On Thursday afternoon, December, 2, 2004, Adventist members paused in disbelief as they listened to reports leaking out about a plane crash involving the administration and staff of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference (GCC).
Members’ fears were soon confirmed with statements released by GCC and Adventist News Network. A plane crash just to the north of Collegedale, Tenn., took the lives of three administrators and a director of GCC, as well as their pilot, on Thursday, December 2, at approximately 1:15 p.m. A sixth person, the co-pilot, escaped with minor injuries.
The Cessna 421 went down two miles north of Collegedale, crashing near Pine Hill and McDonald roads shortly after take-off. The group was headed from meetings at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn., to Knoxville, Tenn., for a regional pastors’ meeting.
Clay Farwell, retired Indiana Conference president, was on the plane and perished when it crashed. Farwell and his wife, Jo, retired in 2002, and moved from Indiana to their Tenn. “farm.” In his retirement, Farwell was in charge of development for the GCC Cohutta Springs Conference Center. The day before the plane crash, Farwell began his new role as assistant to the president for GCC.
Farwell was widely known and respected for his more than 35 years of service and leadership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America. He served as a pastor and youth director in several conferences, youth director for the Southern Union, vice president for Adventist Health System, and president of the Kentucky-Tennessee and Indiana conferences.
Farwell is fondly remembered in Indiana as a servant leader who worked diligently for the Lord. His major accomplishments in Indiana include making improvements at Timber Ridge Camp, constructing the chapel/music building at Indiana Academy, instigating the IA Project fundraising campaign to help renovate the campus, and strongly supporting evangelism throughout the conference.
In his 2002 farewell message, Farwell reminded constituents, “May we all walk close to Jesus until the day we all go home to live together again.”
Also killed in the crash were Dave Cress, GCC president; Jim Frost, GCC vice president for administration; Jamie Arnall, GCC director of communication; and John Laswell, a member of the Collegedale Community Church and a corporate pilot who had flown for GCC occasionally.
Jim Huff, volunteer co-pilot and member of the Standifer Gap Seventh-day Adventist Church, survived.
The Lake Union Conference family grieves with the families of these men. Visit the GCC website at: www.gccsda.com for information about memorial funds established, and to submit remembrances or messages of support and hope.
Diane Thurber, Lake Union Herald managing editor
