Jimmy D. Edwards
Jimmy D. Edwards graduated from Andrew Lewis High School in the class of 1956. Active in school affairs, he was president of the Pep Club; treasurer of the Junior Class; advertising manager of the yearbook; a delegate to Boys State; and a member of the Latin Club, Science Club and band.
He attended the U.S. Military Academy in 1956, Roanoke College in 1957, and earned a B.A. degree from the University of Richmond in 1960. Jimmy earned the Phi Beta Kappa Key at the University of Richmond and served as president of the Baptist Student Union and as a BSU missionary to Alaska. He received a Master of Divinity Degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1963 and was ranked first in his class. He served as president of the Student Body and received the American Association of Theological Schools Senior Honors Fellowship.
In 1955, Jimmy was converted and baptized into the Bethel Baptist Church and ordained to the gospel ministry at that church in 1963. His Christian experience has since been both rewarding and broad. He has served as pastor at a number of churches in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alaska.
In 1969, his Christian calling took a new turn when he became associated with the Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, Tennessee. The Board is an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention and fosters education and service programs to help churches establish, conduct, enlarge, and improve their ministries of Bible teaching and Christian training. The Board is also the world’s largest Christian publishing house with approximately 1,900 employees. Beginning as manager of the Sales Department, Jimmy was named vice president of Publishing and Distribution in 1981, with supervision responsibility for 750 employees. In 1987, he was named vice president of Church Programs and Services and, in 1989, vice president of Marketing and Distribution responsible for a sales budget exceeding $200 million.
Assignments during his 27 years with the Board included membership on the Coordinating Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and chairman of the Music Publishing Task Force, the Bible Publishing Task Force, the Physical Distribution System, and various other internal management teams. He also served the Protestant Church-owned Publishers Association as a director, executive committee member, and chairman of the Armed Forces Curriculum Committee with responsibility for planning, publishing, and distributing Christian literature at book fairs around the world. Concurrent with his responsibilities with the Board, he served as interim pastor at ten different churches between 1969 and 1993, and continues to do interim pastorates and lead Bible Conferences both in the U.S. and abroad.
Due to health problems, Jimmy found it necessary to take early retirement from his senior officer post in 1992 and resides with his wife, the former Sue Hairston (A.L. ‘57), in Brentwood, Tennessee. They have four daughters, Mrs. Janet Searcy, Mrs. Laura Lankford, Mrs. Annette Atwood and Mrs. Jennifer Cavendish. Their great joy is seven grand children with the eighth due in February.
In recognition of his outstanding career achievements, Jimmy D. Edwards was inducted in 1998 into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame by the Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association.
