The LIFE@Lynchburg curriculum varies by semester, and is shaped largely by suggestions from our members. History, arts and culture, science and technology, the environment, and politics are just a few of the topics we will cover in 2023-24.
We want to know what interests you, and what you’re passionate about. Have an idea for a topic? Let us know.
Spring 2024 Course Line-Up
All presentations are scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon in Sydnor Performance Center, Schewel Hall unless otherwise indicated.
- Presented by Alvin Elliott ’91, Pat D. Price ’95, ’05 MEd, and Nancy Blackwell Marion
According to the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation, “Fifth Street means different things to different people depending on who they are or how old they are.”
The Fifth Street Corridor began its development in the early 19th century as a gateway to Lynchburg, connecting the booming town with points westward as evidenced by transportation-oriented businesses of the period. During the late nineteenth century, Fifth Street served as the site of uses that would seem incompatible. It hosted high-end residential areas for Lynchburg’s white population while at the same time serving as the principal scene of commerce for the area’s African-American community.
Through a presentation, including an array of historic photographs, learn about the corridor’s history and current revitalization, including the construction and unveiling of the M. W. Thornhill statue.
Alvin Douglas Elliott ’91 was born and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended Lynchburg Public Schools and upon graduation, attended Central Virginia Community College and later graduated from Lynchburg College, now the University of Lynchburg.
He retired from the Virginia Department of Transportation after 43 years of service, serving approximately 20 years in several fiscal and accounting capacities and 23 years as an engineering technician.
Alvin currently serves in various capacities at the historic Fifth Street Baptist Church and volunteers in various community and civic organizations.
He has been a member of the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation for approximately 15 years, serving as president since 2017.
Pat Price ’95, ’05 MEd is a graduate of the University of Lynchburg. She received her BA in English Literature in 1995 and completed her Master of English Education in 2005. She worked at the University for 21 years. She started her career in higher education working in Lynchburg’s admissions office in 1995. She moved from admissions to work in the Center for Community Development and Social Justice for 14 years and completed her time at Lynchburg working in the Multicultural Services Office. It was during her time in the CCDSJ that she honed her skills as a community activist having worked and served in three downtown neighborhoods in Lynchburg. She has served on the board of directors for the Neighborhood Outreach Connection in partnership with the Waters at James Crossing, Riverview’s Artspace, the United Way of Central Virginia, The Salvation Army, Planned Parenthood, the Equity Task Force of Lynchburg City Schools, Live Healthy Lynchburg, CHAP, the College Hill Neighborhood School, Old City Cemetery and other nonprofit organizations in the City.
She currently serves on the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation, the African-American Community Council, and the Lynchburg Municipal Employees Federal Credit Union. She is a 31-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and serves as the secretary of the chapter and a member of the Graduate Advisory Council which sponsors Omicron Sigma, the undergraduate chapter of AKA at the University of Lynchburg. She works diligently in her church, Greater Brookville Church as the Director of Ministries.
Price completed her Doctor of Healthcare Administration at the Virginia University of Lynchburg in 2021. She continues her passion for higher education employed at VUL as the dean of the G.W. Hayes School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Price was born and reared in Lynchburg, Virginia. She continues to follow her passion for service to all mankind and, in the words of her late father, she plans to work out not rust out!
Nancy Blackwell Marion was born in Lynchburg and raised in Amherst County, graduating from Sweet Briar College. She was a partner and later owner of The Design Group for almost 50 years.
She founded Blackwell Press in 2004 to publish non-fiction books and Lynch’s Ferry magazine—both of which she still does.
Nancy lived with her husband on Madison Street, three blocks from Fifth Street, for forty years. She has served on the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation since its inception in 2006.
For the last twenty years or so, Nancy’s hobby has been collecting old photos of Lynchburg, some of which you will see this morning. Most of her photos are available to view on her website.
- Presented by Robert Lipscomb ’89
Over its 140-plus-year history, the Lynchburg Fire Department has responded to hundreds of thousands of calls for service. During this period, there have been numerous fires that have resulted in significant property damage as well as the unfortunate loss of life. Through photos and historical firsthand accounts, retired Deputy Fire Chief Robert Lipscomb ’89 will discuss some of the more significant fires and provide insight into how these specific incidents impacted the history of the Lynchburg Fire Department and the City of Lynchburg.
Robert Lipscomb is a 1989 graduate of the University of Lynchburg (Lynchburg College) with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle Childhood Education. Following his graduation, Lipscomb joined the Lynchburg Fire Department, and after 32.5 years Lipscomb retired in January 2023 as the deputy chief of operations. During his tenure with the Lynchburg Fire Department, he also served as a firefighter/paramedic in field operations, public education captain, engine company captain, training chief, and operations battalion chief.
During his career, he attended numerous classes at the National Fire Academy, Emergency Management Institute, University of North Carolina-Charlotte as well as training programs sponsored by the Virginia Officer of EMS, Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and International Association of Fire Chiefs. Lipscomb has also presented at numerous professional conferences throughout the U.S. and has been published in several public safety trade journals. In 2000, he authored a book on the history of the Lynchburg Fire Department, and he has also compiled a history of the department’s line-of-duty deaths.
Currently, Lipscomb serves as a community representative to the Blue Ridge Emergency Medical Services Council Board of Directors and serves as the board’s secretary. Additionally, he serves as a gubernatorial appointee to the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board representing Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell Counties as well as the City of Lynchburg.
- Presented by Kimball Payne
Payne has been following and presenting on Confederate monuments since shortly after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2018. His presentation will review the history of Confederate monuments, including the timing and perceived purposes of their erection, touching on the Lost Cause narrative and other possible motivations. He addresses the question of the appropriateness of such monuments in contemporary society and efforts to remove or reconceptualize them in Virginia. He also reviews Confederate monuments and memorials in Lynchburg and speculates how they might be addressed.
Kimball Payne spent his early years in Lynchburg, grew up in Lexington, attended Duke University, and then the University of Virginia. He served in the U.S. Navy, both on active duty and in the reserves, retiring as a commander. His local government service started in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where he spent 17 years as assistant county administrator and then county administrator. Payne returned to Lynchburg in 2001 and served as its city manager until his retirement in 2016. He now spends his time serving on several non-profit boards, teaching, coaching, consulting, gardening, practicing yoga, playing softball in season, and learning to fly fish.
- Presented by Hermina Hendricks
The Black religious experience in Lynchburg parallels the development of spirituals and religious music in those congregations.
A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, Hermina Hendricks is a music educator and multicultural student advocate. She teaches music history courses, such as jazz appreciation and popular music in America.
She is presently the organist and choral director of the senior choir at Diamond Hill Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and also the artistic and music director for the “Soulsters from the Hill” (DHBC), a vocal ensemble specializing in the presentation and preservation of Black spirituals derived out of the century in America and the century spiritual music genre.
She teaches music appreciation courses part-time at Central Virginia Community College.
During the early 1990s, then Governor Gerald Baliles appointed her to the Virginia Commission for the Arts, serving for five years, and later was appointed to serve on the National Endowment for the Arts – Arts Education Review Board in Washington, D.C. Those appointments enabled Hendricks to become exposed to the vast arts agencies and institutions not only in Virginia but throughout America that were committed to having diverse arts programs in their respective locales for citizens to experience and enjoy the value of the arts — musical, visual, theatrical, etc. Her service in these distinct organizations allowed her to see the larger picture of why art is so vital to each individual throughout America.
She serves, or has served, as a member of Lynch’s Landing Board of Directors, the Get Downtown! Steering Committee, Area II Advisory Panel for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Sphex Club, the Lynchburg Chapter of The Links, Inc., the Lynchburg Chums, Inc., the Roanoke Chapter of The Girlfriends, Inc., Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, Friends committee of Sankofa Arts, and Pink Auction Steering Committee.
Her ongoing research project, “A Journey Taken,” explores the life and educational contributions of Clarence W. Seay, principal and educator of Dunbar High School in Lynchburg, 1938-68. Her other project, “My Soul Has Grown Deep,” explores the growth and development of African-American spirituals.
- Presented by Jan G. Linn ’03 HAA
Most Americans take for granted the assumption that Christianity, the most dominant religious tradition in America since the founding of the nation, plays a positive role in our national life. Is that true, or does a closer examination of the influence of Christianity raise serious questions about the kind of impact it has had and is now having? Further, given the statistics that suggest Christianity itself is in decline in terms of people identifying themselves as Christian, is it possible that such a decline is good for the nation and Christianity itself or an ominous sign of things to come for both? This presentation and discussion will seek to explore answers to these questions that reflect a commitment to being honest with ourselves and honest to God.
Jan Linn is an ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He was the chaplain and an associate professor at Lynchburg College, now University of Lynchburg, for 10 years before serving as professor of the practice of ministry at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He and his wife, Joy, also served as co-directors of the new clergy program for the department of religion at the Chautauqua Institution for two years. He was the inaugural dean of the School of Ministry for the Christian Church in the Upper Midwest region, where he helped design a special focus on theological education for commissioned ministers. He and his wife also served as co-directors of the new clergy program at the Chautauqua Institute from 2013-15.
Linn has authored 19 books, including “What’s Wrong With The Christian Right” (Universal Publishers, 2004), “Evangelicalism and The Decline of American Politics” (Cascade, 2018), and “Unbinding Christianity: Choosing the Values of Jesus over the Beliefs of the Church” (Universal Publishers, 2020).
- Presented by Laura Henry-Stone
This presentation will investigate the past, present, and future of College Lake and the changes over time in its physical and metaphorical landscapes. College Lake was created when Blackwater Creek was dammed in 1934. Ninety years later, plans to remove College Lake Dam are finally coming to fruition. What does the future hold for this fascinating but troubled ecosystem?
Laura Henry-Stone is an associate professor of environmental sciences and sustainability at the University of Lynchburg. She grew up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, attended college at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and then headed to Alaska, where she completed her doctorate in sustainability education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2008.
In 2012, she joined the environmental science faculty at Lynchburg College, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental sustainability. Henry-Stone has had multiple leadership roles at the University of Lynchburg, most recently as the interim director of Claytor Nature Center, from June 2021 to June 2022, and as the director of sustainability, from January 2019 to December 2022, which has largely involved her work as the University’s liaison to the City of Lynchburg to collaborate on the College Lake Dam Removal project.
In 2018, Laura completed a permaculture design certificate with Shenandoah Permaculture Institute and then bought eight acres in Amherst County to put sustainability and permaculture principles into practical application. Her work with students most recently has focused on the integration of social justice with environmental sustainability.
- Presented by Heidi James
Heidi James will educate attendees about the importance of Lynchburg’s native bee species for the environment and the food supply, and how becoming a Bee Campus can help with this goal.
Heidi James is the director of the Lynchburg Bee City Working Committee and currently gives presentations across the commonwealth on how to become a Bee City or Bee Campus, intending to create an all-Virginia pollinator plan and to educate about Virginia’s native species of bees.
James was a founding member of Blue Ridge Conservation, a partnership between the Lynchburg Garden Club and Hillside Garden Club, to address conservation issues in Central Virginia. She served as chairman of the Garden Club of Virginia Horticulture Committee from 2020-22 and she received the Garden Club of Virginia de Lacy Gray Conservation Award for her efforts to remove a derelict vehicular bridge from the James River near Treasure Island.
- Presented by Ken West ’91 HAA
Early recollections are memories created in the first six years of our lives. These memories contain the unique “instructions” followed throughout our lives, both good and bad. During the talk, West will explain what early recollections are, and allow attendees to privately write down one of their own. Cognitive psychologists have a specific definition of early recollections, which may surprise attendees. For example, West says he only has three early recollections from his first six years of life, while the average person has six. After attending this talk, you will likely pay closer attention when someone shares a memory from their early childhood.
Ken West ’91 HAA arrived at Lynchburg College, now the University of Lynchburg, in 1976 where he taught several courses including developmental psychology and marriage and family counseling. At the University, Ken was the fourth faculty member in school history to receive the national teaching award, the T.A. Abbott Award for Excellence in Teaching. Also, West received the first Shirley Rosser Award for Teaching Excellence, the James A. Huston Award for Excellence in Scholarship, and the Elsie Bock Citizenship Award. He was chosen to be the graduation speaker for Lynchburg College in 1996. In addition, he received the Lynchburg Peace Prize and was selected as the Educator of the Year by the Phi Delta Honor Society.
Dr. West has written six books. He wrote a weekly column for The News and Advance for 28 years. West retired after writing his 1,482nd column for the newspaper. But, his greatest pride is in his family.
- Presented by Ellen Agnew
The lecture will explore and celebrate the trailblazing life of University of Lynchburg art professor Georgia Morgan, from her early art studies in Paris in 1909 to her lengthy 30-year career as a teacher at Lynchburg College from 1915-45.
Ellen Schall Agnew is an independent curator with a specialization in American art. She received a BA in art history from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, where she was also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and an MA in art history from Binghamton University. She held professional positions at The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, the Binghamton University Art Museum in Binghamton, New York, and was curator, director, and associate director at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1984- 2007.
She has curated numerous exhibitions and authored several accompanying exhibition catalogs. Exhibitions include Patricia Harrington: Essences of the Earth in 2023 at the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg, Virginia, and in 2018 at the Daura Museum of Art at the University of Lynchburg, Inside Looking Out: The Art of Queena Stovall, which subsequently traveled to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, Virginia.
The annual Student Scholar Showcase provides students with an opportunity to present their research, analytical, creative, or experiential learning projects to the campus community.