Southern Fall/Winter 2022

CONNECTION
“I have a yearbook from 1952 that has my grandfather as chairman of the Social Sciences department,
my grandmother as dean of women, my mother in the choir, and my father. He met my mother, they
married, and my mother had two children, my older sister and me. At age 23, she unexpectedly died.
Shortly thereafter, a woman named Mary Griffin Doster gave two trees to the college that were the
ginkgo trees. They look ancient but they’re actually the same age as me. They were planted the year I
was born which was the year my mother died.
And they’ve become a symbol of legacy for the college, and I think a symbol of
giving to a school that, for so many of us, means so much.”
– Greer Real Tirrill ’79
2022-2023 ALUMNI BOARD
Thomas Waters ’86, President
Rodney Barganier ’94
Danzey Burnham ’78
Devan Byrd ’13,
Paul Fancher ’97
Jeris Gaston ’05
Betty Gunn ’60
4 / ’southern
George Lane ’95
Byron Mathews ’70
Jeb Pittard ’98
Leanna Pittard ’98
Greer Real Tirrill ’79
Reba Simmons MPPM 2000
2021-2022 YOUNG ALUMNI COUNCIL
Denzel Okinedo ’16, President
Brittany Sturdivant ’13, President-elect
Kathleen Hillen ’10
Stephen Wilson ’10
LaDarius Woods ’11
Jennifer Commander ’12
Lauren Miles Kelley ’12
M’Kayl Lewis ’14
Rachel Buchan ’15
Clayton Humphries ’15
Katie Waters-McCormack ’16
Derrick Austin ’17
Jalon Hollie ’17
Bethany Kuerten ’17
Shannon Walsh ’17
Sam Campbell ’18
Shivkumar Desai ’18
Kelsey Peake Stapler ’18
Stewart Fowler ’19
Amelia Haston ’19
Andrew Triplett ’19
Aaron Beane ’20
Sutton Smith ’21
Christopher McClintock ’21
Thornton Muncher ’22
Tamrah Tucker ’22
’SOUTHERN MAGAZINE
VOLUME 47, NUMBER 1
Daniel B. Coleman, President
The Rev. Keith Thompson ’83,
Chair, Board of Trustees
’Southern magazine is published
by the Office of Communications
at Birmingham-Southern College,
Birmingham, Alabama 35254.
Non-profit postage paid at B’ham.,
AL Permit No. 2575. ©2023
Birmingham-Southern College
Editorial Offices
10 Stockham Building
900 Arkadelphia Road
Box 549004
Birmingham, AL 35254
Phone: (205) 226-4922
E-mail: communications@bsc.edu
Virginia Gilbert Loftin
Vice President for Advancement
and Communications
Executive Editor
Amy Bickers Abeyta
Assistant Vice President
of Communications
Art Directors
Patrick Bradford
Assistant Director of
Visual Content
Traci Edwards
Assistant Director of
Visual Content
Contributing Writers
Alexis Barton
Cassia Kesler
Communications Coordinator
Nicholas Mathey
Sports Information Director
Jesse Chambers Roberson
Elizabeth Sturgeon
Jordan Taylor
Marketing and Digital Media
Coordinator-Athletics
Photography
Cameron Carnes
Photographer and Videographer
Seth Orme
Mary Margaret Smith
Office of Alumni Engagement
Dana McArthur Porter ’03, MPPM ’11
Director
Tucker Carden ’22
Alumni Coordinator
www.bsc.edu