Dr. David Hendricksen, Ruth Gibson Thomas and James D. Winfree were presented Distinguished Service Awards during the annual Tusculum College President’s Dinner on Friday, May 18. The three were recognized for their continual service and multi-faceted support of Tusculum College.
Tusculum President Dr. Nancy B. Moody and Dr. Kenneth A. Bowman, chair of the Board of Trustees and 1970 alumnus of the college, presented the awards.
The Distinguished Service Award is given to an individual or individuals who have a long history of outstanding and multi-faceted support of Tusculum College. The award is presented at the President’s Dinner, which honors the college’s major donors.
Dr. Kenneth Bowman '70, chair of the Tusculum Board of Trustees, left, and Dr. Nancy B. Moody, right, Tusculum's president, presented Distinguished Service Awards to Dr. David Hendricksen, second from left, and Ruth Thomas, second from right, and Jim Winfree at the 2012 President's Dinner. Winfree was unable to attend due to a prior engagement.
As a committed supporter of Tusculum College and its arts programs, Dr. Hendricksen has throughout the years distinguished himself, Tusculum College and the community.
He is currently is an adjunct professor of music at Tusculum College. Through his career, he served as assistant vice president for the residential college and as associate professor of music. In 1992, he was presented with the Outstanding Teaching and Leadership Award by his faculty colleagues.
Prior to joining the faculty of Tusculum College in 1988, Dr. Hendricksen taught at Freeman Junior College in South Dakota and at Ball State.
Dr. Hendricksen was the founding conductor of the Tusculum College Youth Choir in 1990, and in January, 1996, he founded the Tusculum College Community Chorus as a choral outlet for adults in the area. In 1998 he was named Music Director of The Civic Chorale, the premier independent auditioned choir in the Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia region. From January, 2001 through December of 2010, he also conducted choirs at Walters State Community College in Morristown.
In 2006 Hendricksen was named Theologian-in-Residence at Tusculum College, delivering a series of four extended lectures on the relationships among theology, worship, liturgy and music. He serves as Director of Music Ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Greeneville and has been a regular presenter at the annual Arts in Education conference in Johnson City.
His vocal students have won music scholarships at various colleges, sing with the Knoxville Opera Company and perform across the region. For more than 35 years, he has worked as a recording engineer specializing in the location recording of classical music.
Ruth Gibson Thomas exemplifies the Civic Art values that Tusculum College has promoted for 218 years.
Thomas, associate professor emeritus of music at Tusculum College, joined the college’s music department in the mid-1960s with her husband, Arnold, who passed away in 2008. The two decades that the couple served the college were marked by the success of the well-respected choral program that significantly touched the lives of students.
As a team, the Thomases directed the Tusculum College Singers, creating three choirs from a small group of singers: the mixed chorus, men’s chorus and women’s chorus. She accompanied the men’s and mixed choruses on piano and directed the women’s chorus. According to former students, she was always calm and cheerful – a trait which was needed during last-minute rehearsals before choir tours.
Teaching such classes as music theory and history, she also found time to teach piano in a studio at Tusculum. Her students found she had high expectations and helped them achieve results that they had not thought possible. Her attention to detail in playing music was not just valuable in regards to piano, but also one that benefited her students later in life. Thomas is a recipient of the National Faculty Award, presented annually by the Tusculum College Alumni Association.
Tusculum College has not been the only benefactor of her talent and dedication. She was the founder and former conductor of the Greater Greeneville Chorale. She was also the long-time pianist and organist at Greeneville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Thomas is a Music Teachers National Association Fellow for the State of Tennessee, a recognition bestowed upon her by her peers for a lifetime of dedication to her students, to her community and for her exemplary service to the state and national music associations.
Dr. Nancy B. Moody, at left, congratulates Jim Winfree, left, on receiving the Distinguished Service Award.
Jim Winfree has been the St. James Episcopal Church choirmaster and organist for more than 25 years. His distinguished career in music includes teaching in the public schools for 25 years, at the Adventist Academy for four years and serving as an adjunct faculty member at Tusculum College.
Winfree moved to Greeneville in 1962 when he joined the Greeneville City School System as the Greeneville Junior High band director. At the same time, he began his role as a local church musician as organist and choirmaster at Reformation Lutheran Church, and then began at St. James Episcopal Church in 1986. Through the years, he has directed band and choral students and given private instruction in organ, voice and instruments, often at Tusculum College.
He served as Music Director and accompanist for the Greeneville Little Theater for 25 years and was elected to their Honorary Board of Directors for dedicated service. Jim played the “Fifth Brandenburg Concerto” in Kingsport and performed the “Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20” with the Knoxville Chamber Orchestra at Tusculum College. He was piano soloist for George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with a local band and has performed organ recitals in various cities throughout East Tennessee.
He is a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists with more than 40 years of membership. He served as the Knoxville Chapter’s sub-dean, dean and chair of its Scholarship Committee. He is a graduate of Tennessee Technological University School of Music and Art.
Winfree has become a familiar face at Tusculum College, working with the Community Chorus, playing organ at signature events, including Commencement and presidential inaugurations and playing for Tusculum’s chapel and religious life programs. His influence on the musicianship of Greeneville citizens runs the spectrum from his work as band instructor, choral director, church musician and keyboard instructor and through his work with Little Theatre productions and Tusculum Community Choral groups.