Chalker Group, a Birmingham business management consulting agency and recruiting firm, has named Jennifer Davis Dent ’96 as a managing partner. Dent has a marketing background and has also owned her own business. Since it was founded, Chalker Group has worked with Children’s Hospital and UAB to recruit doctors and scientists. It also has offered recruitment and retention consulting for Southern Research, Summer Classics, Buffalo Rock Co. and others.

Congratulations to Jeris Burns Gaston ’05 who was honored on Nov. 10 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Alabama Chapter as Outstanding Professional Advisor. Gaston is a partner at Bridgeworth Wealth Management, which was recognized in Forbes Inaugural 2022 Top RIA Firms for their seasoned professionals and proven track record of guiding clients through market turmoil. BSC Trustee DeLynn Zell ’86 is the founder and CEO of Bridgeworth.

Patrick D. Welch ’12 represented the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy on climate strategies at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Nov. 6-20 in Egypt. Welch was an Urban Environmental Studies major, then spent several years in Nicaragua in the Peace Corps before getting a master’s in urban planning at UNC Chapel Hill.

Caron Cecilia Byrd ’16 was accepted into the 2022-2023 class of the National Bar Association’s Associate Advancement Academy for Excellence Fellowship. The fellowship is specifically designed to facilitate the advancement and retention of Black attorneys within the first three years of practice in AmLaw 200 firms. Byrd is an associate at Locke Lord, LLP in Austin, Texas, in the Affordable Housing Section of Real Estate, where she assists developer, investors, and non-profits across the country in creating and using various financial tools to develop and to preserve affordable housing.

Derrick Austin ’17 and Kenton Myers ’11 were featured in Birmingham Business Journal’s 2022 NextGEN: Workforce, Education and General honorees. This list features young community leaders in Birmingham who are paving the way for ensuring jobs and building pipelines for youth in their respective industries. Austin, a member of BSC’s Young Alumni Council, is director of innovation at Hardware Park, a hub for engineering, product development, and manufacturing in downtown Birmingham. Myers is a trilingual interpreter and owner of M&N Language Services.

Rev. Clyde Samuel “Bud” Precise ’59 on Nov. 6 in Scottsboro. Precise received degrees from Birmingham-Southern College, Emory University, and Southern Methodist University. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He served the United Methodist Church from age 19 to age 62. After retirement, he served in the Peace Corps in South Africa. He then gained dual ministerial standing in the UMC and the UCC. He served as pastor of Pilgrim Church United Church of Christ for several years and remained a lifelong member. He regularly volunteered at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Acadia National Park. In addition to his son and daughter, David Precise ’97 and Leigh Precise ‘93, the extended family includes his late brothers John H. Precise ’66 and Thomas Leon Precise ’68, his nephews Scott Precise ’96 and wife Jennifer Sloan Precise ‘95, and their daughter Leigh Anne Precise, a current BSC student.

Inez Wise Honeycutt ’49 on Nov. 9 in Vestavia Hills. Honeycutt attended The University of Alabama and graduated from Birmingham Southern College. She had a 30-year career as a medical technologist and served as a volunteer at St. Vincent’s Hospital for more than a decade after retirement. She was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood.

Rev. Michael E. Harper ’68 on Nov. 22 in Birmingham. While at Birmingham-Southern, he was a member and President of ATO. He worked as a youth director at First United Methodist Church of Birmingham and earned his master’s degree at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He worked at Greater Birmingham Ministries before his first appointment as associate pastor at Decatur First United Methodist Church. After returning to Perkins to earn his doctorate, he served as chaplain at BSC for three years. In 1979, he and his wife, the Rev. Barbara Erickson Harper ’68, were appointed associate pastors at the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, where they served for 12 years as beloved and influential leaders. Harper went on to serve for nine years as Associate Director of the North Alabama Conference Council on Ministries. He and Barbara were then appointed as co-pastors of Asbury UMC. Harper also served as director of program development at Camp Sumatanga and then director of development at Urban Ministry. Described as generous, kind, plainspoken, and funny, Harper was known for his tireless energy, love of people, and dedication to the United Methodist Church. He was an active participant in the Methodist Education Leave Society. He maintained an extensive library and loved to travel. Both of their daughters, Kristin Harper ‘92, director of service learning at BSC, and Kelly Harper Avery ’95, are BSC alumnae.

Virginia May Booker, a longtime donors to BSC, on Nov. 22 in Birmingham. She received a B.S. in education and sociology from the University of Alabama, where she met her husband, Wiltshire M. Booker. She served on the Birmingham-Southern Council of Fine Arts. She also served on the administrative board of Canterbury United Methodist Church, as a teacher of Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, as a member of the United Methodist Women, and on the board of the Riley Community Center. Toward the end of her life, she served on the prayer team at Canterbury and taught children to read through the Better Basics program.

Dr. Elizabeth Bennett Johns ’59 on Sept. 12 in Birmingham. A professor emerita of art history in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns received her B.A. from Birmingham-Southern, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a master’s from the University of California at Berkeley and her Ph.D. from Emory University. Before and during her doctoral studies, she held positions in English and Humanities at Albany State College, Clayton Community College, and Savannah State College. In 1975, she accepted an appointment in the department of art history at the University of Maryland, College Park. Twelve years later, she became the Andrew Mellon Professor of Fine Arts and History at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1989, she joined the Penn faculty as the Silfen Term Professor of the History of Art. She remained in this position until 2001, when she retired from teaching and took emerita status. During the 1990s, she also served as the undergraduate chair of history of art. Johns contributed a great deal to art scholarship, writing several award-winning books. In 1996, Johns received a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching from Penn. Johns served as the Lilly Vocation Fellow at the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross and as the museum scholar at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland. She was an avid member of the Haven Lutheran Church of Hagerstown, and served as chaplain at the Hospice of Washington County, Maryland.

Covert E. “Pete” Parnell III ’67 on Oct. 30 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history from BSC, where he was president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa, Parnell graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard University School of Law in 1970, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review. Parnell clerked for Judge Francis Van Dusen of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals following his graduation from Harvard. He then became a law clerk to Justice Hugo L. Black of the United States Supreme Court and a law clerk to Justice Lewis F. Powell, following the death of Justice Black. After his clerkships, Parnell became a partner of Munger Tolles & Rickershauser, now Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP in Los Angeles. He was also a partner of Rosenfeld Parnell & Shames prior to joining Home Savings of America as its general counsel in 1985. He retired from Home Savings in 1995 and became the executive director of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles until 1997.

Louise Strickland Vance ’45 on Nov. 6 in Mt. Lebanon, Pa. Vance was a member of Alpha Chi Omega at BSC, where she met her husband William F. Vance ’41. William Vance became a senior administrative officer at the Central Intelligence Agency, and was stationed in a number of overseas posts, including Frankfurt, Germany, Vientiane, Laos, and Okinawa, Japan. They returned to Birmingham in 1991. Vance was an active member of Canterbury United Methodist Church.

Catherine Rogers Spires ’70, on Nov. 9 in Mount Airy, NC. At BSC, Spires was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and the Birmingham Southern College concert choir. She graduated with a degree in history and taught school in the Alexander City school system for 15 years. She was active in the community and a member of First United Methodist Church, where she sang in the chancel choir for many years. She served as president of the United Methodist Women, was a girls’ Camp Fire Leader, a boys’ Cub Scout Den Mother, and a founding member of the Russell Hospital Auxiliary board. She was president of the Salvation Army Board, a member of the Surry Arts Council, and served for many years on the annual Surry Arts Council Ball Committee.

Marvin Nickell Rochelle ’60 on Nov. 26 in Childersburg, Ala. A member of Kappa Alpha fraternity, Rochelle played basketball and worked as a lifeguard at the Birmingham Country Club. After graduation, he taught physical education and coached basketball at Castle Heights, Daviston High School, Handley High School, and Childersburg High School. He was principal of Childersburg Middle School from 1993 until his retirement in 1996. Known for his love of bluegrass and country music, fishing, and tailgating at Auburn University football games, he was recognized for his dedicated service to the Childersburg community as the 2013 member of the Childersburg Hall of Fame, an honor he counted among his greatest achievements.