Meet Our Staff!

Dr. Daniel A. Gordon, Director of Fine Arts Ministries

863-686-7187, ext. 239 - dangordon@fpclakeland.org

Daniel Gordon

Director of Fine Arts Ministries

Dan Gordon’s professional music ministry began at the age of eighteen, when he was hired as a tenor in the choir of First Presbyterian Church, Dunkirk, NY. He has led music programs in Presbyterian churches in Weedsport, NY; Oakland, FL; Norfolk, VA; Yorktown, VA; and Canton, NY before arriving in Lakeland.

Dr. Gordon’s personal commitment to the proliferation of music programs in schools, communities, and churches across America has also included a thirty-year career as an educator. After teaching for fifteen years in public schools, he served as choral director and Chair of Music Education at The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam and Director of Vocal Studies at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA.

As Musical Director of the Ottawa Choral Society for three seasons, Dr. Gordon collaborated with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman. He prepared the OCS for additional performances with Franz-Paul Decker, Joel Revzen, David Currie, and Duain Wolfe. During these years he conducted the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and the Ottawa Choral Society in an all Brahms and Bruckner program and conducted the combined choirs of the OCS and the Crane Chamber Choir in the U. K. premiere of Morton Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna with the English Chamber Orchestra and later with the Bath Philharmonia.

Dr. Gordon holds his Masters and Doctorate from The Florida State University College of Music.

He is married to professional singer/actress Mary Grace Gordon, an active member of the choirs at First Presbyterian Church. They have two children. David is in the Honors Program at Rollins College where he pursues a double major in Computer Science and Music. Britt is a theatre major at The Lois Cowles Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. Harrison School for the Arts is part of the Polk County Public School system and is dedicated to music, theater arts, dance, and visual arts for students in the ninth through twelfth grades. 

David Campbell

Organist

A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, David Campbell worked in the pipe organ building industry for a number of years as a journeyman organbuilder. Initial studies in piano were with Serge Conus, and since his early teens he has served several churches as organist and has substituted for many others. After moving to Lakeland in 1995 David enrolled in Florida Southern College where he was a recipient of the Blanton scholarship, graduating with honors in 2000 and earning a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance, sacred music and composition. Organ performance was studied with Florence Aldridge and composition with Scott McAllister. Upon completing studies at Florida Southern, he was accepted into the graduate school at the University of South Florida in Tampa where he studied composition with James Lewis, earning a Master of Music degree in composition and graduating with honors in 2002. David's hobbies and interests are far-reaching and include musicology, trains, early microcomputers and all things mechanical.

Pastor Richard Huggins

Artistic Director of HIS Company

The Rev. Mr. Richard Leonard Huggins has been a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister since 1963, and has served churches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the International Church on the Island of Aruba. He was the Development Officer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation, Florida Presbyterian Homes, and prior to retirement, for the Thornwell Home and School for Children. He is a trained Interim specialist and has served several churches as Interim Pastor. Dick is a graduate of Davis and Elkins College and Union Seminary in Virginia.

A gifted speaker, writer, and actor, he has performed on stage and directed little theatre, published poems and articles, appeared in television commercials, and has been elected and appointed to both State and local office. Dick, an innovative storyteller, is a member of the Florida Storytellers Association. His good friend, the late author James A. Michener wrote, “I envy your ability to communicate with all ages.”

Dick has been included in the National Who’s Who and the Marquis Who’s Who in the South. He received the Award of Poetic Excellence by the Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum of Sistersville, WV and was published in their anthology “Poetic Voices of America.” Rev. Huggins was the first Presbyterian minister in the U.S.A. presented the God and Service Award by The National Association of Presbyterian Scouters, a denominational Scouters association recognized by the Boy Scouts of America.

Dick is married to Barbara Wilson Huggins and they share five children and eleven grandchildren. They reside in Lakeland, FL.

Dan Renz

Technical Director

John Lowery

Sound Technician

Mr. Lowery received most of his audio engineering skills while at Valdosta Sate College,(GA) from 1973 to 1975. While attending college there, he worked at the college radio station, WVVS, and a Christian radio station, WAFT. After graduation from college with a Business Administration degree, he returned to Lakeland, his hometown, where he began working on a variety of sound engineering projects at First Presbyterian Church, particularly those involving the children’s musicals. He also became an assistant to the late Ernie Garrison with the church radio broadcast. When Mr. Garrison retired in 1991, Mr. Lowery became the Sound Engineer of First Presbyterian Church. He continues to do the sound for all activities in the sanctuary including both Sunday morning worship services, concerts, weddings, and the church radio broadcast over WLKF (1430 AM) on Sunday mornings at 8:30.

Mr. Lowery is married to Mary-Edwin Lowery. He also has a 31 year career in real estate title, and is presently employed by Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund Inc.

Jean Pettit

President of Fine Arts Guild