Wardens and Vestry Members

Jan 4, 2012 |

Senior Warden: Rob Johnson (elected February 2011)

I am 40 years old and am a lifelong Episcopalian. My wife is named Michele and we have an 11 year old son named Adam. I am originally from Connecticut and moved to the Dayton area nearly twelve years ago for my job. We began attending St. George's a few months after moving to Dayton and have always been very glad that we found this church.

I work as a Product Manager where I am responsible for aligning priorities for my company's product and deciding what features and enhancements will be implemented. These decisions are often based on our resource availability as well as the market demand. Sometimes these decisions are also made because it is the right thing to do. I believe this experience will help me in my role as Senior Warden.

As I have not moved around much, most of my church experiences are limited to the church I grew up in and St. George's with some short periods at a couple other churches. Growing up in my hometown church, I participated in many of the activities and ministries my church offered that many youth go through. Other than Sunday school, my first involvement was with the Junior Choir followed by serving as an acolyte and crucifer. In my later high school years, I also served as a chalice bearer/lector. I would also mention the eleven years I spent attending and working at my Diocesan (Connecticut) summer camp. Perhaps the most important thing I learned going to summer camp was that God is fun (among many other things)! That may sound strange but growing up, I always felt that many of my peers thought that God was there but was not something worth putting much time into. Summer camp showed that you could still have a good time and not need to neglect God.

Since Michele and I arrived at St. George's nearly twelve years ago, our involvement has grown. I started out serving as a chalice bearer/lector at the 5:00 service and then became a verger for the Cornerstone service. I have also been a member of the Stewardship commission as well as the
Profile Commission which produced the Parish Profile used in the search for our new rector. Michele and I have also been involved with many other activities like the Spaghetti Dinner, Rummage Sale, etc.

The outgoing and welcoming atmosphere is what attracted Michele and me to St. George's. I don't think this has been lost over the years and I would like to see it continue as we grow our ministries. I think we need to continue to find new ways to reach out to those who don't know Christ or have
been away from him and need to return.

Junior Warden: Max Heintz (elected February 2011)

I have been a member of St. George's church since 1988, having attended regularly with my wife Laura. I was a member of the choir for a number of years, am currently serving on the Vestry, and participated in the Rector Search that culminated with the hiring of Reverend Ben Phillips in the summer of 2010.

I believe we are well positioned to recapture the vibrancy in our congregation that was the case in the past. We have a fine Rector and lay leadership that is committed to revitalizing our Christian experience. Our path to a stronger, more vibrant congregation at this point is probably a matter of planning, implementation and motivation, which are skills I believe I bring to the position of Junior Warden. I am a CPA/MBA by training and profession, and have had considerable experience planning and implementing various projects and processes.Serving on the Rector Search Committee was an interesting and rewarding experience. I better understand the depth of other members' faith and their hopes and aspirations for the church.  Consensus and progress was achieved by respect for other's views, trust in the Holy Spirit, and honest hard work. The same is true for the progress of St.
George's Church in the years ahead.

Samuel Adebonojo (2011 - 2014)

I was born into a Christian home, baptized at the Cathedral Church of our Savior and raised by my sister and brother-in-law in the parsonage of the Archdeacon of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos Nigeria. My maternal grandfather brought Christianity to our home town in 1849 and my mother was the Grand Matron of the Cathedral Church of our Savior until her death. I attended the Lagos Anglican Grammar School where my brother-in-law was the principal and the Archdeacon of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos before coming to the United States in 1959 to study medicine and residency training in General Surgery and Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery. During this period, my family served the Lord at every Episcopal Church that we belonged to in the United States and when we returned to Nigeria in 1975, we continued to serve the Lord in several committees of our church. I returned to the United States with my family in 1990 to serve in the US Army as Lt. Colonel in the Medical Corp and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC before coming to Dayton in January 1997 to take up the appointment of Chief, Surgical Services at Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Professor of Surgery at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. I subsequently retired from active surgical practice in January 2007. We became members of St. George's Episcopal Church in 1997 and my wife has been a member of the choir since then as well as member of the Vestry and other committees in the church. I have served as Greeter, assisted in the Health Ministry and more recently, I was a member of the Search Commission for our new Rector. I believe the Lord has showered His blessings upon our family in every aspect of our lives and there is no greater honor that is more noble than answering to the call of duty as member of the Vestry at St. George's Episcopal Church. I hope to bring to the Vestry
the gift bestowed upon me as a physician, my years of experience as an administrator and my talents in problem solving and fundraising. This is my call for stewardship and disipleship of the Lord as I devote my life to the service of God.

 Mamle Anim (2010 - 2013)

I want to serve my church community and be a voice for a congregation. My hope for St. George's
and the Vestry is that we continue to grow in faith while increasing our membership. I hope that our church reaches out to our local community so that we will be recognized as a community partner. Most importantly, I hope that we remain and inclusive and welcoming church, focusing on strong principles of Christianity. As we plan and hire a new rector, my prayer is that we find someone who in in tune with our goals and aspirations.

I was born and raised in Ghana, West Africa and went to medical school in Zambia. I moved to
Xenia in 1991 and have a been a member of this church since moving to Centerville in 1995. I am currently an assistant professor at Wright State University and love my work which involves teaching medical students and residents. I have 2 children, Memme and Awo Onwudiwe both members at St.
Georges. St. George's has been a source of spritual support and strength to me over the years. I am ready and willing to serve on our vestry.

Thelma Best (2011 - 2014)

The Best family has been an active part of St. George's Parish since we arrived eight years ago.
My three children have been acolytes and have participated in almost all the youth group activities, including our two boys making a trip with MVERN to Russia. My husband, Ward, has previously
served on the Vestry and manages the computer systems at the church. My eldest son, George, was a youth representative to the vestry several years ago and most recently played his trombone for the 10:30 se service the morning after Christmas.

At St.George's, I have enjoyed leading the Flower Ministry and tending the front garden. I have
also been active with the Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Youth Group, and the Spaghetti Supper. I am originally from Wilmington, Delaware and am a lifelong Episcopalian. I received a B.A. in English from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. I taught high school English for two years and worked at AAA Potomac for a year. I have been a stay-at-home-Mom since 1989, and I am very happy to be there. I was honored to be asked to run for Vestry, and I look forward to
serving and continuing to be an active member of St. George's.

Elizabeth (Jean) Case (2010 - 2013)

My hopes and goals for St. George's:

Financial stability

Encourage lay participation

Establish more educational programs

Increase membership

Make the transition from the Interim Rector to the new one a smooth and non-challenging one

I have been a member of St. George's since 1970. Over the course of my membership I have been:

A Sunday School teacher

A member of the Altar Guild

Stephen Minister/Leader

A greeter

Wedding helper

Member of the healing prayer ministry

Lay Eucharistic visitor

In addition, I have helped with the Logos program, spaghetti dinners, vacation Bible school as well as numerous other programs.

I look forward to serving the members of St. George's through the next three years with God's help.

Linda Curtoys (2010 - 2013)

Being a member of a community means being willing to work on behalf of that community. One of the ways to do that is to serve on the vestry, to help with the guiding of the parish over the next three years as we transition into a new phase of our communal life together. I look forward to working with our new rector as we all move forward in our life together.

I believe that the grace we have been given is meant to be shared, that we are called to be Christians not for ourselves but for the world in which we live. Therefore, I hope to see St. George's become a more welcoming parish and a community that is known in the area as one that is involved on a personal basis with the needs of the Dayton region. We have many material and human
resources here at St. George's that can be utilized to nurture our world and I would like to help bring those to fuller use. I also hope to build on the foundations of worship and education that are a part of our life together to make them even more vibrant and enticing to young and old alike.

I have been an Episcopalian for over 31 years and have served on vestries for nine of those years.
I have also been responsible for developing and presenting various workshops on the subjects of prayer, ministry and the diaconate. I have been a Eucharistic minister, Sunday school teacher, and lay reader as well as active in the various outreach ministries of the parish to which I belonged.
Here at St. George's I am involved in helping to distribute meals at the Salvation Army as well as being a member of the Greeting Committee. My work experience is in education where I taught school for 10 years in grades 6 -12 and then spent 28 years as Education Director in a residential care facility for children. I am retired now and live at Bethany where I volunteer weekly.

Judi Gaines (2011 - 2014)

My name is Judi Gaines. My husband Greg and I have been married for 20 years and have two
beautiful daughters Rachel (13) and Laura (10). After earning my Master's degree in Education I have taught in various early childhood and elementary settings for over 14 years. I am in my fourth year of teaching a literacy enrichment program for kindergarteners at JFK Elementary School in Kettering. In my (very) spare time I enjoy scrapbooking, playing softball, and reading.

In 2005 my family participated in VBS at St. George's for the first time. Since then I have volunteered for VBS, taught Sunday School and recently taken over coordinating the acolyte schedule.

I believe I can make a positive impact on the Vestry. My position as an educator has given me a great deal of experience working positively with people who have different opinions, perspectives, and backgrounds. I have a vested interest in the church's youth programs as my daughters will be in high school and middle school next year. I work well in a group setting, respect other's opinions, and am a team player.

I was raised in the Episcopal church with parents whose church involvement (both have served held many different roles on their Vestry) continues to serve as a role model for me. I wish to make a positive contribution to the church and in people's lives and believe I can do so by serving on the Vestry.

Ted Knox (2009 - 2012)

I was raised in the Episcopal Church in Wilmington Delaware. Before our family moved to the suburbs after WWII, I was baptized in the Cathedral church in Wilmington. I served as an acolyte all the way through college at Brown. Carol and I have been married for 43 years and have two children and two grandchildren. I have degrees from Brown (B.A., Biology), Iowa State (M. S., Physiology
and Biophysics) and the University of Illinois at the Medical Center in Chicago (PhD, Physiology and Bioengineering). I was a Captain in the Army Medical Service Corps and have worked in research and
development for both the Army and the Air Force for some 31 years. I also was an Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport LA for 7.5 years and have held adjunct faculty appointments at Louisiana Tech and Wright State. Since 1989, I have served as Principal Scientist in what is now called the 711th Human Performance Wing of the Air Force Research Lab and have manage groups of up to 20 or more professionals with budgets of several million dollars.

I have served on three Vestries – Brown Episcopal Student church at St. Stephens, Providence RI,
Epiphany Episcopal Church in Enterprise, AL and at St. George's. At Brown I was vice-President of the Student Christian Movement (among other things we raised money to support voter
registration in the South during 1960-1963). At Epiphany I also sang in the Choir, was Superintendent of the Sunday school and on building and priest search committees. In Shreveport I attended St. Paul's and sang in the choir and taught Sunday school with Carol. At St. George's I have sung in the Choir since 1989 and served on the Newcomers, Accessibility, visions committees and the Vestry (one term). I have worked on two Habitat Houses and was stage manager for two choir shows.

Bob Loper (2009 - 2012)

I have been a member of St. George's Parish Church since January 2006, shortly after I reported to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I am no stranger to the Dayton area, since I grew up in Dayton, though I moved away in 1995 for school and work. St. George's was not the first Episcopal parish I tried when I moved back to Dayton, but I found St. George's to be a welcoming home, and I draw spiritual nourishment from the wide variety of services and ministries we experience here.

I am a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, and I work as a physicist and intelligence analyst at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. I anticipate starting a physics Ph.D. program at the Air Force Institute of Technology (also at Wright-Patt) this summer.

In the service of the church, I have been a tenor in St. George's choir since Steve Gustafson recruited me on my second Sunday here, and I've been serving as a verger since May 2006.
I have served on the Social Issues Commission since 2008. I explored a call toward the priesthood for two years of my time with St. George's, but ultimately felt that that call was nudging me toward the lay ministry of theologian. Toward that vocation, I have been studying part-time at United Theological Seminary for the last two years.

I am a relative newcomer to the Episcopal Church; I was baptized at the Easter Vigil of 2005 at St. Peter's in McKinney, TX. Here is where I have a unique perspective: I am not a cradle Episcopalian but a convert, brought into the church because I sought a home where I could find spiritual nourishment. Keeping in mind the challenges which we face as a faith community now and in the near future, I would like to apply this perspective as a member of the Vestry to ensure that the hard decisions that are made to help St. George's continue to operate also allow our faith to invite new members to join our church.

Jane McGee-Rafal (2011 - 2012)

For over forty years, I have been involved in public education. I have had the opportunity to
serve in a variety of positions from a summer school teacher's aide experience while in high school through serving as superintendent of Warren City Schools in Trumbull County, Ohio. I begin a new
position for the Ohio Department of Education as an outside consultant in Cincinnati Public Schools on February 14. For the past few years, I served as the Chief Academic Officer of the Dayton Public Schools. Strategic planning, budgeting, and consensus building are skills that I developed during
my years as a school administrator.

I currently serve on a number of community committees: Young People Succeeding, Neighborhood Schools Committee, UD Urban Teacher Academy Advisory Board, Homeless Solutions Committee are just a few. My husband, Archie, and I returned to Ohio from Arizona a little over five years ago, and I transferred my membership to George's shortly after that. Caring for him and my position in Dayton Public Schools plus enjoying my grandchildren have kept me busy. With his recent passing and my job change, I have an opportunity to dedicate more time to St. George's.

Kate Rodriguez (2011 - 2014)

I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa. My family started attending an Episcopal church when I was six years old and I have been an Episcopalian ever since. I obtained my B.S. Ed from the
University of Delaware and later, an M.S. Ed from the University of Pennsylvania. I married my husband, Hilton, in June, 1978. I worked as an elementary school teacher and as a computer resources specialist while my husband pursued his medical education. I stopped working after my first child was born and spent the next ten years staying home with our children: Elsa, now 24, Hilton John Jr., 22 and Eleanore, 18. During that time, due to my husband's medical and Air Force career, we moved around quite a bit, living in Philadelphia, Virginia, Las Vegas, Virginia again, then to Dayton in 1997. Currently I am in my 13th year working for Centerville City Schools tutoring students who are learning English as a second language.

We became members of St. George's shortly after moving to Dayton. Over these years, I have participated in various worship, education and service activities in our parish. Currently, I work on the Social Issues committee and help out with the monthly Salvation Army dinner preparation. I also served on the Rector Search Commission last year.Through my years of membership and involvement in various areas of parish life, I have developed a strong personal and spiritual connection with the St. George's faith community. I would be honored to serve on the Vestry of St.
George's as we move forward with anticipation into the next stage of our church life under the leadership of our new Rector.