Around the State

• East Texas Baptist University will hold Shadow Days Dec. 1-2 for prospective students. The event offers visiting students an opportunity to experience campus life. Participants spend the night in a dorm, socialize with current students, visit with professors at breakfast, and attend classes and a basketball game. A $20 non-refundable fee must be paid to reserve registration for the event, but ETBU will waive processing fees for students who apply to the university during the event. For more information, call (800) 804-3828.

• Texas Baptist Men will help with Operation Care International's Christmas Gift for the Homeless Dec. 17 in Dallas. The event benefits the homeless, impoverished and veterans. Baptist Men will serve food to all veterans, homeless and families. Last year, 11,000 people were served.

• Joe Mosley, director of ministry students at Dallas Baptist University, has been named president of the Association of Ministry Guidance Professionals. He began working at DBU in 2001.

• Howard Payne University presented a check for $2715.05 to representatives from Brownwood Regional Medical Center and Walker Cancer Center. The donation was raised during a walk-a-thon.

• C.C. Risenhoover, pastor of The Church at Granbury in Granbury, has been named president of Mission of Choice. The nonprofit organization provides financial support to terminally ill people who otherwise would be unable to live out their remaining days in an assisted living center or nursing home.

• Dee Grimm has been named associate executive director of national preparedness by Baptist Child & Family Services.

• San Antonio Baptist Association raised more than $30,300 through its second annual hunger walk Nov. 5. Forty churches participated. Three-fourths of the money will go to 24 Baptist food pantries in the association, and the remaining 25 percent will benefit the San Antonio Food Bank and six other community hunger organizations—Daily Bread Ministries, Christian Assistance Ministries, Children's Hunger Fund, Agape Ministries, the San Antonio Community of Congregations Infant Formula Program and the Randolph Area Christian Assistance Program.

Retiring

• Gerald Ford, as pastor of First Church in Beasley, where he served 16 years. He began preaching in 1965 and started serving as a pastor in 1970. He was pastor at Riverview Church in Houston and Southside Church in Port Neches, and also served three Louisiana churches. He will continue as a therapist at Houston Center for Christian Counseling in Sugar Land. He also is available for supply and interim work at (713) 419-6032.

• Ed Geron, as director of missions of Concho Valley Baptist Association, Dec. 31. He served the association four years as associate director of missions and seven years in his current position. His 47 years of ministry include 12 years of bivocational ministry and full-time ministry positions at Pine Forest Church in Vidor, First Church in Port Neches, First Church in Mount Pleasant, First Church in Brownwood, Field Street Church in Cleburne, as well as one church each in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Deaths

• Matias Quintanilla, 80, Nov. 8 in Pasadena. He was a graduate of Valley Baptist Academy, where his studies were interrupted two years while he served in the U.S. Army. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserve 10 years. He was a pastor 45 years, serving churches in San Benito, Harlingen, Lyford, Rio Hondo, Brownsville, Pasadena, Donna, Robstown, Eagle Lake and Edinburg. After his retirement, he served as interim pastor of Iglesia El Salvador in League City 13 years. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Cristina; sons, Matias Jr., Daniel and Dwight David; daughters, Luisa Montoya and Ruth Alvarado; three sisters; one brother; 14 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. A memorial fund to publish Spanish Bibles and literature has been established. Contributions can be sent to Baptist Spanish Publishing House Foundation, 7000 Alabama Street, El Paso 79904.

• Dewey Presley, 93, Nov. 10 in Dallas. A 1939 graduate of Baylor University, he served as chair of the school's board of regents, the board of trustees of Baylor University Medical Center and the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. He was honored in 1968 by the Baylor Alumni Association with its distinguished alumni award. Dur-ing his career, he rose from the rank of fieldhand to president of the largest banking organization in the Southwest. When many of his contemporaries enlisted in the military at the onset of World War II, his eyesight was deemed too poor, so he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he served 10 years. His first job in banking was as an assistant trust officer at First National Bank in Dallas. In a little more than a decade, he was named president, a position he held until 1972. He then became president of First Inter-national Bankshares, which soon acquired 50 banks. He retired at age 60. He helped numerous Baptist and Christian causes, including the Baptist Foundation of Texas, Baylor Health Care System, Baylor University, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Brother Bill's Helping Hand Ministry in Dallas and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He also was instrumental in saving Dallas Baptist University from financial trouble in the 1980s, when the school didn't have the funds to pay its faculty and staff. He helped connect the school with donors to keep it running. He also was instrumental in steering the BGCT to sell its downtown Dallas property and move to its current location. The building was constructed debt free without the use of any mission money. Presley received the BGCT's Elder Statesman Award. He also was a member of Park Cities Church in Dallas, where a taught the men's Sunday school class 50 years and also served as chairman of deacons. He was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia, and grandson, Gil Taylor IV. He is survived by his daughters, Charlotte Taylor, Suzanne Griffin and Rachel Anderson; brother, Jim; nine grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.