Honorary Degrees

Throughout his life, David Coffey has exhibited a peerless work ethic, entrepreneurial vigor, and altruistic disposition that has made him a champion of business, education, and public service.

After graduating from King in 1955, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to pursue an advanced degree. Mr. Coffey then entered the business world and for the next half-century, made an incredible impact on numerous organizations as an entrepreneur. In addition to founding multiple businesses and serving on the boards of many others, he was also repeatedly elected to the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as a representative for the Oak Ridge District.

Always a supporter of post-secondary education, he helped to secure state funding for the Roane State Community College campus, and his philanthropy and overall support of King has benefited numerous aspects of the University. 

His long list of awards and honors stretches back to 1965 when he was recognized as the Oak Ridge Young Man of the Year and the Tennessee Young Man of the Year. His additional honors include being named Entrepreneur of the Year by Coopers & Lybrand, as well as recognition from the House of Representatives of the State of Tennessee for meritorious service and commitment to public service.

In 2022, he was inducted into the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA) Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions to higher education.

A native of San Diego, California, James E. McPherson is the former Under Secretary of the Army, having served as the Secretary of the Army’s senior civilian assistant and principal adviser on matters related to management and operations. 

He first gained military experience as an enlisted member of the U.S. Army, serving as a military policeman at the Presidio of San Francisco, the Eighth Army in South Korea, and the First Infantry Division. In 1979, Mr. McPherson was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In 2002, he was promoted to the grade of Rear Admiral upper half, and assigned as the deputy judge advocate general for the Navy and Commander, Naval Legal Service Command. In 2004, Mr. McPherson assumed duties as the 39th judge advocate general of the Navy, his final assignment.

After leaving active duty, he served as general counsel for the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity, followed by service as the executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General.

In 2018, Mr. McPherson was selected as the 22nd General Counsel of the Army, during which time he provided legal counsel to the Secretary of the Army and senior members of the Army Secretariat.

In March 2020, he was sworn in as the 34th Under Secretary of the Army, and in April 2020, he was appointed Acting Secretary of the Navy.

His military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (two awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Army Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal (two awards).

Mr. McPherson is a 1977 graduate of San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in public administration. He received a Juris Doctor in 1981 from the University of San Diego School of Law, and in 1991 he was awarded a Master of Laws in Military Law from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Queen of King, Jewel H. Bell is believed to be the longest-serving employee in U.S. academia, having dedicated 70 years to the University and its community.

“Jewel continuously models the call to go above and beyond in serving others,” said President Alexander Whitaker IV. “While she has cared for four generations and dozens of members of her own family, those who look to her as a matriarch measure in the thousands.”

A tireless community volunteer, Jewel has devoted decades of support to organizations such as the American Red Cross, Slater Community Center, Healing Hands Health Center, and has supported the YWCA of Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia for nearly half a century, lending her voice and the strength of her experience to the empowerment of women and the elimination of racism. She also served on the Bristol City PTA council during the civil rights era, was the first African-American PTA council president, and is a longtime member of Lee Street Baptist Church.

Her many accolades include the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award, the University’s first-ever Lifetime Service Award, and the establishment of the Jewel H. Bell scholarship in 2007. She has been recognized with a street that bears her name on the Bristol campus, is the school’s first honorary alumna, and was granted emerita status by the King Board of Trustees.

For her exemplary service to the University and others, she was presented with the Doctor of Humane Letters in December 2022.

Dr. Erika Moore and her husband Jim, their son Philip, Erika’s 91-year-old mom, three horses, and numerous cats live on a farm south of Syracuse, New York. Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science [with a minor in Third World Development] from Wheaton College, and a Master of Arts in Religion and a Ph.D. in Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies from Westminster Theological Seminar Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She currently holds the position of Academic Dean at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania where she also serves as Professor of Biblical Studies and Hebrew and as Director of the STM (Master of Sacred Theology) program. She has contributed to The Eperyday Study Bible, The Woman’s Study Bible, Tbe Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, The New Dictionary of Apologstics, The Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry and Writings, and Presence, Power and Promise: The Role of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. She has co-authored Tb Psalms as Cbristian Worsbip (2010) and The Psalms as Cristian Lament (2014) with Bruce Waltke and James Houston. She was one of three Hebrew scholars serving on the Coverdale Psalter Committee for the Revised Anglican Prayer Book (2019).

Dr. Moore recently authored three chapters on the salms: “Messianic Readines of the Psalte

How the Psalms Bear Witness to Christ” in The Law, the Propbets, and the Writings: Studies in Evangelical Old Testament Hermeneutics in Honor of Duane A. Garrett (BsH Academic, 2021); “The Context of Worship in the Psalter (co-authored with Walter C. Kaiser Jr. and Willem A. Van Gemeren) and “Covenant Hope in the King Regardless of Circumstances: Worship in book 1 (1-41) of the Psalter” in Biblical Worsbip:

Theology for God’s Glory (Kregel Academic, 2021). She is currently writing a commentary on Ezekiel (IVP, forthcoming 2024).

Frederica Mathewes-Green, Doctor of Letters, has published books and over 700 essays, in such diverse publications as the Washington Post, Christianity Today, and The Wall Street Journal. She has been a regular commentator for National Public Radio (NPR), a columnist for the Religion News Service, Beliefnet.com, and Christianity Today, and a podcaster for Ancient Faith Radio. She was also a consultant for Veggie Tales. She has appeared as a speaker over 500 times in venues including PrimeTime Live, NPR, PBS, Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She lives with her husband, the Rev. Gregory Mathewes-Green in Johnson City, Tennessee.

James K.A. Smith, Doctor of Letters, is a professor of philosophy at Calvin University where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview. Smith also serves as editor in chief of Image journal, a quarterly devoted to “art, mystery, and faith”. The award-winning author of Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, and his theological trilogy, Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and Awaiting the King have been widely read in Christian colleges as they find their institutional mission. His new book, On the Road with Saint Augustine, presents the ancient African thinker as a pilgrim guide for spiritual devotion in our complicated times. His writings have appeared in magazines such as Christianity Today, First Things, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Jamie and his wife, Deanna, have four children and live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Robert P. George, Doctor of Letters, is an American legal scholar, political philosopher, and one of the country’s leading conservative intellectuals. George serves as the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in the American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and is also a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. In 2008, Robert was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush in a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House.

Dr. Richard A. Ray, Doctor of Letters, was a widely acclaimed Presbyterian minister who pastored First Presbyterian Church in Bristol for a time. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and his Bachelor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Ray served as vice chair of the King University Board of Trustees and was named by the board to serve the university as interim president from 2014 to 2016.

Before shifting his career to academia, Walter Taylor Reveley III, Doctor of Laws, practiced law for nearly three decades at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, VA. Formerly Dean of the Law School at the College of William & Mary, Reveley III was appointed the 27th president of the college in 2008. Walter Reveley III has served on many cultural and educational boards, including those of Princeton University, Union Presbyterian Seminary, St. Christopher’s School, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ernest Andrew “Andy” Andrews, Doctor of Humane Letters, was drafted into the United States Army’s 1st Infantry Division which struck Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion. He served as a heavy machine gunner during many WWII events, including the Battle of the Bulge. He spoke widely and often about his experiences with concentration camps and Allied and Axis soldiers. He was awarded three Purple Hearts and was a former trustee emeritus for Montreat College.

Michael Morgan, Doctor of Letters, holds the highest certification of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and has served as dean of the Atlanta chapter, American Guild of Organists. Morgan also holds one of the most comprehensive private Bible collections in the country, with over 4,800 volumes and with virtually every English translation of the Bible, New Testament, the Gospels, and the Psalms.

Robert “Pete” Bogner, Doctor of Letters, was a King College alumnus who received his pilot’s license from the King College School of Aviation in 1941 and served the United States Air Force in Italy, Germany, and Austria during WWII. When he finished his air force service, Pete Bogner returned to his hometown of Wooster, Ohio to join the successful family business, Bogner Construction Company.

Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Doctor of Letters, taught at Calvin College, Free University of Amsterdam, the University of Notre Dame, and, finally, at Yale University as Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology. He has authored a number of published books including Lament for a Son.

Dr. William Locke, Doctor of Letters, is an East Tennessee State University graduate who completed his bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees at the university. He has received post-doctoral training at several collegiate institutions and is also a graduate of the National Defense University’s National Security Management Course and the United States Army Command and General Staff College. He later took an administrative role in the early childhood education department for the state of Tennessee and formerly served as the president of Northeast State Technical Community College.

Doyle Wayne Lawson, Doctor of Fine Arts, was born and raised in Kingsport, Tennessee, where his love for music developed into a lifelong career. As member of the band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Lawson has performed regionally, nationally, and internationally. Having a hand in writing some 40 albums, Lawson has received numerous awards and nominations from the International Bluegrass Music Association, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America, and the Grammy and Dove award nominations. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2012.

Edward Neal Caldwell, Doctor of Letters, was a highly innovative mathematician, physicist, and lifelong Presbyterian. His work included design for Winchester Repeating Arms and his own business, Dalen Products, for which he designed thermostatic controls. E. Neal Caldwell was committed to Christian philanthropy, particularly in the areas of higher education, prison ministry, and the care for the homeless. He devoted the later portion of his life to finding low-cost means of purifying water for the developing world, and patented a method which is being distributed and utilized in Africa and Central America. A longstanding trustee at King University and a lover of the arts, E. Neal Caldwell designed and intensively landscaped a 7 acre garden that is listed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archive of American Gardens.

Dr. Nathan Orr Hatch, Doctor of Humanities, is president of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, having been officially installed on October 20, 2005. Prior to his current position, Dr. Hatch was a professor and later dean and provost at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Hatch is regularly cited as one of the most influential scholars in the study of the history of religion in America. His book The Democratization of American Christianity, published by Yale University Press in 1989, garnered three awards, including the 1989 Albert Outler Prize in Ecumenical Church History and the 1990 John Hope Franklin Prize as the best book in American studies.

Michael “Mike” Helton, Doctor of Laws, is the vice chairman of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). He replaced Bill France, Jr. in November 2000 as the company’s 3rd president. He was named Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR in February 1999. He is a Bristol, VA native and graduate of John Battle High School and King University

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, Doctor of Divinity, was recognized by Time Magazine as one of America’s top five most influential “preachers of an active gospel” in 1969. He was the fifth president of Eastern Mennonite College and the founding president of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities in 1988. A prolific writer, Dr. Augsburger’s books include a novel, Pilgrim Aflame, about Anabaptist leader Michael Sattler. Dr. Augsburger continues to travel widely for speaking engagements and to write books, which have surpassed 20.

Dr. Gloria Gaither, Doctor of Humanities, is a Christian songwriter, author, speaker, editor, and academic. Dr. Gaither, along with her husband, Bill, and brother-in-law, Danny, comprised the Gaither Trio. They have written more than 700 songs and been awarded multiple Grammy Awards by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. She has authored more than 40 books and has served on the Board of Directors for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Dr. Chuck Colson, Doctor of Humanities, served as a member of the special counsel to the President Nixon and eventually became the first Nixon administration member to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. While in prison, Colson experienced a mid-life religious conversion which sparked a radical life change. Chuck later founded a non-profit ministry called Prison Fellowship, which eventually turned its Christian worldview teaching to the international level.

A Dobyns-Bennett High School graduate from Kingsport, Tennessee, the Honorable James H. Quillen, Doctor of Letters, was the president and owner of Kingsport Development Company before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1942. After his discharge as a lieutenant, Quillen began his career in the U.S. House of Representatives and, upon his retirement, held the record for the longest continuous service by any Tennessee Congressman. James Quillen was an honorary degree recipient from multiple institutions including Milligan College and Tusculum College, and he was instrumental in the establishment of the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University.

Dr. Os Guinness, Doctor of Letters, is an author and social critic. Great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he was born in China in World War Two where his parents were medical missionaries. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford. Os has written or edited more than thirty books, including The Call, Time for Truth, Unspeakable, A Free People’s Suicide, and The Global Public Square. His latest book, Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat, was published in 2018. Since moving to the United States in 1984, Os has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and the EastWest Institute in New York. He was the lead drafter of the Williamsburg Charter in 1988, a celebration of the bicentennial of the US Constitution, and later of “The Global Charter of Conscience,” which was published at the European Union Parliament in 2012. Os has spoken at many of the world’s major universities, and spoken widely to political and business conferences across the world.

Called “the best preacher in the family” by her father, Billy Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, Doctor of Humanitites, speaks around the globe with the wisdom and authority of years spent studying God’s Word. The New York Times named Anne one of the five most influential evangelists of her generation. Her Just Give Me Jesus revivals have been held in more than 30 cities in 12 different countries, to hundreds of thousands of attendees. Whether a delegate to Davos’ Economic Forum, a commentator to the Washington Post, or a groundbreaking speaker on platforms throughout the world, Anne’s aim is clear – to bring revival to the hearts of God’s people. And her message is consistent – calling people into a personal relationship with God through His Word. Anne is a best-selling and award-winning author. Her most recent releases are The Daniel Prayer, Wounded by God’s People, Fixing My Eyes on Jesus, Expecting to See Jesus and her first children’s book, Heaven: God’s Promise for Me. Anne and her late husband, Danny Lotz, have three grown children and three grandchildren. She is the founder and president of AnGeL Ministries.

Kay Coles James, Doctor of Laws, serves as president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. She is the first African-American and the first woman to hold that position. James has served as the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. Prior to the OPM appointment, she worked at local, state, and federal levels of government under the administrations of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and former Virginia Governor George Allen. She is the president and founder of the Gloucester Institute, a leadership training center for young African Americans. James has served on various councils and commissions throughout her career including NASA Advisory Council and the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. She is the wife of Charles James, Sr. and a mother to three grown children and five grandchildren.

Born in Pyongyang, Korea to parent missionaries that led one of the largest mission stations in the world for 40 years, Samuel Moffett, Doctor of Divinity, followed their footsteps in spiritual life, missionary service, and teaching. He received his Ph.D. in history at Yale University in 1945 and taught courses at Princeton Theological Seminary, later receiving the award of professor emeritus. Moffett and his wife spent the majority of their lives in mission work in India and China.

A Weaverville, NC native and descendant of John Weaver, Dr. Catherine Peeke, Doctor of Letters, devoted her life to missions and scriptural translation. A 1947 graduate of King University, she continued her studies at Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University). In 1949, Dr. Peeke joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and Summer Institute of Linguistics and worked in Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador as a linguist and translator. She then received her Ph.D. in Anthropological Linguistics in 1968 from Indiana University. She subsequently began two years of language study and service to the Waorani people in Ecuador. For fourteen years, Dr. Peeke worked closely with Ms. Rosi Jung from Germany and with several Waorani to complete the translation of the New Testament in the native language. King University’s Peeke School of Christian Mission was dedicated in her honor in 2001.

Hailing from Manitoba, Canada, Dr. Manford Gutzke, Doctor of Letters, began his career as a teacher and, in time, began to prepare for law practice but soon found himself answering the call from God to give himself to the Gospel ministry. He was well qualified to speak from God’s word as he was a graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and received his Ph.D. at Teacher’s College at Columbia University in New York. Dr. Gutzke was the voice behind the teachings of the widely-acclaimed Bible for You radio program. Recordings of his sermons and Bible studies were broadcast from over one hundred stations around the world and can be found today at thebibleforyou.org.

A 1954 graduate of King College, Katherine Paterson, Doctor of Letters, is the author of more than 30 books including 17 novels for children and young people. She has twice won the Newbery Medal, for Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved; she has also twice won the National Book Award, for The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins (also a Newbery Honor Book). Seven film or television adaptations of her stories have been made. For the body of her work she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1998, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2006, the NSK Neustadt Award in 2007, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 2013. In 2000 she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. Her latest book is My Brigadista Year, published by Candlewick Books in 2017. She is a vice-president of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and is a member of the board of trustees for Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was the 2010-2011 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont with her dog, Pixie.

Father-in-law to the American evangelist Billy Graham, Dr. Lemuel Bell, Doctor of Laws, spent the summer of 1915 on a successful season of minor league baseball but rejected the offer to become a professional pitcher for the Baltimore team of the Federal Baseball League to pursue the study of medicine. Lemuel Bell served as a medical missionary, and at the age of twenty-two, he practiced as a surgeon at the largest Presbyterian hospital in China before World War II. After experiencing four severe heart attacks, Bell retired from his medical practice to take on the role of elected moderator of the 112th annual General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Bell also founded The Southern Presbyterian Journal, which evolved later into God’s World News.

Paul A. Scherer, Doctor of Science, was a former director of research for AiResearch Manufacturing Company of Los Angeles and executive officer of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He held several patents in the field of cold storage refrigeration as an outgrowth of problems that were encountered in crop packaging at the time.