AlumNews - Point Loma Nazarene University

DAN WHITNEY
In the fall of 1984, Dan Whitney came to PLNU with a hundred dollars and a dream of
playing professional baseball. After just a few weeks in an economics class, he was ready to
go home. Fortunately, a few people took him under their wings, such as Dana Walling and
business professor Dorothy Dykman. When Whitney committed his life to Christ during a
chapel service, Coach Carroll Land had his hand on Dan’s shoulder.
These same people remained faithful when more hard times hit.
In Dan’s sophomore year, his arm snapped while he was pitching in a championship game. It required months of
rehabilitation and a shift in his personal goals. He focused on academics, leadership – he served as Associated Student Body
president – and his relationships.
Graduating in 1989 with a business administration degree, Whitney went straight from campus into the corporate world,
working for several high-tech Fortune 500 companies. He became known as a high-profile “change agent” in Silicon Valley and
was an executive at Advanced Micro Devices by age 30. By age 34, Dan was a senior director at Seagate Technology.
Dan was at the “top of his game,” but a dramatic mountain biking accident in December 2000 left him face down, completely
paralyzed, on the side of a mountain. Doctors’ odds were slim that he would ever move again below the neck, and they gave him
a one percent chance of ever walking again. As God would have it, thousands of people were deeply affected by Dan’s
experience. His journey of healing and faith transformed him into a “change agent” for the cause of Christ.
In addition to telling his story around the world, Dan established Whitney Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization raising
funds for Camp Attitude, a multi-location summer camp experience for children with physical challenges. Dan also serves on
Camp Attitude’s board of directors. You can learn more about the camps by going to www.whitneyhope.com.
Dan confesses that the accident has led him places he never thought he’d go and has given him opportunities to share Christ’s
love with others, even in a business environment. “Seeing me come into their offices with my crutch almost automatically leads
to discussion about their own struggles, which provides me the opportunity to share my faith,” says Whitney.
He currently has his own consulting company and is an authorized reseller for Vinimaya, a software corporation that
specializes in business-to-business technology. Ask him about business and he jokingly tells you his most important and
toughest job is coaching his daughters’ softball teams, a job he wouldn’t trade for anything! Dan Whitney and his wife, Candace
(Claassen), also a PLNU graduate, live in Scotts Valley, California with their two daughters, Nicole (11) and Danielle (8).
CHARLES HARDISON
As a nine-year-old boy, Charles Hardison was already concerned about people with
needs both within his culture and other cultures. As he grew and progressed through
school, this interest developed into a strong call to give his life in service to others.
Hardison graduated from Point Loma College in 1983 with a degree in biology
before attending graduate and medical school at Loma Linda University. Living and
working in a cross-cultural setting, he took weekend trips to clinics in Mexico, as well
as longer trips to Africa, Honduras and American Indian reservations.
He completed his residency at Natividad Medical Center, a county hospital in
Salinas, California, becoming a board certified family physician. Charles took a
position nearby at Clinica de Salud, a health clinic serving migrant farm workers, but
he eventually returned to Natividad to train interns.
“Charley’s heart for people always shines through his work as a medical doctor,” says a friend and pastor. “He’s a man of
compassion in action.”
While in Salinas, Hardison mobilized church and community groups to form a volunteer health education program. As part
of the Oasis Church of the Nazarene, he served as a board member and a home-group leader. He also helped develop the
church’s emergency food pantry and a policy for the emergency assistance fund.
Since 1998, Charles has worked as a medical volunteer with the Scientific Technology & Language Institute in central Asia.
He educates and trains teachers of family medicine in a post-Soviet environment.
In summer 2005, Charles was stateside to raise funds and attend a conference, but due to the forces of nature, he was called
into service again. Just days after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, Hardison was enlisted by the Heart to Heart
relief organization to travel with a medical team into the devastated area. The initial purpose of their visit was a short-term
needs assessment, but it became a month-long effort to provide mobile medical care and to set up clinics. He remained in the
area to help after Hurricane Rita struck.
Charles Hardison seems to constantly be in the right place at the right time to reach out with medical care and compassion
and to respond to the call upon his life.
Charles and his wife, Phyllis, have two daughters, Elaina (14) and Danae (12). ■
From left: Nicole,
Candace, Dan and
Danielle.
From left: Phyllis,
Elaina, Danae and
Charles.
21