John Gainey to speak at UMO fall graduation
By From staff reports
Published in News on December 12, 2014 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- The first graduates in the University of Mount Olive's MBA program will be among the nearly 300 students who will receive their degree on Saturday, Dec. 13.
The graduation exercises are scheduled for 2 p.m. in Kornegay Arena.
It will be preceded by a baccalaureate service at 10:30 a.m. in the Southern Bank Auditorium located in Raper Hall.
University alumnus John Gainey will be the commencement speaker.
Gainey is a 1983 graduate of Havelock High School, and in August of that year, he enrolled at Mount Olive College (now the University of Mount Olive).
He received his bachelor of science degree in business administration from Mount Olive College in May 1987 and began working that summer in the insurance industry where he spent the next 11 and a half years as an insurance agent.
In January of 2000, Gainey began a new career in education. He started as a substitute teacher for Pitt County Schools, and shortly afterward he accepted a position at Pamlico County High School where he operated as well as taught in the Alternative Program.
In addition to his instructional duties, he served as the head junior varsity baseball coach. In June 2001, Gainey returned to Pitt County where he began teaching driver's education for the North Carolina Driving School at J.H. Rose High School and later Farmville Central High School.
In 2003, Gainey began operating an Alternative Program for at-risk students at C.M. Eppes Middle School, but in the summer of 2004, he once again found himself back at J.H. Rose High School teaching driver's education and substitute teaching three days a week. He has remained at Rose since then, and though he is no longer coaching, Gainey still remains active in his support for J.H. Rose Athletics.
Sam Weeks will be the baccalaureate speaker. Throughout his career, Weeks has worked as the pastor of Smithfield First Original Free Will Baptist Church, worked as the executive director of the Free Will Baptists Children's Home in Middlesex and taught at West Carteret High School in Morehead City.
Weeks earned his B.A. degree from East Carolina University in 1977 and his M.A. degree from North Carolina State University in 1992.
He received his doctorate in theology from Covington Theological Seminary in 1997.
He is married to Georgia Weeks, and they have six children.