Darrell Rice will address graduates and guests at Lee University’s winter commencement exercises on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. in Conn Center on the Lee campus.Earlier this year, Rice completed a twenty-four year tenure as a member of the Lee University Board of Directors, one of the longest in Lee’s history. He served as vice chairman of the board and was chairman for six years (2004-2010.)
From a background as a church administrator and pastor, Rice has recently joined Children of the World Ministries (Bristol, Tennessee) as chief financial officer. In this role, he directs the day-to-day operations of the agency and travels to orphanages and children’s homes around the world.
Rice graduated from Lee College in 1976 with a degree in Biblical education. He also earned a masters degree in interpersonal/organizational communications from the University of Arkansas in 1982.
Over the past twenty years, Rice distinguished himself in the Church of God as a pastor in the Atlanta area and a denominational official in the Chicago area. He most recently served for twelve years as Administrative Bishop of the denomination’s Great Lakes Region, which includes metropolitan Chicago, Wisconsin, and upper Michigan.
Graduation exercises will begin on Friday evening with a commissioning service where guests and graduates will hear from six class representatives who will reflect about their time at Lee. Graduates will also receive commemorative bibles from Lee’s president, Dr. Paul Conn. Music will be offered during the commencement program by the Lee University Chorale, directed by Dr. Bill Green.
The two-day event will be the third and final commencement weekend of 2010. Two others were conducted in May and July of this year with the traditional May ceremony the largest and due to the amount of graduates, was held outdoors on the soccer field.