Class Notes: November 2023

This collection includes news from November 2023. Class Notes are published monthly on The BSC Blog to provide timely updates for friends and alumni of the College.

Submit career updates, weddings, births, and in memoriam news here.

To register your child or grandchild for BSC’s Seedlings Program, find more information here. Children will receive a special birthday card each year from the Office of Alumni Engagement, as well as invitations to age-appropriate events if they live in the Birmingham area.

In the News

Four BSC alumni – DeWayne Bailey ’12 of the UAB Health System, Jeff Krogsgard ’06 of Brasfield & Gorrie, Hunter Renfroe ’08 of Orchestra Partners, and Danielle Ridgeway ’06 of Covering Your Assets LLC – were named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Class of 2024.

Agee Baldwin ’12, the diversity, equity, and inclusion program manager at the UAB Health System, was named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s “NextGen BHM” as an up-and-coming local leader under thirty-five. While at BSC, he majored in biology. Read more about Baldwin here.

Michael Hemphill '93 of Elliston, Va., creator of the television show BUZZ, is working with a team from BSC on a series of episodes to promote four nonprofits in Birmingham. Launched in 2020, Buzz features the work of nonprofits in various communities. An English major in college, Hemphill worked as a newspaper reporter, then moved into nonprofit work before launching Buzz4Good, which provides marketing and fundraising strategies to nonprofits. Read more about the upcoming episodes here. He is married to Dr. Julia Tyra Hemphill ’93.

1980s

Michael Swann ’86 of Birmingham will have his artwork displayed at the Gadsden Museum of Art in an exhibit titled “Person Detected.” The exhibit includes his oil painting, printmaking, and airbrushing while using materials from the automobile industry. Swann, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at BSC, owns Gallery VOX in Tarrant. Read more here.

1990s

Shane Ware ’96 has been named the new Vestavia Hills chief of police. Having worked his way up through the ranks – serving as an officer, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, and most recently captain – Ware has been with the Vestavia Hills Police Department since 2000. A business administration major at BSC, he earned a master’s in justice administration from Faulkner University.

2020s

Maria Potts ’22, a Ph.D. student in behavioral neuroscience at West Virginia University, presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, D.C. At BSC, she was a psychology major and a member of Pi Beta Phi.

In Memoriam

John Bigham Barnett ’74 of Monroeville. At BSC, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha, he earned a B.S. in economics, then a J.D. from Cumberland School of Law, and had a long career in banking and law. A former BSC Trustees, he is survived by his wife, Rebecca Lewis Barnett ’75.

Charles Mathews MPPM ’95 of Hoover on November 5. A native of Birmingham, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama. Through high school and until 1983, Mathews worked for J.A. Mathews Construction, his father’s company. He then worked as a salesman at Honeywell, eventually becoming the Birmingham branch manager. In 1995, he left to work for Hardy Corporation, where he led the company’s services division for several years. At the time of his death, Mathews was Hardy’s vice president of administration.

Sarah Ann McKinnon Mays ’79 of Columbiana on November 10. A native of Jefferson County, she attended Jefferson State Community College and BSC. She majored in business during her time on the Hilltop and worked for the city of Pleasant Grove.