University of Mount Olive Spring Graduation Set for May 7
University of Mount Olive Spring Graduation Set for May 7
MOUNT OLIVE- The University of Mount Olive will graduate approximately 375 students on Saturday, May 7. Commencement exercises are scheduled for 2 PM in the George and Annie Dail Kornegay Arena on the Mount Olive Campus.
UMO alumnus Henry Edmund will be the commencement speaker. Edmund grew up on a farm in Columbus County and attended Southeastern Community College for two years after graduating high school. However, he never completed his degree. Instead he decided to pursue a job in the banking industry. He worked for 27 years before deciding to return to school to complete his degree and climb the corporate ladder. Edmund graduated cum laude from UMO in 2001 with a degree in business management and organizational development.
Edmund began his banking career working as a loan collector with First Citizens Bank. He worked with them in Raleigh, New Bern, Mt Airy and Whiteville and eventually became senior vice president. After 33 years working with First Citizens, he changed jobs and went to work with Security Savings Bank in Southport as a senior vice president and later became the president and CEO of the bank. Edmund is now retired after completion of a successful merger with NewBridge Bank and Security Savings. He attributes his professional success to the education that he received from UMO. Edmund and his wife, Diane, have been married for 45 years and have two daughters and seven grandchildren. Edmund is a 2016 recipient of “The Order of the Long Leaf Pine”.
Preceding the graduation ceremony will be the baccalaureate service at 10:30 AM in Southern Bank Auditorium with Reverend Chris Turner as the speaker. Turner is a native of Mount Olive and graduated from Southern Wayne High School in 2002. He then graduated from Wake Forest University in 2006 with a B.A. in religion and later graduated from Campbell University Divinity School in 2010 with a M.Div. He is currently seeking his doctorate in ministry at Campbell Divinity.
Turner was ordained by his home church, First Baptist Church of Mount Olive, where he served as ministry intern and youth minister. He has also served as the interim pastor at Stanford Presbyterian Church in Beautancus. In February of 2011 he was called as the senior pastor of Neill’s Creek Baptist Church in Angier, NC where he currently serves as the president of the Angier Area Minister’s Association. Turner often speaks at revivals, is a consultant for congregational coaching, and has helped organize several “Inasmuch United” community service events in Angier. He is married to Melissa Bland Turner of Goldsboro.
The University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. The University, sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists, has locations in Mount Olive, New Bern, Wilmington, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Research Triangle Park, Washington, Jacksonville, and in Smithfield at Johnston Community College. For more information, visit old.umo.edu.
