Birmingham, was named a member of BSC’s Board of Trustees, via his role as chair of the BSC Alumni Board for 2019-2020. He is a second-generation State Farm insurance agent and has been recognized by State Farm as a Chairman’s Circle Qualifier, a Silver Scroll Qualifier, and an Ambassador Travel Qualifier. He is a member of the Million Dollar Club and founder of the Southern Harmony Quartet, a men’s quartet at BSC. Waters’ parents, Leon Waters ’58 and Kathryn Voight Waters ’58, sister, Valerie Waters ’90, wife, BSC Director of Alumni Engagement Jennifer Howard Waters ’86, and oldest daughter, Mary Kate Waters-Wright ’15, are all BSC graduates. His youngest daughter, Martha Louise Waters, is currently a freshman at BSC.

William Bradley, Jr. ’87, vice president of community affairs for Anheuser-Busch, was honored as the 2019 Corporate Executive of the Year at the 20th annual Salute to Excellence in Business Awards & Networking Luncheon on Nov. 21. Bradley has worked at Anheuser-Busch for 24 years in a wide variety of increasingly senior and responsible positions. In his current role, he focuses on charitable efforts in the areas of community enrichment, disaster preparedness and relief, environmental sustainability, education, support for military personnel and their families, and responsible drinking.

Joab Mauldin Lesesne III ’87 was named a member of the BSC Board of Trustees. Lesesne is senior vice president of public policy and government affairs for Cox Enterprises in Washington, D.C., where he is responsible for developing and implementing public policy strategies for all Cox businesses. He also represents the company before Congress and federal government agencies and leads the public policy office in D.C. His wife, Audrey Balkcom Lesesne ’89, is also a BSC graduate.

Rev. Melissa Self Patrick ’87 was named executive director of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. Patrick is a United Methodist minister with more than 20 years of nonprofit experience. She has served as an advisor during the establishment of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, assistant director at the National Conference of Community and Justice, and a founding director of Anytown Alabama, a residential leadership and social justice summit for high school students. Patrick is a member of the Interfaith Interpretation Committee of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Jefferson County Memorial Project. Her husband, Bentley Hines Patrick ’89, and her father, the late Edgar A. Self ’49, also graduated from BSC.

Richard Feaster ’89 came to campus as a visiting artist. Feaster’s exhibition, titled “Promise of the Sun,” was displayed in the BSC Kennedy Art Center’s Durbin Gallery throughout November. He has shown his paintings and drawings nationally and internationally and is currently represented by Trager Contemporary in Charleston, South Carolina, and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville. Feaster lives in Nashville and works at the Frist Art Museum.

Joelle James Phillips ’89 was named a member of BSC’s Board of Trustees. Phillips has served as president of AT&T Tennessee in Nashville since 2013. A graduate of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, she has more than a decade of experience in the telecommunications industry and two decades of experience in the legal profession. Her husband, Brant Phillips ’91, is also a BSC graduate.

1990s

Beth Martin ’92 was honored among 102 St. Louis-area educators to receive an Emerson’s Excellence in Teaching award. The awards recognize educators for their leadership in and passion for teaching, their contributions to student learning, and their knowledge and creativity. Martin is currently a lecturer in environmental studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She has previously served as a faculty fellow at the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, where she worked to share her knowledge on community engagement with students and other science and engineering faculty.

Chris Hoke ’94 was promoted to chief creative officer at Markstein, a Birmingham-based marketing communications firm. In this position, Hoke will oversee all creative, media, and digital execution within the firm. He previously served as the executive creative director and has more than 20 years of experience, which includes his time on the editorial and creative teams at Southern Living and Time Inc. Markstein’s CEO, Keelie Segars ’97, is also a BSC graduate.

Tom “TJ” Henderson ’99 was featured by the Birmingham Times as one of very few certified Esalen Deep Bodywork practitioners in the Southeast. Henderson practices this deep tissue massage technique at Hoover-based pH Balanced Massage and Fitness Studio, where he works as a massage therapist. He earned a degree in neuromuscular therapy and professional massage from the Birmingham School of Massage.

2000s

Elizabeth Featheringill Pharo ’00 was named a member of BSC’s Board of Trustees. Pharo is president of Featheringill Capital in Birmingham, a company founded by her father, the late William W. Featheringill. She continues his legacy in this role as well as in taking over Momentum Telecom, a broadband services and communications provider where she now serves as chair. Pharo is also chair of SuccessEHS, a full electronic health record and practice management system.

Tommy McDowell ’03 is playing Peter in the 50^th anniversary U.S. tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” McDowell studied vocal performance at BSC and moved to New York City in 2007 to pursue his career in music. This production is his fifth national tour, and Broadway World recently published a Q&A with him about “Jesus Christ Superstar” and his career.

Dr. Patrick Scott ’08 is the new director of music at Grace - St. Luke's Church in Memphis, previously serving as organist and associate choirmaster at Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. Scott was the featured organist for the Chattanooga Music Club’s Holiday Spectacular on Nov. 19. He studied organ performance at BSC before earning his master’s degree in organ performance and sacred music and his doctorate in organ performance from the University of Texas at Austin.

2010s

Rachel Levinson ’13 was a member of the artist team at Birmingham’s Moonstone Festival, a one-day music and arts festival that supports female creatives. The event, organized by an all-female team, featured local, regional, and national artists and musicians. Levinson works as a freelance artist, facilitator of community-based projects for Blank Space Birmingham, and teaching artist through the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Jada Cato ’17 was featured in a Bham Now story as one of three successful young creatives in the city. Cato is a Birmingham-based actress and singer who performs locally and tours around the country. She recently won the 2019 Five Points Star for her song “HER” and the 2019 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Rising Star award.

Justin Holt ’19 has launched a full-time music career and completed his first tour across the South this fall. Holt was featured in a Vestavia Voice article that mentions how the skills he learned in his business classes at BSC have helped him transition from student to full-time singer and songwriter. While at BSC, he began pursuing music and performing in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Auburn. “Good-Looking Waste of Time,” Holt’s most popular song, has been streamed more than 80,000 times on Spotify.

Friends

Bryson Stephens, chairman of EBSCO’s Board of Directors, was named a member of BSC’s Board of Trustees. Stephens works to guide the strategic direction of the company, oversees EBSCO Realty Investments, and is a member of the EBSCO Savings and Profit Sharing Trust Administrative Committee. Previously, he was vice-chairman and group president over EBSCO Sign Group and Vulcan Industries. His grandparents, Elton B. Stephens ’32 and Alys Robinson Stephens ’32, founded the company and played essential roles in the growth of BSC and Birmingham. Stephens' father, James T. Stephens, is a former BSC Trustee.

In Memoriam

Eva Adams McDonald ’44 of Birmingham on Nov. 26, 2019. McDonald worked at both Liberty National Insurance Company and IBM before spending many years working in management for her husband’s medical practice. She was a longtime member of Canterbury United Methodist Church and enjoyed dancing, traveling, playing bridge, and hosting parties at her Cherokee Road home, which she helped design.

Rev. Edward H. Cramer ’55 of Birmingham on Nov. 17, 2019. Cramer was a U.S. Navy Korean War veteran, a retired United Methodist minister, and a retired AT&T employee. He was a member of First United Methodist Birmingham.

John A. Martin ’59 of Dallas, Texas, on Oct. 29, 2019. Martin served as editor of The Hilltop News and president of his senior class. After graduating from BSC, he attended Harvard Law School, where he was a two-year editor of the Harvard Law Review. He then began his distinguished law career, beginning as a staff attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The division’s primary task to enforce the provisions of the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, and Martin traveled to schools across the South in order to monitor and implement desegregation.

He then spent nearly 50 years as an associate at the Dallas law firm Carrington Coleman, originally Carrington Johnson & Stephens when he joined in 1965. Martin received BSC’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996 among many other awards for his law career and community service.

See Martin’s extended class note to read more about his deep commitment to truth and justice.

Howard Cruse ’68 of Williamstown, Mass., on Nov. 26, 2019. Cruse was a self-employed cartoonist and writer who helped bring LGBTQ+ themes to comics and graphic novels. He earned attention in the 1970s during the underground comix movement and in the 1980s as the founder of the series “Gay Comix.” In 1995, he published “Stuck Rubber Baby,” a graphic novel that deals with homosexuality and racism in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. The novel drew from Cruse’s experience growing up in the South and won awards worldwide. BSC Archivist and Digital Initiatives Librarian Gina K. Armstrong ’92 gathered creative work from Cruse’s time at BSC for an online digital collection.

See Cruse's extended class note to read more about his legacy and service.

Andrea J. Huddleston ’68 of Bessemer, Ala., on Nov. 4, 2019. Huddleston taught English for a few years before working for the Social Security Administration. After retirement, she worked at Ed Whiten Cars. She loved to ballroom dance, read, garden, and spend time with friends and family.

Judith Kay Webb Savage Kay ’86 of Birmingham on Nov. 23, 2019. Savage graduated from Jacksonville State University with a degree in English and was the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship. She taught in Etowah County, Birmingham City, and Mountain Brook City school systems and continued to pursue her own education throughout her life. Savage earned her juris doctorate from Birmingham School of Law, her accounting degree from BSC, and her private pilot's license. In 1987, she and her husband opened an orthopedic surgery practice now known as OrthoAlabama. An involved member of her community, Savage served as president of the Birmingham Medical Auxiliary Civiettes, a volunteer for the Cerebral Palsy Center, and a member of Executive Women International. She also served on the scholarship selection committee for the Piedmont Alabama Educational Trust, the BSC Adult Studies Scholarship Program, and the Kate Duncan Smith School Board of Trustees.

Thomas Marvin Little ’90 of Birmingham on Oct. 21, 2019. Little attended the University of Alabama School of Law after graduating from BSC and practiced law for more than 25 years. He spent 15 years at Smith, Spires, Peddy, Hamilton, & Coleman, PC. Little was an active member of Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, where he served as Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 4.

Rev. John L. Hassell, Jr. ’00 of Gardendale, Ala., on Nov. 7, 2019. Hassell was an adult student at BSC. He had served churches since 1995, including Bethlehem Campground, Smoke Rise, Carbon Hill, Reform/New Hope, and Cottondale United Methodist Churches. He also served as the North Alabama Conference’s disaster response coordinator from 2007 to 2012. Hassell was ordained an elder in 2006 and retired in 2017.