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CLASSNOTES
Choral connection
—
Each year, Southern Union State
Community College (SUSCC) in Wadley, Ala., hosts their musical
tradition, the Southern Union Christmas Show.
Jimmy New ’59
founded SUSCC’s choral program in the 1960s and served as its
first director of music. His niece,
Ann Boyd Caldwell ’69
, next
stepped into the role of director in 1974, continuing to make the
show a staple of the Christmas season in Randolph County for
nearly four decades.
William “Trey” Rayfield ’05
became SUSCC’s
director of music in August, conducting his first Christmas show in
2014. The three grads, who all studied music at BSC, are pictured
on the opening night of the show, which ran Dec. 2-5.
’42
Retired educator
Ruth Bentley
Wilvert
reports she is living in
Tallapoosa, Ga. and turned 94 in
April. She has three grandchildren
and one great-grandson.
’55
Rev. Dr.Thomas Ogletree
, who
has made national headlines for
his efforts on behalf of civil rights
and LGBTQ justice and equality,
was named a Vanderbilt Divinity
School and Graduate Department
of Religion Distinguished Alumni
Award recipient in October. A
resident of Guilford, Conn.,
Ogletree is the Frederick Marquand
Professor Emeritus of Theological
Ethics at Yale.
He earned
a master of
divinity from
Garrett-
Evangelical
Theological
Seminary and
a doctorate
in theological
studies from Vanderbilt. From
1963-65, Ogletree served as
chaplain and assistant professor
at BSC.
’65
Britt Leach
, who has been writing
for the past 20 years, recently
had an essay published in River
Teeth, a literary journal out of
Ashland University. Prior to his
writing career, he was an actor
in Hollywood, probably best
remembered as the man who
was hit in the head by lightning
66 times in the 1988 comedy
The
Great Outdoors
. Other film credits
include
Baby Boom, Father of the
Bride,
and
Weird Science
. He
continues to reside in Los Angeles
with his wife, Catherine Roberts
Leach, a fine art photographer.
’70
Carol Cook Hagood
is employed
at Samford University, where
she has served as administrative
coordinator for its Research
Experience for Undergraduates
Program. She also volunteers in
many aspects of the educational
program at the Birmingham
Botanical Gardens, where she was
named BBG Volunteer Educator of
the Year in 2013.
’72
Wayne Morse Jr.
, attorney and
partner at the Birmingham law firm
of Waldrep, Stewart & Kendrick
LLC,
authored
a chapter
for the
American
Bar
Association’s
newly
published
Trial Practice
Notebook, Trying Your First Case: A
Practitioner’s Guide
. Morse, a trial
and appellate lawyer, wrote on the
opening statement and was the
only Alabama-based attorney who
contributed.
’74
Birmingham native and
internationally renowned pianist
and composer
Michael Dulin’s
newest CD,
My Beloved
, was
released in January by Equity
Digital Music. The intensely
personal and romantic 12-song CD
is dedicated to his wife, Jan.
’76
Terry Cooper
, who served with
the Mountain Brook School
System for 39 years—the past
23 as athletic director—retired
in October. During Cooper’s
tenure, the Spartans won 85 state
championships and logged 30
runner-up finishes. He was an
assistant basketball coach at BSC
from 1987-89 and was inducted
into the BSC Sports Hall of Fame
in 2004.
’80
Donald Heflin
has received his
first ambassadorial post to Cabo
Verde, also known as the Cape
Verde Islands.
He earned his
law degree from
the University
of Alabama and
worked as a lawyer
in Huntsville and
Mobile until 1987,
when he passed
the Foreign
Service exam and joined the State
Department. In 2012, following
service as vice consul in Lima,
Peru, and Madras, India, Heflin
joined the Consular Affairs Visa
Office in D.C., where he served
until his nomination to the Cabo
Verde post.