Columbia Union

Ministry is often a family affair. These dynamic, dedicated family duos—father-son, father-daughter, husband-wife and siblings—have dedicated their lives to working for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

Mortified. That’s how my mom, Vicki (Curtiss) Bernard, recalls feeling as she sat in Chemistry class at Mount Vernon Academy where her dad, Leon Curtiss, was the teacher. “If we got what we deserve, we’d all be grease spots,” he’d say, trying to lighten the mood while navigating tough subjects like science and math. A fixture at Ohio Conference’s longtime school (now closed), my grandfather was known for his corny jokes and one-liners. 

"When he was 7 years old, he was able to master certain computer applications, and his gift started to develop from there,” states Yanic Hardie, regarding her son Darius.

Mark Twain famously wrote: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Bob Williams pastored more than a dozen churches, helped start a school and served on numerous conference committees and boards in his 40-year career with the Pennsylvania Conference.