Frank Shock resigns at Windermere - Word&Way

Frank Shock resigns at Windermere

Roach — Frank Shock has relinquished oversight of daily operations at Windermere Baptist Conference Center effective Nov. 17. The center's volunteer coordinator Dan Bench was named executive administrator and has assumed operational duties as a volunteer.

Shock will remain as Windermere's president and chief executive officer until trustees hire a replacement. Trustees have yet to name a search committee.

The board announced the change to Windermere staff at a luncheon trustees hosted as part of their annual meeting on Nov. 17. "It's not our ministry," board vice chairman Robert Plunk said. "It's not our work. It's the Lord's work."

Board chairman Arthur Mallory praised the work Frank and the late Barbara Shock had done since Shock took the post on Dec. 1, 1989.

"Frank and Barbara were a team," board chairman Arthur Mallory said. "Their thumbprints and fingerprints are all over this place. He was the face of Windermere. Their children grew up here."

For 14 years, Barbara Shock directed the interior design work for several building and renovation projects at Windermere, including the Deer Ridge lodges, Koehler Lodge, Lake View Lodge and the Wilderness Creek project. She passed away on June 30, 2004.

Mallory added that as CEO, Shock had been part of Windermere's growth, particularly since 2000 when Windermere became a separate corporation.

Under the Missouri Baptist Convention, Windermere was governed through an MBC Executive Board committee. Messengers the 1999 MBC annual meeting approved allowing Windermere and Word&Way to operate as separate corporations.

"Being a part of Windermere has been a great experience for me and my family," Shock said. "It is a great ministry. But eventually you come to a place where you must turn it over to someone else.

"I am pleased that we have worked out an ending that's good. You know when it's your time."

He and his wife, Linda, plan to remain in the lake area.

Prior to assuming the Windermere position, Shock managed Tall Timbers Conference Center in Woodworth, La., for seven years.

He earned a bachelor of science degree at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and a master of religious education degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A Springfield native, Bench earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He also earned several insurance and financial designations, including chartered financial consultant.

The Marine Corps veteran was an insurance professional who retired as a regional vice president with Principal Financial Insurance Group on Feb. 1, 1998. He and his wife, Sandra, retired to the Lake of the Ozarks in April 1998.

He is a former chairman of the Missouri Baptist Foundation board of trustees and is currently a member of the Windermere board of advisors. (11-22-05)