Category: 1977

John Philip “Phil” Yowell, 72, passed away peacefully at his home in Spotsylvania, VA and entered the presence of his heavenly Father on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, following a courageous battle with cancer.

Phil was born on April 11, 1954, to John Albon Yowell and Mary Mitchell Yowell of Bealeton, VA. After graduating from Fauquier High School, Phil studied at Mary Washington College, later transferring to Davidson College in North Carolina. At Davidson he earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History.

Phil’s varied career included time spent as a dental assistant, a Christian retreat director, and an iris hybridizer. He also raised and sold vegetables at a local farmers’ market. Perhaps his most challenging and rewarding role was as an interim pastor for his church while they waited to hire a full-time pastor.

Phil had a servant’s heart and was willing to do whatever was needed for the church. His love of God’s Word led him to lead Bible studies and preach when needed. He also served in church leadership positions, and sang on the worship team. After going on his first dental mission trip to Haiti in the early 1980s, he developed a deep love for the Haitian people. This led him to participate in and lead over 30 church-sponsored short-term mission trips throughout his life. He was constantly studying the Haitian Creole language so that he could better communicate with and serve his Haitian brothers and sisters.

Phil loved admiring God’s creation, whether through hiking and camping, or his hours spent tending his beautiful flower gardens. Above all, he was devoted to his wife of 46 years, Ginny, and to his three sons and their families. He adored his ten grandchildren and they adored their grandpa. Phil was known for his humility, his willingness to serve, and his genuine love for people.

Phil was preceded in death by his parents John “Jack” and Mary Yowell. He is survived by his wife Ginny Yowell, and his three sons and their families: John & Kara (Albon, Lillian, Hope & Noel), Mitch & Beka (Carson, Natalie & Maddux) and Keith & Suzanne (Ethan, Lucas & Olivia). He is also survived by his brother Bob Yowell (wife, Tina) of Daytona Beach, FL and his sister Emily Braswell (husband, Richard) of Knoxville, TN.

A service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 27, 2026 at Grace Church of Fredericksburg, 1141 Heatherstone Dr, Fredericksburg, VA, 22407. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the church and a reception will follow immediately after the service. The service will be livestreamed on https://gcofonline.org/

A private family interment will take place following the memorial service. Additional details regarding the interment will be shared with family members at a later time.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites friends to honor Phil’s legacy through donations to his Haiti mission work: https://gofund.me/96fab1800

Arthur Benjamin (Ben) Simms, IV went to be with his Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, on July 6, 2025, surrounded by his wife and dear friends. Ben was the firstborn child to Jane Griffin Simms and A. B. Simms III in Atlanta, GA, on October 16, 1954.

Ben’s deep roots in the history and development of Atlanta and his strong southern heritage formed the basis of his youth. His zeal for excellence was a trademark characteristic he retained throughout his life, which was demonstrated early on by his Eagle Scout rank earned by the age of 13. He was an Alpha and Omega graduate from the Westminster Schools, where he participated in tennis and other sports and excelled in riflery. While attending Davidson College, he enjoyed membership in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, continued to hone his skills as a top marksman, and pursued an interest in photography. After earning his undergraduate degree in Economics from Davidson, he continued his education at Georgia State University where he earned his MBA. He then went on to pursue his M. Div. from the University of the Holy Land, an urban seminary focused on reaching the underprivileged. He grew up attending First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta and was a member of the Piedmont Driving Club. He enjoyed a fruitful career in real estate development before turning his attention toward entrepreneurial endeavors, including establishing a non-profit organization known as O.W.L.S. (Outdoor Wisdom Leadership School). This passion project was designed to teach underprivileged youth basic outdoor survival skills and introduce them to the Christian faith through camping and other outdoor activities. Ben’s faith in Jesus Christ was foundational to his life and permeated everything he did. As an adult, he was an active member at Church of the Apostles in Atlanta and Liberty Baptist Church in Tiger, GA.

Aside from his relationship with Christ, his family was his largest source of fulfillment. He married the love of his life, Vicki Wilson Simms, in 1978 and during their 47 years of marriage, they raised four children. He was never too busy for those he loved and always made time for his family.

Ben relished being outdoors and soaking in God’s creation. He lived with purpose, shared his faith, and was never ashamed to live out his convictions. He constantly sought adventure and never went without a hands-on project. He was always ready with a cheesy dad joke that paired perfectly with his quirky sense of humor and fun-loving spirit. His hugs are legendary to those who knew him well.

Ben will be sorely missed by family and many dear friends in Atlanta and in Tiger. He is preceded in death by his parents, Jane and Ben Simms. Those who await joining him one day in Heaven include his wife Vicki Simms; daughters Vicki Wilson Rhodes, Evelyn “Lyndi” Simms Leary, Kimberly Simms Goodson (Matthew), and son Arthur Benjamin Simms V (Addie) Grandchildren include: Damion, Lochlan, and Bright Rhodes; Eve and Piper Leary; Jacob and Ellie Goodson; and Arthur, Vera, and Henry Simms. He will also be missed by his sisters, Janie Hamner (Patrick) and Anne Goodgame (Edward) along with many nephews, nieces, and countless other family members. He was so proud of his extended family and his legacy lives on through each one of them.

A memorial service will be held 11:00am on Friday, July 11 at Liberty Baptist Church in Tiger, Georgia.

The family asks that donations be made to OWLS Ministry Camp in Ben’s memory. Donations can be made at hhmin.org/charities/owls-ministry-camp/.

Dr. W. Chad Stephens (Chad) died on April 14, 2025, surrounded by his large, noisy and adoring family of six children and nine grandchildren and his loving wife of 44 years. Chad lived – even thrived – through a three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer, still working up to the weekend he died. He passed into eternity with all the peace and dignity he brought to every day of his life-and with his starched blue Oxford-cloth shirt fully buttoned.

He was the oldest of three children born to Paula Bley Stephens and Wayland Stephens in Lubbock, Texas. With his family he moved to New York, Florida, Denver, and other places. At age 14, he won a Reader’s Digest scholarship to attend boarding school on Long Island.

At 17, he enrolled at Davidson College, his spiritual and intellectual birthplace, and discovered the wonder and power of lifelong friendships with nerds who had imaginations to match his own. At 24, Chad graduated from Duke Medical School, then promptly departed to practice in rural Congo.

He met Jane Thompson at a church picnic in Durham in 1981. She had just returned from two years of teaching high school in Kenya and was working on her PhD in English at the University of North Carolina. After their first date, he told his roommate that he had met the woman he hoped to marry. He got his wish on September 12, 1981. Chad and Jane adventured together for 44 years.

Later that year, Chad moved to Winston-Salem and began a residency in Family Practice at Wake Forest University’s Baptist Hospital. He completed two more residencies there: Gerontology in 1988 and Psychiatry in 1999. He added Addiction Medicine as a subspecialty shortly thereafter.

Chad loved his work. He loved everything about medicine, its learning and its practice. He maintained his ten-year Board Certification in three different areas: Behavioral Medicine, Alcohol & Substance Abuse, and Family Practice. He took the Family Practice Board Exam two years into Stage Four cancer. He loved music, languages, poetry, birdwatching, motorcycles, uncomfortable travel to remote places, and qualifying exams.

In 1985, Chad and Jane moved to Kenya to serve as a medical missionary and an English teacher. In 1989, they moved back to Winston-Salem. Then in 1993, they moved back to Kenya. When the Rwandan genocide erupted in 1994, Chad and a surgeon friend flew to a remote airstrip in eastern Congo on the Rwandan border then helped establish a refugee camp in Rutare, Rwanda.

Chad returned home to his family in Kenya even more quiet than before, stunned by the brutality of war, yet awed by the power of community health workers. The experience entrenched his sense of justice and his commitments to service and public health. He brought those commitments home to Winston-Salem and helped bring together leaders from Forsyth and Baptist hospitals to open a clinic for underserved people in Forsyth County.

Though Chad was quiet, he built a home full of noise and possibility. Dozens of amazing students and young adults lived with his family over the years, including many Imendes, Hollands, Cooks, Kugurus, Pipers and more. One of these chosen children, Katie Holland, called home one day to tell Jane and Chad about the amazing work of New Life Homes in Kenya– and Chad and Jane began the Amani Children’s Foundation.

The Stephens’ work with Amani and New Life Homes has helped over 2,600 infants receive medical care and find loving families. In 1999, Chad and Jane took their family back to Kenya and were blessed to love, then adopt, two beautiful children, Joe and Julie (Bui). The joy of bringing Joe and Julie back with their four older children – Sam, John, Rob, and Kate – was the defining experience of the Stephens family.

Two outstanding churches in Winston-Salem nurtured Chad’s family. In 1981, they joined First Presbyterian Church, where they formed lifelong friendships and Chad served on the Missions Committee. In 2001, Chad and Jane joined Emmanuel Baptist Church, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. John Mendez. Chad was honored to be a devoted member of the Trustee Board.

Chad and Rev. Mendez traveled the world studying psychoanalysis, enjoying opera, studying ways to understand historic and immediate trauma, and building a lifelong friendship. From very different places, they came together with a passion for healing the person and the world.

In 2015, Chad was inducted as a member of the Distinguished National Fellows of the American Psychiatry Association. In 2025, Chad received the Distinguished Physician’s Award from the Novant Founders’ Society in recognition of excellence in patient care. Chad was so delighted on that day, just a few weeks before he passed, that his prodigious capacity for humility slipped for a moment-and he showed the award to his wife, who promptly sent it to everyone she knew.

Chad is survived by Jane Stephens, his wife of 44 years; his six children, Sam (Gyssela), John, Rob (Hershey), Kate, Joe (Aliyah), and Julie; and his eight grandchildren, Alex and Andres Rodriquez, and Aiden, MJ, Chad Jeremiah, Charlie, Alan, and Madison; his father Wayland, sister Shawn and brother Kirk and a host of nephews, nieces, in-laws and chosen family.

Chad’s family invites all who loved him and his family to celebrate a life of love, service, quiet devotion, faith, and courage on Saturday, April 26, at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 1075 Shalimar Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27107. Family visitation will begin at 11 a.m., and the service at 12 p.m.,

Memorial contributions may be made to the Amani Children’s Foundation online at www.amanichildren.org or by sending a check to Amani, 525 Hedgewood Place, Winston-Salem, NC 27104, or by Venmo to @Jane-Stephens-AmaniChildren.

Susan Eileen Cunningham Jonas was born on January 5, 1956 in Cincinnati, Ohio and departed this life surrounded by family on December 31, 2024. She was the daughter of James and Mary Cunningham and was raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Susan was a proud graduate of Davidson College, class of 1977, the first fully co-educational class at the previously all-male school. She received degrees from Wake Forest University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center and worked as a tax attorney for several years.

After her first diagnosis of cancer in 1991, Susan decided to stay home and raise her family full-time. She became a community volunteer, taught English as a Second Language and worked in several different libraries including as a docent for the Folger Shakespeare Library. She served on the boards of New Hope Housing and the Davidson College Alumni Association. Her favorite volunteer activity was serving Burgundy Farm Country Day School, where her children went to school for 16 years and her daughter Emily is now a teacher. She served on the Board of Trustees as well as president of the board from 1997-2001.

Susan was an avid reader. She loved British novels, the Washington Post and her book club. She also enjoyed bird watching, skiing and traveling with her family. Her favorite road trip was driving across the country from California through the American Southwest to Virginia with her son, Chris. Susan was a part-time pilgrim and loved to explore spiritual places looking for signs of the feminine face of God. She traveled to Chimayo, Mont Saint-Michel, Conques, Rocamadour, Croagh Patrick, Rome, Florence, Assisi, Lordes, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and many other holy places. Her most significant pilgrimage was walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela with her daughter, Maeba.

Susan loved being the kinkeeper of the family, working to keep multiple generations, spread across many states, connected and loved. Susan also had wonderful friends, many of whom she made while her children were little and stayed close to for the remainder of her life.

She is survived by her mother, Mary Glenn Cunningham, her devoted husband of 44 years, Wayne Boice Jonas, her children, Christopher Cunningham Jonas (Marzia Motta), Mary Elizabeth Jonas (Kevin Taylor), and Emily Boice Jonas, her brothers Timothy James Cunningham (Nancy), Richard Glenn Cunningham (Lisa), her sister Patricia Cunningham Pascatore (Stephen), many cousins, nieces and nephews, as well as two grandsons, Aiden Debbia Jonas and Bodhi Price Taylor and one granddaughter, Thea Susan Eileen Taylor. She will be missed by all who loved her.

A memorial service will be held at Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (ocrahope.org) or to Burgundy Farm Country Day School (burgundyfarm.org) in Susan’s memory.