Published on April 4, 2005 by William Nunnelley  

Cumberland To Honor Alumni, Friends During Alumni Weekend April 8-9 

Samford University's Cumberland School of Law will recognize alumni, volunteers and friends of the school during Alumni Weekend events April 8-9.

Robert K. Dawson, president of Dawson & Associates lobbying firm, Washington, D.C., is 2005 Distinguished Alumnus. A 1971 Cumberland graduate, Dawson is a former deputy assistant secretary of the Army and was associate director of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House during the Reagan administration.
Cumberland alumni Michael V. Rasmussen, James H. Roberts, Jr. and Mark D. Pratt are Volunteers of the Year. They are honored for their work as coaches for various trial teams at the law school.

Rasmussen, a 1976 graduate, is assistant U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Alabama, Birmingham. Roberts, a 1994 graduate, is assistant public defender, Tuscaloosa County office. Pratt, a 1995 graduate, is an attorney in private practice with Burton & Associates, Birmingham.

Judge John C. Godbold and his wife, Betty, of Montgomery are this year's Friends of the Law School. Judge Godbold holds senior status with the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, and is former chief judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th and 11th Circuits. He is Leslie S. Wright Professor of Law at Cumberland.

The honorees will be recognized at a banquet Friday, April 8, at the Wynfrey Hotel. Other weekend events include Saturday morning tours of the Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library at Samford, classes taught by professors Frank Donaldson and Charles D. Cole, a family picnic at the Birmingham Zoo, and parties on Saturday evening for classes ending in "five" and "zero."

 

Samford Students To Hold Fun Fest for Perry County Residents April 9 

Members of Samford University's Student Government Association and Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society will host a Fun Fest for young Perry County residents Saturday, April 9.

The events, including inflatable games, music and face painting, will take place 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Marion on the Marion Military Institute parade grounds. Picnic food will be served. All area children are invited free of charge.

This year's third annual Fun Fest is presented in conjunction with the Old Howard 100 Bike Ride, which is sponsored by Samford's Howard College of Arts and Sciences.

 

SIM Awards $36,000 in Grants To Eight Samford Faculty and Staff 

The Samford in Mission (SIM) Grant recently awarded $36,000 in mini-grants to eight faculty and staff members through its Vocation and Development program. The program supports diverse activities for students that promote "the exploration and clarification of a sense of life's mission" through service in the wider world. SIM is a five-year program funded by a $2 million Lilly Endowment grant to Samford in 2002.

Awardees, their departments/schools and projects include Jonathan Bass, history, partnership project between Samford students and the New City Church in Birmingham; Jonathan Davis, family studies, student involvement in inner city human service agencies; Carol Dean, education and professional studies, teaching experience in Perry County; Hugh Floyd, sociology, student-produced video documentary of women's 1960s civil rights experiences; Clara Gerhardt, family studies, creating a new interdisciplinary concentration to prepare students for professional employment in nonprofit organizations; Michele Haralson, education and professional studies, promoting reading skills in inner city students; Chuck Sands, exercise science and sports medicine, Health Summit for students in Perry County; Jeremy Thornton, business, developing a course focusing on poverty and economic growth.

 

Beeson To Offer Premarital Counseling, Marriage Enrichment Workshop April 18 

Samford University's Beeson Divinity School will sponsor a ministry enrichment workshop focusing on premarital counseling and marriage enrichment Monday, April 18. The workshop will follow the Prepare/Enrich inventory format, designed to assist ordained ministers and counselors who counsel premarital couples and provide married couples with enrichment opportunities. Dr. Langston Haygood, director of Covenant Counseling and Education Center, Birmingham, will lead the workshop.

Richardson Named to Editorial Board of The Hymn 

Dr. Paul Richardson of Samford University's School of Performing Arts was appointed to the editorial board of The Hymn, the journal of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. He has been a contributing editor for several years and is a past president of the organization. At Samford since 1995, he is assistant dean for graduate studies in music.

 House Invited To Address Evangelical Theological Society 

Dr. Paul R. House, associate dean of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School, was invited to deliver two plenary addresses at the Evangelical Theological Society's eastern regional meeting in Philadelphia, Pa., April 1. His topics were God's Character and the Wholeness of Scripture, and Old Testament Narrative.

House's essay, "Remaking the Modern Mind: Revisiting Carl Henry's Theological Vision," was published recently in The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. 

 

Auburn Eighth-Grader Locates Darfur Region To Win Second Straight Geography Title 

"In November 2004, the United Nations Security Council met in Africa to promote peace in the Darfur region in which country?"

"Sudan," answered Bill Moody of Auburn, an eighth-grader at Lee-Scott Academy.

The answer earned him top honors at the Alabama Geographic Bee April 1 for the second straight year. Samford hosted this year's event for 99 competitors from grades four through eight representing schools in 22 counties.
Moody will represent Alabama in the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., May 25.

 

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.