FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – October 17, 2008

Three New Members Elected to SMC Board of Trustees

Rev. Mitch Houston

Guy Spriggs

Rev. Lillian Washington

SPARTANBURG, SC – The South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church recently re-elected six members, replaced two outgoing members whose terms expired in 2008 and elected a new member to a vacant post on Spartanburg Methodist College’s Board of Trustees.

Rev. Mitch Houston, of Irmo, SC, was elected to fill the seat being vacated by Rev. John Hipp, whose term expired. 

Rev. Houston was named South Carolina Religious Leader of the Year in 1996. He also is a member of the FCA of the Midlands, Vice Chair of the Conference Finance and Administration, Chair of the Columbia District Board of Ministry and a former Board of Trustees member at Columbia Pines Hospital in Hartsville, SC. Rev. Houston is a member of the Rotary Club and Capital City Club in Columbia, SC. He and his wife Martha Ann McConnell have two children. 

Guy Spriggs, of Campobello, SC, was elected to fill the seat being vacated by Howard Suitt whose term expired. 

Spriggs is a member Jackson Grove United Methodist Church and an active supporter of the Tryon Fine Arts Center. He is a member of the Ramey Estep Foundation and the Guy and Lisa Spriggs Foundation. He received the Community Service Award in 2005 and was named an Angel in Adoption in 2006. He and his wife Lisa have four children. 

Rev. Lillian Washington, of Hartsville, SC, was elected to fill the seat being vacated by Ralph Driggers. 

Rev. Washington is a Board member of Epworth Children’s Home and is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the OES. She and her husband Harold have two children. 

The Spartanburg Methodist College Board of Trustees is comprised of 24 members, with six clergy members and 18 laity. Terms are staggered on a three-year basis.

Other members of the Board include chairperson Jerry Calvert, immediate past chairperson Dan Foster, recording Secretary Mellnee Buchheit, Charles Atchison, John Bell, Justin Converse, Phyllis DeLapp, Dr. Edgar Ellis, Dr. Phinnize Fisher, Jamie Fulmer, Marianna Habisreutinger,  John Gramling, Rev. Larry Hays, Patrick Henry, Rev. Jean Osborne, Liz Patterson, Patsy Simmons, Rev. Ken Timmerman, Andy Westbrook, and Dr. Bruce Yandle. 

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 98th year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning. 

For more information, contact Brian Fulkerson, director of public information, at (864) 587-4254.

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