The Arrow Fall 2023

The enduring connection between Oak Hill Academy and Young’s Cha pel Baptist Church dates to the very founding of the school. The idea of the Academy was first proposed by the YCBC congregation, and af ter working for several years to bring the idea to life, the school doors opened in the fall of 1878. Since then, the church and the Academy have enjoyed a seamless relationship of amazing depth. The human bridge connecting these two historic institutions is the Church Pastor, who also serves as the Campus Minister. This dual calling is not an easy one to answer. It takes a special person to feed the spiritual appe tite and meet the ministerial needs of both a relatively transient high school student body and a deeply rooted church congregation. Doug Turnmire served in this capacity for 30 years with amazing grace and skill, and in the process touched thousands of lives around the world. He retired at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. Reverend Doug Turnmire; A Faithful and Solid Servant for 30 Years Doug was born and raised in the farmlands of North Carolina and no stranger to hard work from an early age. As the end of high school approached, his plan was to enlist in the Air Force for four years, then join the NC Highway Patrol. And that’s exactly what he did. And things were going well for him. But he was growing increasingly

convinced that God was calling him to full time ministry service. So, at the age of 24 he resigned from the patrol school and enrolled at Gardner-Webb University. It was 1984. To help make ends meet, Doug got a job at a Christian bookstore his junior year and worked there most Friday nights. In November of 1987 a young woman entered the store in search of a replacement accompaniment tape for her upcom ing children’s Christmas choir. As Doug was helping her, he learned that she played the hammer dul cimer at her church’s annual Living Nativity and decided immediately that he would come and see her there. Their first real date was to attend a Sunday evening worship service then go out to eat. The rest is history and before long, Doug and Ruth married. Following his graduation from Gardner-Webb and in answering his call to ministry, Doug enrolled in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary finishing his studies in December of 1991. The following June he and Ruth moved to High Point, NC where Doug began a year-long chaplain residency at Wake Forest Medical Center. In November of 1992 during his residency, he ran into a friend who told him of an opening at Oak Hill Academy that included being a campus minister, a religion teacher, and a church pastor. Intrigued, Doug called Ed Patton, the school President. He was hired later that year and preached his first sermon at YCBC on May 29th, 1993. Doug’s residency hadn’t yet finished, so that sum mer he would drive to Mouth of Wilson on the weekends to preach and return to High Point to work during the week. Doug and Ruth and their new daughter Rebekah (who was just over 2 years old at the time) arrived on campus at the beginning of the 1993-1994 school year, and Doug’s career began. His second daughter Anna was born after their arrival at OHA. As they settled into life on campus, Doug and Ruth had a simple policy. Their home was to be an extension of their lives- an open book. His door was never locked, and everyone knew it. He wanted them to know it. Even when he wasn’t home, people came and went- borrowing tools or dropping things off. And that is one characteristic that Doug became known for. He shared his life openly, did what he said he was going to do, and he was consis tent in his ways. Predictable. Solid. Dependable.