By: Sarah Underwood Photo credit: Angela Highfield
Students, faculty, family, and friends all gathered Friday at 1 pm in Seeger Chapel to celebrate the life of former president, Donald R. Jeanes.
The ceremony was certainly one of celebration, which started with Mike Imboden, minister of worship and creative arts at First Christian Church in Johnson City, leading the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
The service had a Sunday morning vibe with Milligan’s Concert Choir, Heritage, and First Christian Church’s choir seated on stage throughout the ceremony. The middle aisle quickly filled up and students of all grades gathered upstairs and scatted throughout the side aisles.
Instead of a mourning environment, choir members and some of the Jeanes’s family members wore colorful clothing and greeted each other with smiles and tearful embraces.
Speakers at the celebration ceremony included President Greer, representative from Childers and Steagall Mike Alread, retired president Jim Pierson, 13th president of Milligan Marshall Leggett, and SGA president Danica Collins. All contributors to the ceremony either worked with Jeanes in various organizations and charities, or knew him on a personal basis.
President Greer told a compelling story of a time he and Jeanes took a road trip together during which Jeanes was ready to go home and went about overcoming various obstacles. Greer made sure they were home in order to see Clarinda and his family as soon as possible.
Greer stated, “Nothing would get in his way when he turned his car toward home.”
The “Celebration of Life” ceremony was one of hope for Jeanes’s friends, family, and especially for the Milligan community.
Within every speech given, Jeanes as a servant leader was the theme.
Collins said, “Dr. Jeanes demonstrated how to become a servant leader.”
Another point each speaker was sure to make was how Jeanes and his wife, Clarinda, worked as a team for Milligan and the surrounding community, never afraid to “get their hands dirty.”
“Don was a man after the Lord’s own heart. But everyone knows that behind every great man is a woman,” Alread said.
Dr. Jeanes will be sadly missed by family, friends and the entire Milligan community.
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