Joan Gardner:  

Life John & I have been married since 1977. We have 2 sons. John Jr is a graduate of TN Tech in music. His main instrument is trumpet, although he also plays piano & guitar & sings. He thought he eventually wanted to work in a hospital as a music therapist, but his church while he was in college offered him a position as instrumental Director of Music & head of a new music school. The Stevens Street School of the Performing Arts got off to a good start, with around 30 students its first year. The 2nd year, they had about 80 students. They continue to grow, and are now self-sufficient. In past summers he worked on music staff at Camp-of-the-Woods in Speculator, NY as a trumpeter and music arranger. One summer he was Christian Ed Worship Leader & Head Host of the dining hall, and another summer he hosted in the dining hall again & spent a little more time with Music Staff. He got married in March of 2008, and welcomed his first child, Nathaniel Robert, June 25, 2009. Carolyn Gail arrived May 8, 2011. Eleanor Jane was born March 8, 2013. John is currently working on his Master's degree at the Nashville campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and serving as Worship Pastor at Faith Bible Church, Spokane, Washington. David graduated valedictorian of his high school class of 465 with a perfect gpa. He graduated in May, 2005, from Duke as an English major and ended up among the top 2% of his class at Duke, maintaining a 3.9 gpa. During one college summer, he studied in Ghana, Africa, and Costa Rica. He spent a semester at New York University and interned at a publishing company. Another summer he spent time in Chile doing independent study. His real dream is to dance on Broadway. He was on 2 dance teams while at Duke: ballroom & salsa. He also plays trombone & sings. He spent the year after graduation as the personal assistant to one of his English professors, who was paraplegic. He hired a graduating senior each year & paid them enough to pay off college loans & get a start on grad school. David was worried about grad school, so he applied to 16 English doctoral programs, hoping to get into 3 or 4. He received 12 fully-funded offers. He visited his top 3 choices: Penn, Stanford, & Yale. He accepted the offer from Penn & received his PhD in English on May 13, 2013. He enjoyed a relaxing summer before starting as an English teacher and house parent at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. He is now serving as a Cluster Dean and teacher. John & I own a business in Huntington, IN. (See work profile). John still plays a bit of clarinet and saxophone. I play bassoon or flute in a community band. Many years ago, he got back into the music teaching area by becoming the assistant band director at our local high school. He occasionally teaches some clarinet and saxophone lessons. I taught elementary music 2 mornings a week for 3 years at the local Lutheran school, until it closed. The final year there, I started teaching on Fridays at Huntington Catholic Middle School, & enjoyed that. Several years ago, I ad...Expand for more