ETBU launches the school year with retired NASA astronaut

MARSHALL, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) — East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) officially welcomed students, faculty, and staff back to school with its annual Convocation Chapel on September 10.

Retired NASA Astronaut and Navy Pilot, Captain Barry E. “Butch” Willmore delivered the keynote address. A devout Christian, Wilmore, has made several taken several mission trips to Central and South America over the past decade.

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Captain Wilmore is one of two NASA astronauts to fly aboard five different spacecraft: the space shuttle, Soyuz, the International Space Station, Boeing Starliner, and SpaceX Dragon. In his 464 days in space, he spent 31 hours outside of the ISS on five spacewalks.

Captain Wilmore and his wife, Deanna, have two daughters, Daryn and Logan. Daryn attends ETBU.

He said, “This Book is all sufficient, and it leads you to the path of righteousness. You can believe it.”

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Thomas Sanders said, “This semester gives us the chance to embrace a new experience. This is an opportunity to honor God in new and meaningful ways.”

During Convocation, Assistant Provost Elizabeth Ponder oversees the annual dedication of ETBU’s undergraduate classes.

Ponder said, “My hope and prayer for our students this year is that they would lean into the calling that God has placed on their lives by learning together, challenging their own thinking, serving their community, and loving God and their neighbors with their whole heart.”

After Convocation, the ETBU community and the Wilmore family joined for a luncheon. At the luncheon, Captain Wilmore talked about his experiences in the Navy and at NASA.

“I’m taking all of this in, I raised that visor, and that reflection I see, yep, it was really me in there. It’s one of those moments you go, ‘Lord, how did I get here?’ I know that the Lord is the one who allowed me the opportunity to be in space, in that moment. He allowed me to have that desire in my heart, and it’s a memory that has stuck with me, and it’s a special, glorious, worshipful moment in my life, in a very unique place. I can’t help but just give God the glory for every bit of it.”