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September 2019
Campus leadership continues for 1969 graduate
If Barbara McAninch had become a Red Head all those decades ago, her life story might have been written very differently. But instead of joining the professional traveling women's basketball squad to save money for school, the former all-stater accepted a scholarship offer from Coach Harley Redin to join the famous Flying Queens and study at Wayland Baptist College.
Wayland wasn't too far down the road from Barbara's childhood home in Trent, near Abilene, which had also been the home to Rosemary Jones, a Flying Queen who graduated in 1963. And the scholarship made it possible for her farm family with limited funding to have two daughters in college at the same time. For Barbara, it was also a chance to continue a sport she loved and earn her degree.
"I had been an offensive post player in high school, but Coach Redin switched me to post defense at Wayland, and I was able to be on the starting team my freshman year and throughout my four years there," recalls Barbara, who is part of a large group traveling to Springfield, Mass., to see the program enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 6.
"I played with a wonderful group of women who have remained my friends throughout the years and are the heart of the Hutcherson Flying Queens Foundation that supports the current team. Claude and Wilda Hutcherson were amazing sponsors for the team; the fans and residents of Plainview were always so supportive and very special to everyone on the team," she added.
Active off the court
But while basketball dominated much of Barbara's time outside the classroom, her school work and other activities hold equally fond memories. A born leader, she was co-captain of the Queens for two years, a student Senator her sophomore year and vice president of the student government her junior year. As a senior, Barbara was elected student body president, becoming the first woman and the first Catholic student to ever hold the post. Just before graduation in 1969 with a political science and history degree, she was named Outstanding Female Citizenship Award winner.
Barbara remembers fondly experiences afforded in campus leadership as president of the Statesman Club, which brought speakers to the campus for academic enrichment, including then-State Senator Barbara Jordan. As SGA president, she introduced musician Neil Diamond, who performed in the new Harral Auditorium on the Wayland campus. She enjoyed making friends all over the small, tight-knit college.
"The campus was very diverse, and we appreciated that," she said. "They added so much to the campus with their cultures."
Career in law beckons
Two administered aptitude tests suggested Barbara go into teaching or law, and the latter proved to be the eventual winner. She attended the University of Houston on a teaching fellowship and earned her master's degree in political science. There, a professor suggested law school should be her next path. She signed up for the LSAT entrance exam without any preparation and scored well. But funds were tight, so Barbara deferred her admittance for a year to teach political science at Angelo State University, then enrolled at George Washington University School of Law.
That experience would open the door for a rich future in the field of law. Barbara clerked at the Department of Justice in the antitrust division and was offered a job there following her graduation with honors and passing of the bar exam.
Barbara spent five years with the division, working on the major folding cartons price-fixing case that included 73 defendants, ending as the first case with a jail sentence imposed on a corporate president involved in the scheme. From there she moved to Memphis, Tenn., working as an associate for a private law firm for three years, then recruited as a litigator for the Holiday Inn Hotels Corporation for the next four.
After being named assistant general counsel for Embassy Suites Hotels, the family moved to Dallas. She then worked as counsel for Pearle Vision company and Snelling Staffing before going on her own for a bit. She was recruited in 2010 by the City of Dallas to handle council redistricting then asked to stay on and handle contracts. She is now assistant city attorney over the Government Services Section.
"I keep saying I am going to retire, but I still enjoy it and am training new people as head of my section before I can leave officially," she laughs.
Just as it was in college, Barbara's faith remains a vital part of her life. She has been a lector for 35 years, a Eucharistic minister, an RCIA teacher and has presided for 19 years for a communion service at a Carrollton assisting living community. She attends All Saints Catholic Church.
She stays active in her community through service on several municipal boards and a neighborhood corporation, and she serves on the board of the Flying Queens Foundation she helped found several years ago, writing up the bylaws and nonprofit application and holding several offices in the past.
Barbara is a widow and has a daughter, Kathleen, also an attorney with the City of Dallas, and one grandson, Jude, 4.
Coming home for reunion
Barbara and her classmates from 1969 will celebrate their 50-year reunion this Nov. 1 and 2 at Wayland's homecoming celebration, taking time to reminisce and recall all the memories of college life all those decades ago. Barbara is serving as an ambassador for the 50-year class, along with Carter Frey, Tish Whitney Moore and Danny Murphree.
Several special events are planned for honor classes to gather and celebrate, including a luncheon for the 1969 graduates and earlier after Friday's chapel service, a Friday afternoon reception at the President's Home Bed and Breakfast and special recognition at Friday evening's Blue and Gold Banquet. Most events are free for alumni, with only a few meals having a charge. Attendees from the Class of 1969 and previous are totally free.
"We are excited to celebrate milestone anniversaries with our alumni from the honor classes, but we want everyone to join us for homecoming this year. It's always a good time to come home to Wayland and remember the people and places that played such a special part in your life," says Teresa Young, director of alumni relations. "Homecoming is for everyone, no matter what years you were here or if you are a current student."
For more details on the homecoming schedule and to register, visit the alumni webpage at .
Devotional: There is power in praying scripture
At a very low time in our lives when I was very ill-to the point of dying-and we had to return from the pastorate on an island in the Pacific, our mainland church group asked how they could pray for us. Benny said that rather than praying for my healing or for another church pastorate to open, they should pray Colossians 1:9-12 for all of us:
"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." (ESV)
While we were very discouraged, that prayer sustained us. We also realized that in Colossians 1, Paul included a hymn about Christ (1:15-20):
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." (ESV).
What exuberance we can find in this chapter! While the Lord healed me of that disease and Benny did get called to another pastorate, we recognized that regardless of our trials or situations, we needed to honor the Lord by praying and singing His word. Let's include this prayer and this doxology in our lives today and in the days ahead.
Dr. Sharon Gresham is founder and director of Ashes to Crowns Ministries, based in Burleson, Texas, where she speaks, leads retreats and writes. She earned a bachelor's degree at Wayland in 1970 and her doctorate in biblical theology from B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, where she also serves as Resident Fellow. She and husband Benny, also a 1970 graduate, have ministered overseas and in the U.S.
From the History Files
Spend a few moments with some of Wayland's most seasoned alumni and you will surely hear something about the Volunteer Mission Band. Starting around the early 1920s, the organization was made up of students who wanted to serve outside the walls of the university. The 1925 yearbook said the group's purpose was "to win lost souls for the Master. The minor purposes are to train Christian workers, to call out the called and to establish a permanent spiritual atmosphere within the institution and the vicinity."
Students would load up into Wayland's bus or the famed "blue goose" station wagon and head to area churches, where they would then lead worship services or work with children's or youth programs. Different ministerial students would preach the sermon; others would sing, play musical instruments or share a testimony.
The group remained active through the 1950s and '60s and eventually morphed into revival teams based out of the religion department. Today, Wayland students are still actively involved in serving in area churches, often helping with Disciple Now weekends for youth, guest preaching or leading worship. Many also serve on church staffs to gain valuable hands-on experience.
Lubbock graduate serves campus, community
To say that Dr. Joe Marnell has had varied experiences might well be an enormous understatement. While he currently serves as information systems manager and facility maintenance administrator for the Lubbock campus, Joe has worn many hats during his lifetime.
A native of Detroit, he got his first experience with Wayland while working on a Master of Business Administration degree simultaneously with Eastern New Mexico University, where he was working as a database manager after earning a BBA in three years though not starting the degree until age 46.
He finished the MBA at Wayland in 2000, taking classes in Clovis, Lubbock, Plainview and Amarillo so he could complete the degree quickly. He then went to work at the Lubbock campus. At the same time, he was being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and had visits in Washington, D.C. Just as that process seemed to be wrapping up, his son was injured and he felt the need to stay in West Texas. Three weeks later, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 changed the world forever.
"I knew God was protecting me when he brought me here," said Joe. And he's had favor in the various roles he's held at the Lubbock campus, including an Instructor of the Year award for his adjunct teaching in computer information systems and an external employee staff recognition.
Early experiences
All this seems a world away from Joe's earlier years, when he attended aviation school for aviation mechanics, then worked for Delta Airlines in that field. Soon Joe found himself in management, primarily in the fast food industry, first at McDonald's and then at Red Barn before joining the Burger King Corporate office as national installation supervisor, where he traveled far and wide.
"Doing that enabled me to have the management and operational experience as well as the construction experience," he notes. "After three years, I found a business partner and opened the first store of my own in Roswell, N.M. as a franchisee for Burger King. There was only one other store in New Mexico at the time, and we later expanded that to seven stores as well as a Western Sizzlin'."
With his natural love for airplanes, Joe pursued a private pilot's license to make travel between his stores easier, later adding an instrument rating to his certification portfolio. Both were completed in record time, a testament to Joe's full-throttle work ethic.
"I've always been a really driven person. When I get my mind set on something, I am going to do it," he laughs.
The educational journey
But that fast-paced business lifestyle changed when a divorce led to the sale of his stores. Joe found himself starting over and decided that computer systems would be his new field. He dove in head first with his degrees and has now added many certifications to the lineup.
Joe also started work on a doctorate in information systems and cybersecurity in 2004 from Nova Southeastern University. When that was finished he jumped into the Master of Public Administration at Wayland, focusing on the homeland security tract.
When he's not teaching and keeping the Lubbock campus computers running, Joe is active in the Lubbock community keeping things safe on a broader scale as part of the emergency management team, a role he undertook in 2012.
Joe first implemented a program in the city where the Lubbock campus would support and maintain computers that were donated to the Coalition for Community Assistance Volunteers group and did free tax returns for low-income residents. That opened the door for broader community service.
"County Judge Tom Head invited me to go to Austin for training as a certified incident stress management person in emergencies," he recalled. "I then became the developer and board member for the Lubbock Disaster Relief Network, which operated for about five years."
Certified to serve
That involvement led to Joe's volunteer work with the local American Red Cross for community activities and the Volunteer Organization Active in Disasters, or VOAD, a regional group. He has added numerous certifications since that first CISM designation, including one as public information officer and several in cybersecurity through the Department of Public Safety and FEMA, the federal emergency management agency.
"As a pilot, I had interest and some involvement with search and rescue, so emergency management was a natural interest of mine," explains Joe of his work. "I'm a big advocate of enabling people to be better prepared in their homes with the basic necessities to overcome any emergency that should occur."
To that end, Joe's group has held projects like installing free smoke detectors in homes and holding training sessions in churches and other venues about staying safe in the home. He sees his volunteer work as a great way of giving back as a Wayland alumnus and helping people beyond the campus.
Joe says he is also inspired to give back and work hard by his two sons, ages 41 and 39, who live in Roswell, N.M.
Come join us for home football games!
Bring your family out to cheer on the Pioneers and stop by our alumni tent for free goodies and to receive a $1 coupon for the concession stand. Update your information with us for a chance to win one of our cool alumni t-shirts. At all five home games, you may be randomly chosen for a football passing contest to from our friends at Plainview Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.
Look for our alumni tent at Bulldog Stadium on the following dates. Come early for tailgate food, games for the kids and other activities, then get your seats and cheer on the boys in blue and gold!
- Aug. 31, 11 a.m. kickoff (booths open at 10 a.m.) - vs. University of St. Mary's (Kan.) - GOLD OUT
- Sept. 21, 2 p.m. kickoff (booths open at 12:30 p.m.) - vs. Arizona Christian
- October 5, 2 p.m. kickoff vs. Texas College
- Nov. 2, 2 p.m. kickoff vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State University - HOMECOMING
- Nov. 16, 2 p.m. kickoff vs. Langston University
For more information about the football program,
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