Mr. Wiggins is who we would like to call one of our hidden math geniuses. We appreciate him working with all of our students, especially those who are taking our special high school credit math courses. Though he had been a member at the Franklinton SDA church, he seemed to have always been at the school since the beginning. And his dedication to our school is second to none. The question though is why? What does this school and church mean to Mr. Wiggins?
“I call it my home church. Previously being a Baptist, I became Adventist at Gethsemane”. That’s right, Mr. Wiggins started his journey as a Seventh-day Adventist here at the Gethsemane Church. Since then, Mr. Wiggins served in many areas of ministry from working as an usher, deacon, elder, Pathfinder group leader, and treasurer, to even serving as the Gethsemane school board chair. This explains why Mr. Wiggins feels at home serving here as one of our renown math teachers. “[Dr. Cornwall and I] always came back to Gethsemane to teach [and] to help.” That was back then at the young age of 25. Now over 40 years later, Mr. Wiggins is still eager to share his gift of teaching and inspiration with our Gethsemane students.
While serving at the church and school, Mr. Wiggins worked professionally at IBM. He worked in software services, sales, and architecture. That was after going to school in Salisbury, North Carolina majoring in Math and receiving his teacher certification. ” I used it as a backup but I didn’t think I was really going to use it”.
Though he didn’t expect to use his teacher certification, he did find himself using it in unexpected ways on the job and even now. He used some of those skills as a software servers consultant, where he had to measure profit and loss revenue for the company. Since then, he spent 43 years as the executive consultant manager.
“I have always enjoyed math, [and] always had a fetish for numbers. I always said that when I retire, I will work at the church school. I retired in May and began working at the church school in May.” And that was over five years ago.
So when asked, “why is Mr. Wiggins’ service to the church so passionately consistent?”, his response is this. ” I get more out of it than [the students] get out of it. I strive for the gleam in their eye. It’s the light bulb for me that keeps me moving. And, I can’t be a couch potato.”
Thank you Mr. Wiggins for your hard work and service here at Gethsemane Christian SDA Junior Academy. You are loved and appreciated by teachers, staff, students, and the Gethsemane community.
