T. Perry Hildreth

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

“The Holy Spirit blows the sails of our lives in ways in which we are not always aware,” commented Dr. T. Perry Hildreth, as he reflected on pivotal events in his life and his 17 years of service to Gardner-Webb University. Hildreth was awarded professor emeritus of philosophy after his retirement from GWU in 2023.

Hildreth was born in 1962 in Anson County, N.C., and grew up in the small town of Wadesboro with his parents, Tommy and Sandra Hildreth, and two siblings. He recalled many childhood memories that shaped him both academically and spiritually, beginning with his kindergarten teacher, Harriet Rose. She made learning fun and created a loving atmosphere in her classroom.

Another foundational part of his upbringing was attending North Wadesboro Baptist Church, which was started by his family members after a tent revival. He described how his grandmother helped sew the tent on an old pedal sewing machine. She was also the first person baptized in the church. Years later, the members of the church took up a collection to make his aunt’s dream of attending college possible. This act of kindness inspired Hildreth to see a connection between his religious and intellectual life. “The church was really important in my formation as a child,” he stated. “It taught me the important lessons of the love of God for all people, and the value of being an educated person.”

In the summer of his senior year in high school, Hildreth began to feel the call to ministry. At the same time, a summer youth minister at his church gave an enthusiastic recommendation for the college he attended, which was Gardner-Webb. However, Hildreth was already committed to going to UNC-Greensboro. After starting at Greensboro, he realized more fully his call to ministry and decided to transfer to Gardner-Webb the next year.

While a student at Gardner-Webb, Hildreth was directly impacted by professors, Alice Cullinan, Vann Murrell, Rick Wilson, Bob Lamb and Logan Carson. “These were all important folks for me,” expressed Hildreth. “I hope that as a professor, I was the kind of person to our students that they were for me.”

Another person who profoundly influenced his life was Gardner-Webb campus minister, Monk Ashley. “He modeled for me the importance of the intersection of the life of the mind and the life of the faith,” Hildreth shared. “He always challenged me to think beyond the popular theological slogans of my adolescent faith and to grow toward an open and honest adult faith that continues to anchor my life today.”  

He continued, “Monk was a mentor, friend, and confidant. He and I had countless conversations about theology and the life of the Church in the years he was my campus minister. He modeled for me what it meant to be a reflective and engaged Christian thinker. He was not satisfied with simplistic answers to complex theological questions that arise in real life.”

After graduating from Gardner-Webb in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education, Hildreth enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where he received his Master of Arts in Religious Education and Master of Divinity in 1988. At this point, his goal was still to answer God’s calling into pastoral ministry.

However, inspired by a love for school and learning, he enrolled in courses that challenged his intellect. “As I began the study of theology and the work of the church, I pushed myself into places that weren’t always easy or comfortable for me,” Hildreth assessed. “And that’s how I ended up studying philosophy and loving it.”

He went to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., to pursue his PhD in religion. When he graduated in 1995, the job market was poor, but he was offered a job as an associate professor of Philosophy at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. “God works in mysterious ways,” Hildreth affirmed. “The doors just opened.”

While there, he met Dan and Barbara Goodman, and they became good friends. In 2003, Dr. Dan Goodman came to Gardner-Webb to teach at the School of Divinity. “Danny encouraged me at that point to consider the possibility of returning to GWU,” Hildreth explained.

In 2006, a position teaching philosophy opened in the Gardner-Webb religion department. Hildreth was torn about what to do. He loved his work at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he had served as faculty in residence in the honors program, chair of the faculty, and interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, the largest school at the university.   

Eventually, he decided to apply. “On my interview day, I walked around the Gardner-Webb campus, and I remember standing out in the quad and asking myself, ‘If I were to meet myself as a student, would I have something to say to myself?’” His answer was, “Yes!”

Hildreth added, “I interpret that, of course, as the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit in my life.”

He became Gardner-Webb’s first professor of philosophy and renewed his friendship with the Goodmans. Teaching students about the connection between the life of the mind and the life of the spirit was important for Hildreth. “I wanted to make sure that students understood that the content of any course had an important and significant impact in the life that they were embarking on,” he asserted. “And, that their faith needed to be big enough to carry them across the course of their lives.”

The faith that Hildreth proclaimed to his students sustained him in 2009, when his good friend, Dan Goodman died suddenly. Three years after Dr. Goodman’s death, Hildreth and Barbara Goodman discovered a love for each other and were married on Gardner-Webb’s campus in 2012 in the Kathleen Nolan Dover Rose Garden.

Hildreth participated in many other activities that defined his tenure at the University. One of those experiences was taking a group of students to the United Kingdom in the summer of 2010. They studied for five weeks at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. “That was such a great, great experience,” he noted. “When traveling abroad with students, teaching takes on a whole different dimension. I keep in touch with many of those students even today.”

His priority both inside and beyond the classroom was to “unapologetically champion liberal arts education.” Hildreth continued, “I tried to have students think about how their work as students related to the nature and importance of education in our society, and particularly education that challenges us to think more broadly, that opens the door to the questions of meaning and purpose of human life and doesn’t just shut down those questions in a narrow kind of professional job training.” 

Serving as chair of the Gardner-Webb faculty was a significant honor for him. “In a very difficult time in the University—issues related to the financial stability, enrollment, and things that led to significant transitions in the life of the institution—the faculty trusted me in that role,” Hildreth stated. “I learned a lot. I also lost a lot of sleep.”

Another responsibility he enjoyed was being co-coordinator for the Ethics Bowl with Dr. Anna Sieges-Beal. The Ethics Bowl is an annual event sponsored by North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. Gardner-Webb’s team competes against 13 other institutions. The team researches the cases they are given to debate, and prepares and practices for three months.

Throughout his career in education, Hildreth’s call to ministry remained in his heart. Although raised a Baptist, he became an Episcopalian in 2004. “Part of my spiritual pilgrimage included a discovery of the liturgy and life of the Episcopal Church, which has been significant,” he explained. “And so, my call to ministry, which happened when I was 17 years old, continues to take on new and interesting forms in my life. I felt the call to pursue the possibility of ordination in the church and engaged in the process of discernment, which in the Episcopal Church, is a pretty long process.”  

He completed that process in May 2023, and the bishop offered his name to parishes looking for new leadership. One of those was the Episcopal Parish of the Holy Communion, located in Ashe County, N.C. The parish is one congregation with two buildings: St. Mary’s Church in West Jefferson and Holy Trinity Church in Glendale Springs. “These churches are actually world-famous because of the Ben Long fresco paintings that are here,” Hildreth said, adding that the churches are regularly featured in magazines, including “Our State.” Approximately 30,000 people a year visit the churches to view the frescoes.

After the bishop suggested his name, the process went quickly. The lay leaders of the parish completed the interviews, made a decision, informed the bishop of their choice, and Hildreth was approved. “I actually came to my parish as a lay person,” Hildreth explained. “I was first ordained as a deacon in September 2023 at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Shelby. In the Episcopal Church, a deacon is an ordained clergy person with particular responsibility for making sure that people’s needs—spiritual, physical, and material—are served.” 

In the Episcopal Church, ordination to the priesthood requires that one serves as a deacon for at least six months. His priestly ordination was held on March 16, 2024, at Holy Trinity Church in Glendale Springs, N.C, the same date as his grandmother’s birthday—the women who sewed the revival tent with her pedal sewing machine.

“There’s a lot of work to do here, important work and good work. It’s been a wonderful and rewarding experience so far,” Hildreth offered. “Many of the things I learned as a professor I brought with me into this work. It really didn’t make any sense, to pull up my life, leave a career, and a community where I had established myself, and in many ways, at my age to start over. But again, the spirit blowing through the sails of my life opened the door and the opportunity. It’s astonishing to be a part of a journey that’s so much bigger than anything that I could do, and I feel very grateful.”

Source: Interview with Jackie Bridges, 2024.

Written by Jackie Bridges and Isabella Brown, a 2024 graduate of Gardner-Webb University.