Buddy was born and raised on a farm in Selma, Alabama. His father and mother were wonderful parents and reared him and his two older sisters in a Christian home. The priorities in their home were God, their church, family and friends. 

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He married Kathryn Mayo who was the love of his life. They were blessed with two sons who are both married with wonderful families of their own. They were also privileged to have a foster daughter later in life.

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As a young boy, Buddy was fascinated with airplanes. At 16 he learned to fly and later pursued a career in aviation. Buddy eventually earned an Airline Transport Pilot rating for airplanes and held commercial and instrument licenses for helicopters. He also trained as an Army aviator in both helicopters and airplanes. Buddy completed 33 years of military service, 20 of those years active duty.

 

He began short-term mission involvement in 1990 when he was asked to come to Belize to assist a Baptist missionary in developing a camp for use as a training center for local and U.S. teams. For 13 years, Buddy came at least once a year and helped complete the beautiful Western Region Baptist Training Center where he served on the board of directors as treasurer.

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In 2003, Buddy began hosting teams that went out from the Baptist camp to minister in area villages. Their first mission team was a combination dental and construction team. They quickly realized the need to form an officially-named ministry. Fishers of Men International Missions, Inc. was formed, a U.S. 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

 

Since its inception, the organization has been privileged to host more than 50 teams on short-term mission projects including family ministry, women's ministry, men's ministry, veterinary, medical, dental and construction teams. In 2014, God called Buddy home following a sudden, unexpected illness. Today, Fishers of Men carries on Buddy's dream of sharing the Gospel through building relationships with the people of Belize.