Baptist business officers honor Alabama’s Milton Curtis

DALLAS (BP)--Milton Curtis, recently retired business manager for Alabama Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries, has received the 1999 Taylor Daniel Award of Merit from the Southern Baptist Business Officers Conference.

Curtis was presented the award March 15 during the organization’s annual meeting sponsored by the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. His response was, “SBBOC has given more to me than I could ever give back to it.”

Curtis Sharp, executive officer of the Annuity Board for denominational and public relations, one of the presenters of the award, reiterated the description used by the Alabama legislature in a resolution honoring Curtis as “a man of great substance and effectiveness.”

After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, Curtis served 34 years at the Alabama Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries. A desire to make a difference in the lives of children was the motivating factor for Curtis as he chose his profession. Even though he oversaw budgets and accounting work, he loved the close contact with the children.

Curtis was in charge of the work program at the children’s home and helped the children with their finances. Each child had a savings account and was required to save half of his or her summer earnings. Curtis also was a Christian counselor to the children and families and helped develop a crisis pregnancy hot line and a maternity group home. During his tenure, Curtis was instrumental in expansion of facilities for children across Alabama.

Curtis and his wife, Matt, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000. They are members of First Baptist Church, Alexander City, Ala. They have one married son, Clay; a daughter-in-law, Gina; and two granddaughters, Samantha and Megan.

The Taylor Daniel Award of Merit was endowed by the Daniel family in 1989 to provide annual recognition for an outstanding practitioner in the field and discipline of Baptist business, and to honor the memory of the late L. Taylor Daniel, who was an executive officer for the Annuity Board almost 20 years. Daniel was instrumental in the founding and development of the Southern Baptist Business Officers Conference that meets annually at the Annuity Board for a variety of workshops and plenary sessions.