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FALL 2017 / 37
G. David
Johnston, a
partner in
Johnston,
Hinesley,
Flowers,
Clenney &
Turner in Dothan, was inducted
as a fellow of the Alabama Law
Foundation in 2016. He is a
graduate of Samford University’s
Cumberland School of Law.
This past April, named Ray
Reach Jr., one of “30 Alabamians
who changed jazz history.” Reach,
director of student jazz programs
at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame,
has spent more than 40 years
writing, arranging and performing
with various
groups as a
keyboardist,
vocalist,
guitarist,
and record
producer.
’76
Renee Hyche McKee of Cary, N.C.,
recently released Preludes of Peace,
a collection of meditative classic
hymns for piano, on iTunes and
Amazon. These pieces and her
other arrangements are available
in print through sheetmusicplus.
com and her studio website
. McKee
and her husband, Richard McKee
’75, performed a piano duet at
the Kammermusiksaal-Beethoven
House in Bonn, Germany in June,
while on
tour with the
Campbell
University
Wind
Symphony.
’78
Bill Dowell, founder and president
at Vision Financial Group in Vestavia
Hills, has been elected to the board
of directors of the Washington, D.C.-
based Financial Services Institute,
which advocates for more than 100
independent broker dealers and
the 130,000 independent nancial
advisors they serve.
’82
Dr. Janet Hinson Shope, associate
provost for faculty affairs and
professor of sociology at Goucher
College in Baltimore, was cited in
Redbook in reference to a book
she co-authored, Paid to Party:
Working Time and Emotion in Direct
Home Sales.
’83
Charles Ball Jr. was selected to
serve as chair of the Alabama
Commission on Higher Education
through 2019. He joined the
commission in 2009. Ball also
serves on the boards of Forever
Wild and AIDS Alabama. Ball
has served as the executive
director of the Regional Planning
Commission, which provides land
use and transportation planning
and economic development
assistance for Birmingham’s
metro area, since 2006. He holds
a master’s degree in community
planning from Auburn University.
’85
Dr. John Pendergast, assistant
professor of Russian language and
literature in the Department of
Foreign Languages at the United
States Military Academy at West
Point, has published “The Patriotic
Elegy: Zhukovsky’s Orleanskaya
Deva,” in the latest issue of
Daugavpils University’s Slavic
Readings. He received his doctorate
in comparative literature from
the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York in 2015.
Pendergast retired from the U.S.
Army in 2008 after 27 years of
service: 12 as an enlistee; 15 as an
of cer.
’86
Melanie Merkle Atha was
elected president of the Global
Collaborative Law Council last
year. The GCLC is an international
organization dedicated to, among
many things, resolving civil
disputes outside of court. Merkle
has practiced law with Cabaniss,
Johnston, Gardner, Dumas and
O’Neal LLP in Birmingham since
1990. She earned her JD from
Vanderbilt University.
John Collar Jr. has been included
among the Best Lawyers in America
for 2017 list. In addition, Collar
was named as Lawyer of the Year
in Atlanta for family law. Collar
practices at Boyd Collar Nolen &
Tuggle in Marietta, Ga.
’88
Nashville singer/multi-
instrumentalist Buck Johnson
toured with Aerosmith this summer
in Europe as the rock legends
performed their “Aeroverderci” tour.
The tour will continue in South
America this fall. Johnson has toured
with Aerosmith since 2014; his rst
performance with the band was in
front of 20,000 fans at Lokomotiv
Stadium in So a, Bulgaria.
Administrative law judge Suzanne
Schmith Van Wyk of Tallahassee,
Fla., was reappointed for a second
From Russia with love— Suzanne Hornung
McKinney ’88 spent a week in the Soviet Union in the summer
of 1984 and never expected to go back. “If someone had
told me that I would someday return to the Motherland to
adopt six children, I would have laughed hysterically,” said
Suzy, who, with her husband Patrick, have built their family
through international adoption. They adopted their rst
child, Vanya, from Khabarovsk, Russia, in 2000. Three years
later, they returned to adopt a little girl from an orphanage in
Komsomolsk, Russia; during that trip, a little boy ran up to
Suzy and called her “Mama.” “He had me!” she said, and six
months later Andrei joined the family, along with sister, Elsa.
Several years later, Suzy and Patrick decided to adopt just one
more–an older girl from Magadan, Russia. Turns out, the girl
had two orphan brothers—and all three joined their family in
2009. “The paperwork for adoption is daunting and the process
is long, but we are raising children who know they are adored,
special, and loved unconditionally,” McKinney said.
Pictured (l to r): Natella, Ilya, Elsa, Vanya, Suzy, Patrick, Sergei, and Andrei.