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MOUNT DORA, Fla. — In their 29 years of marriage,…
Mount Dora Christian Academy names York University’s Samuel Smith as next president
The new president will make the move from Nebraska to Florida this summer.
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Samuel Smith, president of York University in Nebraska, will become the eighth president of Mount Dora Christian Academy and Children’s Home in Florida, the academy announced last week.
Both organizations are associated with Churches of Christ.
Samuel Smith
Smith said he hopes to fulfill Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:1 in the new role: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”
“I desire to see our entire campus committed to imitating God,” he added in a news release, “in the classroom, on the field, in the arts, in our relationships, and throughout our community to give our neighbors a glimpse of the Kingdom through our actions.”
He has served as York’s 21st president since 2020, when it was still known as York College, and previously was dean of student life at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.
Smith is a graduate of both York and Lipscomb. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biblical studies from Lipscomb as well as a doctorate in education from Union University in Jackson, Tenn.
He has also worked in youth ministry at churches in Florida and Tennessee.
Mount Dora Chair John Starling said he has high expectations for the new president, who arrives at the pre-K through 12th grade school and children’s home after more than 20 years in higher education.
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“I am confident that his love for the Lord and passion for Christian education will continue our legacy of cultivating faith-driven world changers,” Starling said of Smith.
Smith and his family — including Lisa, his wife of 23 years, and their children, Brooklyn, Bear and Boden — will move to Mount Dora after the end of the spring semester to officially take on the new role on July 1.
