Ruth May

From BJU to Aerospace Engineering

Ruth May, a 2019 Bob Jones University graduate, now works as an aerospace engineer on projects of global significance—designing equipment and running simulations to ensure hardware can survive extreme environments and meet demanding flight requirements. Her career has brought her into contact with astronauts from the Apollo missions and members of the Artemis II crew, experiences few engineers ever have. And May traces the discipline, faith, and confidence that made this career possible back to lessons learned as a BJU student.

The journey to BJU began with uncertainty. As high school graduation approached, May and her twin sister weren’t sure which college to attend. Their pastor, Jim Efaw, encouraged them to consider his alma mater, Bob Jones University. During a campus visit, May’s father was struck by the excellence of the student ambassadors and the University’s approach to student life, but May herself remained undecided until a conversation with Dr. Patrick McGary changed her perspective. McGary encouraged her to pursue engineering and spoke of the need for Christian women in the profession. His challenge resonated with her and helped settle the decision to enroll at BJU.

Growth Through Difficulty

Engineering coursework at BJU was rigorous, and one class in particular—Dr. Melissa Gardenghi’s Calculus IV—reinforced a truth that would define May’s career: growth often comes through difficulty. However, she never faced those challenges alone. Faculty members invested deeply in her, encouraging her every step of the way. Dr. Kathy Pilger, for example, sent her personal, uplifting messages as a student. And near the end of her time at BJU, Dr. Patrick McGary helped May secure an internship through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Alabama. That experience led to a highly competitive internship with a government agency, the opening that ultimately led to her current role as an aerospace engineer.

Outside the classroom, May was fully immersed in campus life. She served on the robotics team, worked as an engineering lab assistant and educational technology assistant, sang in university choirs, and played in the Symphonic Wind Band. As an officer in Alpha Gamma Tau, she gained leadership experience she still draws on today. Looking back, she sees how even the small things—punctuality, responsibility, attention to detail, accountability, and room jobs—built habits that are critical in a profession where precision makes all the difference. “The things that seemed small at the time mattered,” May says.

Since Graduation: Growth, Opportunity, and Accomplishment

After graduating from BJU in 2019, May continued her education at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School, earning a master’s degree in aerospace engineering while serving as a graduate assistant.

Today she is at the forefront of aerospace research and development. A typical day involves collaborating with stakeholders, scientists and project managers as she designs equipment and runs simulations to ensure hardware can withstand extreme environments and meet stringent flight requirements. Next year, she will take on a new leadership role as president of a young professionals group in the aerospace community—but that confidence did not develop overnight. Entering the workforce, May quickly discovered how much she still had to learn, and in an environment where mistakes can carry significant consequences, she has often reflected on the same persistence that carried her through her hardest classes at BJU. Courses like speech, along with the daily experience of learning, working, and living alongside others at BJU, helped prepare her to communicate clearly, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and contribute to multi-billion-dollar projects.

Faith Carried Into the Workplace

For May, her faith in God is central to her work. The University challenged her to pursue excellence, develop discipline and trust God through hard circumstances, and those lessons still shape how she approaches her work and life. She encourages current BJU students to embrace every opportunity in front of them. “Take advantage of all the opportunities God gives you at BJU,” she said. “If you allow yourself to be stretched, you will develop and gain invaluable life skills. Those skills and lessons will stay with you long after graduation.”

Classic Players

Classic Players is the dramatic production company of Bob Jones University, founded in 1929 primarily to present the plays of William Shakespeare. Its first play, The Merchant of Venice was performed on June 2, 1930, with Bob Jones Jr., then an eighteen-year-old college sophomore, playing the role of the aged Shylock. During the company’s first fifty years, its productions featured not only the talents of Bob Jones Jr. and Bob Jones III but those of Elizabeth Edwards, Bob Harris, Corretta Grass, Edward Panosian, Lonnie Polson, Robert Pratt, Richard Rupp, and Don Ryerson.

Swamp Angels

Swamp Angels was the nickname of the Bob Jones College sports teams on the Florida campus, 1928-1933, and to a lesser extent, of Bob Jones students generally. Bob Jones Sr. did not choose the name, and it is a likely reference (perhaps humorous, or even mocking) to a regional epithet for mosquitoes: if one were bitten by a mosquito, he had been “kissed by a swamp angel.”

Bob Jones Sr.

Robert Reynolds Jones Sr. (October 30, 1883 – January 16, 1968) was a Methodist evangelist, the founder and first president of what became Bob Jones University. The eleventh of twelve children born to a Confederate veteran from southeastern Alabama, Jones became a noted evangelist after the turn of the twentieth century, founding the nondenominational Bob Jones College in 1927. Jones led the college in the creation and growth of three campuses: in Lynn Haven, Florida; Cleveland, Tennessee; and Greenville, South Carolina. He relinquished the presidency in 1947 in favor of his son, Bob Jones Jr.

Billy & Nell Sunday

William Ashley Sunday (November 19, 1862– November 6, 1935) was a professional baseball player, born into poverty near Ames, Iowa, who became the best-known American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20^th century, attracting the largest crowds of any in American history before the advent of electronic amplification. His support of Prohibition likely played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteen Amendment in 1919. Despite a twenty-year age difference, Sunday and Bob Jones respected each other’s gifts and were personal friends.

Helen Amelia “Nell” Thompson Sunday (June 25, 1868 – February 20, 1957), the wife of Billy Sunday, played an oversized role in organizing his huge evangelistic campaigns during the first decades of the twentieth century and served as a buffer between her naturally shy husband and the outside world, allowing him to concentrate on his preaching. After her husband died in 1935, Nell embarked on her own 22-year ministry, preaching, encouraging young evangelists, and raising money for Christian organizations. A residence hall on the BJU campus is named in her honor.

Harry Ironside

Henry Allan “Harry” Ironside (October 14, 1876 – January 15, 1951) was a Canadian–American preacher, theologian, and author who pastored Moody Church, Chicago, from 1929 to 1948. Despite limited formal education, Ironside was a prolific Christian writer, publishing more than a hundred books, booklets, and pamphlets, many of which are still in print in the 21^st century and which popularize the dispensational theology of the Scofield Reference Bible. A residence hall on the BJU campus is named in honor of this friend of Bob Jones Sr.

Bob Jones Jr.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Bob Jones Jr. was the son of the University founder. He served as acting president in his father’s absence, 1933-1947, as president 1947-1971, and as chancellor thereafter until his death. A graduate of BJC (1931) and the University of Pittsburgh (1933), Jones received many honorary doctorates, the first in 1934, when he was 23. An accomplished preacher and Shakespearean actor, he also served as the editor of the periodical Faith for the Family (1973-1986) that he had founded, wrote poetry and hymns in traditional forms, and was a self-taught and well-advised collector of Old Master paintings. The BJU Seminary was named in his honor.

Eunice Hutto

Born in southeast Alabama, only fifteen miles from the birthplace of Bob Jones Sr., Eunice Hutto graduated from the Women’s College of Montgomery (later Huntingdon College) in 1923 (at age 18) and earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Alabama in 1929. Westminster College conferred an honorary doctorate in 1939. Hutto joined the BJC faculty in 1928 and was appointed dean of the college in 1932. She was possibly the first female chief academic officer of a coeducational college in the United States. She resigned in 1941 to marry Jefferson Davis Morelock, and Bob Jones Sr. named her to the Board of Trustees. A Bob Jones Academy building is named in her honor.

Grace Haight

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts but reared in Louisville, Kentucky, Grace Haight was able to live simply on a small inheritance and paid her own way as a missionary to China. After a stint at editing a Southern Methodist newsletter, Floyd Collins recommended her to Bob Jones College, where she edited the Fellowship News, taught missions and hymnology courses, and wrote devotional and sentimental poetry. In part because she was skilled at turning Bob Jones Sr.’s dictation into readable prose, Jones conferred on her an honorary Doctor of Literature. (She had no earned degrees.) A building on the Greenville campus, first used for faculty housing, later repurposed as a dormitory and, finally, classroom space, was named in her honor.

R. K. Johnson

Born in Virginia, and orphaned at eight, Johnson almost immediately became a student leader when he arrived at BJC in 1931. He was elected president of the 1935 senior class. While he was still a student, Bob Jones Sr. named Johnson the college business manager, and he retained that title for the rest of his life. Johnson’s pay-as-you-go business policy played a significant role in helping BJU survive the loss of its federal tax exemption in 1983. Before his death from a heart attack in 1971, Johnson wrote a commemorative biography of Bob Jones Sr., which includes a chapter on the construction of the Greenville campus in which Johnson himself played a significant role. After his death, a men’s residence hall was named in his memory.

J. Sephus Mack

John Sephus Mack was the son of a farmer, educated in the public schools of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and at a business college in Johnstown. In 1911, he purchased part interest in G. C. Murphy Co., a small chain of “five and dime” stores near Pittsburgh. Once in charge, Mack turned around the failing company and transformed it into the third-largest variety-store chain in the country. A devout Presbyterian, Mack first met Bob Jones Sr. in 1927 and, shortly before his death, he told Jones to “construct your buildings and send me the bill.” Bob Jones College awarded Mack an honorary degree and named the campus library in his honor.

Homer Rodeheaver

Born in Hocking County, Ohio, Homer Rodeheaver was reared in eastern Tennessee and there became familiar with local mountain ballads and Negro spirituals. He learned to play trombone while attending Ohio Wesleyan College. From 1910 to 1930, he served as music director for evangelist Billy Sunday, but he made much more money as a pioneer gospel recording artist and music publisher. Will Rogers said, “Rody is the fellow that can make you sing whether you want to or not. I think he has more terrible voices in what was supposed to be unison than any man in the world. Everyone sings for Rody!” Rodeheaver made a large contribution toward the construction of the Auditorium, and it is named in his honor.

Charles Digory Brokenshire

The son of a Cincinnati shoemaker, Charles Brokenshire displayed a remarkable gift for languages and distinguished himself as a biblical scholar. He graduated from Marietta College, summa cum laude, in 1907 and thereafter studied with some of the finest conservative scholars at Princeton Seminary. Though he nearly completed a PhD twice, he ultimately did not finish either program. Alma College awarded him an honorary doctorate. Brokenshire came to Bob Jones College in 1943, and he served until he died the day he turned in his final grades in 1954. A men’s residence hall is named in his honor. Brokenshire was essentially the founder of BJU’s Graduate School of Religion.

Harriette Stollenwerck Parker

Harriette Stollenwerck, a native of Alabama, was a distant cousin of Mary Gaston Stollenwerck Jones (Mrs. Bob Jones Sr.). A precocious student, she was already a college sophomore at age 17, when Monroe Parker proposed marriage in 1930. (Her parents thought her too young, and the couple waited until after she had graduated from BJC in 1933.) Parker took summer school courses at Chadek Conservatory of Music in Chattanooga, earned a Master of Music from Cincinnati Conservatory in 1942, and took further course work at the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago, and at UCLA. She was developing a gift for composing and arranging sacred music when Bob Jones Jr. wrote the original five stanzas of what was to become the University Hymn. Harriette composed the music, and the University Hymn premiered at Commencement in 1943. Three years later, Harriette was killed in a traffic accident while on her way with Monroe to visit the site of the new Greenville campus in 1946.

Katherine Stenholm

Katherine Corne was born and reared in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She graduated from BJC in 1939 as a speech major, having been a private student of, and assistant director with, Bob Jones Jr. In 1941, she married fellow alumnus Gilbert Stenholm. While serving on the BJC speech faculty and directing numerous plays and Vesper programs, she earned a master’s degree in speech at Northwestern University and completed most of the requirements for a PhD. When, in 1950, the Joneses asked her to create a film studio at BJU, she abandoned her doctoral work in speech to study film making at the University of Southern California. Stenholm became one of only a handful of female directors in the United States. During her career she produced seventy-two films of various types, including five feature-length religious costume dramas.

Dwight Gustafson

Dwight Gustafson was born in Seattle, Washington, and graduated from BJU in 1952 with a B.A. in music. After completing a master’s degree at BJU in 1954, Bob Jones Jr. asked him to become dean—when Gustafson was 24. Eventually he earned a D.Mus. in composition from Florida State University. Gustafson was a more-than-competent administrator with an unusual abilities in art, music, and drama. He conducted campus choirs and the Bob Jones Symphony Orchestra, especially in annual opera productions. As a composer, Gustafson was best known for his sacred choral compositions, although his more than 160 works included five film scores, a string quartet, a violin concerto, a one-act opera, and numerous extended compositions for chorus and orchestra. In 1999, a new Fine Arts building was named in his honor.

Lillian R. Howell

A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a widow, Mrs. Howell regularly supported Bob Jones College and University, bequeathing the bulk of her estate to the University without ever having visited the school or met the Joneses. In 1960, the Science Building was named Howell Memorial Science Building in her honor.

Estelle Siddons

A native of Alabama, Estelle Siddons was well educated for a woman of her generation, fluent in French, and an inveterate reader. She sporadically made her home with the Joneses. Bob Jones Sr. called her “Mother” and treated her with the utmost respect and deference. On her part, she collected material from her extensive reading that she thought Jones might be able to use in his sermons, and as a relatively wealthy woman, she made timely contributions to the college. As a child, Bob Jones Jr. was left in her care, and she taught him French and a love of literature. He later said, “She was the one person who, to my thinking, could do no wrong.” A women’s residence hall on the Greenville campus was named in her memory.

Ernest Reveal

Born in Charleston, West Virginia, and partially crippled (he wore a leg brace), Reveal left school in his teens to work with his father in a contracting and bricklaying business. After his conversion in 1904 and his ordination as a minister in 1919, he felt led to establish a rescue mission in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana. He was known for his power in prayer to meet the needs of his ministries. A men’s dormitory was named in his honor.

Dr. John Dreisbach

A native of Findlay, Ohio, John Dreisbach graduated from Findlay College and Ohio State University School of Medicine. In 1948, he and his wife Betty Short Dreisbach, served in a Muslim area of Nigeria, West Africa, where he specialized in the care and treatment of leprosy patients. In 1959, they relocated to neighboring Benin and built a new, general practice hospital. In 1964, he accepted an invitation from BJU to join the faculty/staff and develop a BJU curriculum for medical mission students. During the summers, he conducted 25 field experience teams called “Project Compassion.” In 1990, he became a field representative of Gospel Fellowship Association Missions and served as an administrative director of the mission board for 19 years.

Bob Jones III

Born in Cleveland, Tennessee, Bob Jones III earned a bachelor’s (1959) and master’s (1961) degrees in speech from BJU and took additional courses in speech and drama at Northwestern University and New York University. He also received honorary degrees from two small Bible schools and a seminary. Like his father, he was a preacher and a Shakespearean actor from his youth, but Jones III evidenced more interest in the mechanics of university governance. Under the leadership of Jones III, the University’s influence widened through endeavors such as Show My People, the addition of Pleasant Pastures, the creation of BJU Press, and more.

Bob Wood

A native of Tucker, Georgia, Bob Wood graduated from Tucker High School and attended Washington University in St. Louis. After commencing his business career in medical sales, Wood worked in the family business, Brown Transport and Harper Motor Lines, during the 1960s and 1970s. Meanwhile, he held Bible studies in his home, the nucleus of Killian Hill Baptist Church, which he began to pastor in 1972. In 1977, Bob Jones III asked him to become executive vice president of BJU. In addition to managing the operation of the University, he frequently preached in chapel. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1974 until his death.

Willie Thompson

Willie Albert Thompson was born in Woodruff, South Carolina, and attended public high schools there after rising early to milk cows. Following graduation from Woodruff High, he spent four years on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. After giving his life to the Lord, he felt God had called him into the ministry. He applied to BJU, though it had only recently decided to admit black students. Thompson graduated from BJU with a B.A. in Bible in 1979; and in 1999, he earned an M.A. in Pastoral Studies. While still an undergraduate, he began working full-time as an announcer for radio station WMUU. He served as chief announcer, 1979-1995, and Operations Manager, 1995-2002. He also taught Bible in the BJU School of Applied Studies and pastored a local church.

Phil Smith

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Phil Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies education from BJU in 1955, an M.Ed. from Miami University of Ohio in 1956, and an Ed.D. from Penn State University in 1964. He became dean of the College of Arts and Science in 1961, when he was 27. He served as registrar for sixteen years (1965-1981) and then became the first provost of the University, serving from 1981 until 2005. As provost, he superintended the academic life of the institution including the faculty, the curriculum, and the educationally related departments: the elementary school, the Academy, and BJU Press. In addition he chaired the Administrative Conference and the University Scholarship Committee.

Mel Stratton

Melvin L. Stratton was born in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. While attending public schools there, he worked at a printing business and with his father, who was a cabinetmaker. Meanwhile, he tore down auto engines as a hobby. After working on the stage crew both in Cleveland and in Greenville, he graduated from BJU in 1951. In 1953, R. K. Johnson asked him to return to BJU to become stage manager. The following year, when the University acquired the stage machinery from Center Theater in New York City, Stratton dismantled the lifts and turntables and then reassembled them all in Rodeheaver Auditorium, apparently with no photos or written plans. As Dan Turner has written, “He could build anything a stage designer could conceive and repair anything a stagehand could break.” Following his death, the Concert Center was renamed Stratton Hall in his honor.

Stephen Jones

Born on the Greenville campus, Stephen Jones received a bachelor’s degree in public speaking from BJU in 1992 and an M.Div. in 1996. On the day he became the fourth University president in 2005, he was also awarded a Ph.D. in Liberal Arts Studies from BJU. Early in his administration, BJU was granted full accreditation by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. In November 2008, Jones issued a statement saying that the University was “profoundly sorry” for having allowed “institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful.” In the fall of 2010, he became seriously ill, took an extended medical leave, and ultimately chose to resign from the presidency for health reasons in December 2013.

Gary Weier

A native of Illinois, Gary Weier graduated from BJU in 1988 with a degree in Interpretative Speech and from Purdue University in 1997 with a PhD in rhetoric. A member of the communication faculty, 1995-2025, Weier also held a number of administrative posts, including Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, 2011-2015, and Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, 2015-2025. Weier successfully led BJU through the TRACS and SACSCOC accreditation processes during the first two decades of the 21^st century. Following Steve Pettit’s resignation as president in 2023, Acting CEO Alan Benson formed an executive leadership team with Weier and Bruce McAllister, to guide the university through the interim period.

Larry Jackson

Larry Jackson grew up on campus as the son of G. G. Jackson (1918-2007), campus postmaster, and stepson of Iris Jackson (1925-2019), manager of administrative offices. He earned B.S. and M.A. degrees in Film and Video Production at BJU. He was named Alumnus of the Year in 2000 and served on the Board of Trustees, 1982-2016, and as chairman, 2013-2016. Jackson was the founder and former CEO of a national marketing agency and was a 55-year veteran of the communication industry. He served on numerous academic, governmental, and professional boards, including the boards of the Gospel Fellowship Association and The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center.

Steve Pettit

Reared in Columbia, South Carolina, Steve Pettit was a student leader in high school and attended The Citadel, where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration in 1978. After his conversion in 1975, he felt called to preach and earned an M.A. in pastoral studies from BJU in 1980. In 1985, he formed the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Association. Concurrently, he served as staff evangelist (1985–2002) and camp director (2002–2011) at Northland Camp and Conference Center, Dunbar, Wisconsin. In 2014, Pettit became the first BJU president who was not a member of the Jones family. During his tenure, the university achieved regional accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the university regained its tax-exempt status. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Pettit successfully chose to open the University for in-person classes during the fall of 2020. In March 2023, Pettit resigned as president and is now the president of Palmetto Family Council.

Alan Benson

Alan Benson was born into a nominally Protestant family in Northern Ireland that moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, when he was four. When he was eleven, Benson was introduced to the Gospel by a BJU graduate. In 1992, Benson himself graduated from BJU as a Bible major. He later earned an MMin from BJU in 2009, an MDiv from Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary in 2011, and a DMin in Expository Preaching from BJU in 2020. For 25 years, he served as a senior pastor in Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois. He returned to BJU in 2018, and following the resignation of Steve Pettit in 2023, the Board of Trustees named him acting CEO. After the nomination of Josh Crockett to the role of president in 2024, Benson moved into a role outside the university as a business development executive.

Josh Crockett

Josh Crockett earned a BA in rhetoric and public address (2001), a master’s degree in counseling, and a MDiv from Bob Jones University. In 2020, he earned a DMin from Liberty University. In 2004, Crockett began ministering at his home church, Grace Baptist Church, Anderson, Indiana; and in 2015, he became the senior pastor of Morningside Baptist Church, Greenville, South Carolina. The BJU Board of Trustees named him president in May 2024. In May 2025, Crockett returned to Morningside Baptist Church as senior pastor but remained on staff at BJU to assist President Bruce McAllister.

Bruce McAllister

Bruce McAllister was reared in a middle-class home in Decatur, Huntsville, and Hartselle, Alabama. He earned all his degrees at BJU: B.A. in Bible Education, 1977, M.A. in Pastoral Studies, 1979, M.Div., 1988, and D.Min., 1995. McAllister spent most of his career in various roles at BJU, including as a Bible teacher at Bob Jones Academy, 1978–1983; Assistant to the Director of Ministerial Training and Extension, 1978–1991; and Director of Ministerial Training and Outreach, 1991–2014. From 2019 to 2024, McAllister served as Director of Ministry Relations at Gospel Fellowship Association Missions, where he assisted with church staffing and church planting.

Pursue a Higher Calling

In 2025, BJU adopted a new brand promise that captured what the university was founded to do and continues to do. We prepare each student to Pursue a Higher Calling—anchored in truth, mentored in wisdom, and strengthened in faith.

Ruth May

From BJU to Aerospace Engineering

From BJU to Aerospace Engineering

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