Wanda Lee, the top executive of the Woman's Missionary Union, has received the 2004 Alumni of the Year award from Samford University along with retired business executive Marvin Mann.

A 1969 Samford nursing graduate, Lee served as president of WMU from 1996 to 2000 when she was named to her current post as executive director. She is the first woman in WMU history to hold both positions.

Southwestern Seminary named Ohio pastor James W. Caldwell as its new director of recruitment and minister of worship, effective immediately.

Caldwell, 45, has served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Heath, Ohio, since 2000.

Caldwell will serve as the seminary's ambassador to prospective graduate students and will also reach out to prospective students for enrollment in The College at Southwestern, the new undergraduate school scheduled to begin classes this fall.

James R. Staples, former Arizona Southern Baptist leader and retired president of California Baptist University, died Jan. 3 in Dallas, two days before his 85th birthday.

Staples served two stints (1960-62, 1970) as editor of the Baptist Beacon, newsjournal of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention.

Staples served two terms as president of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention and was chairman of the state convention's executive board for six years.

Martha E. (Bettye) Cothen died of Parkinson's disease Jan. 10 at Vitas Hospice at the Miami Heart Institute. She was 83.

A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., she was the wife of Grady C. Cothen, former president of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay) They were married 63 years.

She was a former member of the board of trustees at Golden Gate Seminary.

In addition to her husband, Cothen is survived by two daughters, Carole Shields Westbrook of Miami, Mary Thompson of San Antonio, Texas; a son Grady Jr. of Cheverly, Md; nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

William C. (Bill) Strickland, one of the five original faculty members of Southeastern Seminary, died Dec. 21, 2004, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Strickland, 87, spent 15 years teaching at Southeastern, from the seminary's founding in 1951 until 1966. He joined the faculty receiving both a B.D. and Th.D. degree from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

An ordained Baptist minister, Strickland taught Sunday School at First Baptist Church in Blowing Rock, N.C., for 28 years and authored several books and various journal articles.

Lloyd Jack Gray, professor of missions emeritus at Southwestern Seminary, died Jan. 7 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 89.

A former student at Southwestern, Gray earned his master's degree there before enlisting in the Navy as a chaplain. Upon completion of his military service, Gray earned a doctor of theology degree from Southern Seminary. In 1956, he accepted an offer to teach at Southwestern, where he would remain on staff for 28 years.