SBU to award honorary doctorates to Clemmons, Kanakis

BOLIVAR, Mo. — Rev. Barbara Ruth Clemmons of Seabrook, Texas, and Lee Kanakis, of Bartlesville, Okla., will receive honorary doctorates from Southwest Baptist University during the annual Founders’ Day chapel service at 10 a.m. Monday, March 4, in Pike Auditorium.

SBU awards honorary doctorates to recognize outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to society and to kingdom work.

Rev. Barbara Ruth Clemmons

Rev. Barbara Ruth Clemmons was born to Herbert and Lenore Miller in Minneapolis, and was raised in Ann Arbor, Mich. She graduated in 1961 from Pioneer High School, in Ann Arbor, earned her bachelor of arts in religion from Michigan State University in 1965, her MA in history from the University of Arizona in 1967 and her BD from Harvard Divinity School in 1971.

Clemmons’ life has been dedicated to service, including Rotary International and the ministry. She was recognized with the distinguished “Service Above Self Award” by Rotary International. Clemmons and her husband, Charlie ’59, who received an honorary doctorate from SBU in 2017, were inducted into the Rotary Foundation’s Arch Klumph Society and are among the foundation’s top leaders, innovators and philanthropists.

Clemmons has served as Christian Education Minister at La Porte (Texas) Community Church, and the Senior Minister of the First Christian Church of Woodville, Texas. She also served on the Regional Committee on Ministry and has trained many who entered the ministry. She currently is retired and serves as an occasional worship leader in the Taylor Lake Christian Church.

The Clemmonses founded the Rotary Books for the World program and ultimately the Second Wind Foundation, which collects books and other educational material and ships them to developing countries. Since its founding in 2000, the foundation has sent more than 12 million books to 20 different countries. Many of the books, including Bibles, go to orphanages and schools in countries where it is hard for missionaries to enter. They currently are exploring a partnership with the Bolivar Rotary Club and First Baptist Church to send books to a private Christian School in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The Clemmonses also founded Pro-Tem, Inc., the dominant developer of access control and exposure management software to the nuclear power industry throughout the world. Prior to Pro-Tem, Inc., they were engineers with NASA’s Space Shuttle program.

Barbara and Charlie have been faithful scholarship donors to SBU since 2014 and recently partnered with SBU’s Robert W. Plaster College of Business and Computer Science to fund the Psalm 15 Walkway. They use Psalm 15 as an anchor scripture for Pro-Tem, Inc., and have committed to funding an endowed Chair in Accounting in memory of her mother.

The couple belongs to the Taylor Lake Christian Church in Seabrook, Texas. They have four children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Lee Kanakis

Lee Kanakis was born in Arkansas and lived in Illinois during his early years before moving to Joplin, Mo. He is a graduate of Carl Junction High School and earned his bachelor of science degree in business administration from Missouri Southern State University in 1978 and his master of divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1981.

From 1982-1998, Kanakis served in a variety of areas at SBU, including as associate director of admissions, associate director of development, senior associate director of admissions, assistant men’s and women’s soccer coach and director of international relations. He served in various areas of public relations and outreach within the university system, was the longest-serving admissions recruiter and assisted in the development of the soccer programs at SBU.

Kanakis also has worked at Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Okla., and East Central University, in Ada, Okla., and served as the president of the Oklahoma Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. He was on staff at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and has continued to volunteer there for the past 20 years. Currently, Kanakis serves as a project manager for Diversified Systems Resources, a national broadband aggregator, managing approximately 70 projects for customers.

Kanakis is a licensed minister and has mentored nearly 200 young men over the past 30 years. He has served as chair and vice chair of the Fellowship of Deacons at First Baptist Church of Bartlesville. He speaks to regional churches, youth, college and adult groups, as well as conducting a radio talk broadcast and developing a video podcast in October 2018 on the areas of mentoring and discipling.

Founders’ Day chapel is open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Brad Johnson, vice president of university relations, at (417) 328-1805.

*Published: 2-25-19