From Elton to Aquatic Turtles and French Horn to Fiero, the Interests of Faculty and Staff Run the Gamut

 

by Beverly James

 

Think you know the people you see at Georgia Perimeter College? Did you realize that the admissions specialist who works at the Clarkston Campus once sang backup for Elton John? Or that the top finance administrator restores classic cars in his spare time? No? Well, take a minute to explore the “other lives” of a few Georgia Perimeter College faculty and staff members. Here are some of their stories:  

 

Alecia Terry

 

By day, admissions specialist Alecia Terry helps applicants at the Clarkston Campus become Georgia Perimeter College students. By night, as a member of the Voice of Atlanta choir, the soprano is a backup singer for some of the biggest names in the music industry.

 

Terry, who has been employed at GPC for seven years, has sung with Justin Bieber, Ceelo Green, Diana DeGarmo and Joss Stone, to name a few. However, it’s her work with Sir Elton John that has brought her the greatest fulfillment.

 

John heard Voice of Atlanta sing and immediately signed the choir to work on his original score for the Broadway musical “Lestat.” That was followed by work on his studio album, “Peachtree Road.” In 2004, the legendary singer asked Terry and seven others to accompany him on a world tour to promote the album.

 

“We traveled with Elton for 18 months from England to Peru, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Denmark,” Terry says. “Some artists don’t like to interact with the crew, but we became close, and he embraced us as members of his family.”

Performing before tens of thousands of people became second nature to Terry. Still, she took the time to savor the experience.

 

“I will never forget those days on tour,” says the wife and mother of two who called home every day from the road.

  

Terry still works as a backup singer, records voice-overs and performs at corporate events. She has lent her voice to commercials for Home Depot and other companies. “I am so blessed,” says Terry, “to have a supportive husband and family who lighten the load for me. Without them I couldn’t live this amazing life.”

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Ron Stark

 

When Ron Stark, executive vice president of financial and administrative affairs for Georgia Perimeter College, was a poor college student, he had no money to buy a nice car. So he decided to restore an old one and get it running.

 

“I bought my first car for $250, painted it and sold it for $750,” Stark says. “That began a hobby that has taken me all over the United States and to London, England, to find cars and parts.”

 

Stark, currently working on a 1986 Pontiac Fiero, has owned and restored dozens of cars, including a 1957 Thunderbird, a 1962 Jaguar XKE and a 1969 Corvette.

 

 “I do the body work, repair the engines and paint the cars myself,” he says. “I find working on cars soothing, and I get a sense of accomplishment when I complete a job. There’s nothing more beautiful than an old car that has been restored to its original condition.”

 

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Leslie Ann Dunn

 

Leslie Ann Dunn is an attorney and online instructor at Georgia Perimeter. But she also is a classical musician who has played the French horn professionally for more than 20 years.

 

Currently a member of the Georgia Philharmonic, Dunn has performed with the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra, the Cobb Symphony, the Gainesville Symphony and the Atlanta Boy Choir, among other organizations. Her husband also plays the horn.

 

“I always loved playing because it’s such a versatile instrument,” says Dunn, who began playing the French horn in elementary school.

 

“Playing makes me feel beautiful. It gives me peace, excitement, energy and strength.”

 

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Ray Huebschmann

 

Ray Huebschmann is a professor of psychology at GPC Dunwoody Campus. He also is a swimmer and weightlifter who has won national and international competitions.

 

Huebschmann, a former college swimmer at the University of Evansville in Indiana,  began competitive weightlifting in 1971. Since then, he has spent 42 years competing in both sports via the U.S. Masters organization.

 

“I do both techniques in weightlifting: the lift, snatch and hold overhead; and a clean lift of the weight onto my shoulders, position it and drive it up (jerk),” Huebschmann explains. In swimming, he competes in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard/meter breast stroke against others within five years of his age.

 

Huebschmann has competed in the National Masters Weightlifting and American Masters competitions in the United States. He’s also participated in the Pan Am Masters and the World Masters, both usually held overseas. Competitions have drawn him to Canada, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Australia, the Ukraine, Poland and Cypress.

 

“I enjoy physical activity and working out. I don’t like standing still for too long,” Huebschmann says. “And the competitions really become quite a social event. It’s nice to meet people at different tournaments from all over the world.”

 

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Elaine Bryan

 

Assistant professor Elaine Bryan and her four-legged partner help children develop a love of reading.

 

Bryan and Nellie Grace, a Great Pyrenees, are members of READing Paws, an affiliate of R.E.A.D.® (Reading Education Assistance Dogs®). 

 

Bryan teaches online business and physical education at Georgia Perimeter College. Nellie, 7 years old, is a certified therapy dog. The two trained for a year to become a certified READing Paws team and have worked together for a year, volunteering at two elementary schools each week.

 

“The children read to her (Nellie),” Bryan says. “When children are having trouble with reading, they may be anxious. But when they read with a dog, it feels like unconditional acceptance. Suddenly, you see a child who is battling an illness or who is shy open up, relax and enjoy reading.”

 

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Gary Bahn

 

Gary Bahn, who teaches education and history at Newton Campus, has always loved working with his hands. In his spare time, the longtime educator handcrafts Native American artifacts and builds model ships and airplanes.

 

Using products that resemble bones, Bahn has constructed a headdress that consists of a felt crown, a ring of feathers and a double trailer of feathers down the back. Also, he has completed a breastplate that resembles what Native American warriors would use in battle. The breastplate boasts strips of rawhide, bones and brass and turquoise beads.

 

“I’ve been creating Native American crafts for the past 10 years, but as a history teacher, I have always been fascinated with Native American culture,” Bahn says. “I get to discover more about the Plains Indians, which are the Sioux and the Dakota. This hobby gives me a whole new respect for what that culture created.”

 

Bahn’s other passion, building model airplanes and ships, dates back to high school, but his hobby eventually fell by the wayside. Once he retired from teaching public school in 2006, Bahn picked the hobby up again.

 

 “I love creating sailing ships and modern and vintage airplanes from World War II,” he says. “I enjoy putting things together and learning at the same time.”

 

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 Chris Moser

 

“I have been an amateur and semi-professional folk singer/musician since college,” Chris Moser shares. “My wife and I also formed a duo, Redwine Jam, performing traditional and contemporary North American folk music.”

 

Moser, president of Atlanta Area Friends of Folk Music, joins other musicians to present a monthly coffeehouse concert series called Fiddler’s Green.

 

From 1994 to 2002, he was vice president of the Atlanta Celtic Festival, and, as talent coordinator, led the development of the festival into a high-profile regional annual event featuring some of the world’s leading Irish, Scottish and Welsh folk recording artists as headliners.

 

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Caroline Hawkins

 

Caroline Hawkins, a part-time clinical faculty member in GPC’s Nursing Department, raises two aquatic turtles, Colorful and Oogway.

 

Colorful is about 2 inches in diameter (a miniature); Oogway is about 6 inches in diameter and growing, she says.  Aquatic turtles grow to about 8 to 12 inches and live in a home similar to a rain forest.

 

Hawkins says her turtles’ tank is equipped with an UVB light to emulate daylight, a heat lamp to dry and prevent shell rot or mold and a red lamp so she and her son can view the turtles at night and not disturb their normal day/night balance.

 

“You can take them out, play with them, let them run around and put them back in water so they can eat,” Hawkins says. “I am hooked on them; I can’t go back to goldfish now that I have started raising aquatic turtles.”

 

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Dexter Christian

 

As members of North Georgia Mounted Search and Rescue, Dexter Christian, a Dunwoody Campus philosophy instructor, and his wife, Gail, are trained to locate lost campers and hikers or missing children throughout the southeastern United States. They train on horses for a job they hope they never have to do.

 

“We haven’t rescued anyone yet … ,” Christian says. “I’m here to help, but I hope my services are never needed.”

 

In the meantime, however, the couple enjoy caring for their two horses and horseback riding on their 9-acre horse farm.

 

“We mainly do trail riding on our farm in northern Forsyth County and in the north Georgia mountains,” says Christian, who has taught at GPC for 20 years.

 

“It really brings us great joy to see our daughters grow to love horses as much as we do,” says Christian. He and his wife adopted their daughters, Alisa and Evita, who are sisters from Latvia, in 2010.

 

“They were only 12 and 6 years old when we adopted them, but they took to the horses and the farm in no time. They absolutely love it, and so do we.”  

 

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