By Bob Allen
The publisher and executive vice president of a leading resource provider for churches in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has been hospitalized and is being treated for leukemia.
Smyth & Helwys Publishing in Macon, Ga., announced Aug. 7 that Keith Gammons, a 14-year employee who has overseen day-to-day operations since 2012, was diagnosed last week.
“Keith’s leadership at Smyth & Helwys and across Baptist life continues to be incredibly important for our mission and work,” said the statement distributed by email and Facebook. “The Smyth & Helwys family of staff, authors, churches and ministers offer up our thoughts and prayers as Keith begins his treatment regimen.”
Gammons, 46, posted on Facebook Aug. 4 that he was spending the night at Coliseum Medical Center in Macon due to low blood cell counts. He underwent a bone marrow biopsy Aug. 6 at Northside Hospital in Atlanta and reported that evening “discouraging news” that he has leukemia and will be staying at the hospital “for some time.”
His chemotherapy treatment began Aug. 9 and by Monday morning he posted a photo of a laptop and writing pad with the caption, “All set up in the Smyth & Helwys publisher’s office: hospital edition.”
Gammons, a former staff member at First Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., joined Smyth & Helwys in 2001 as book acquisitions director. He was promoted in April 2007 to vice president for production.
Since moving up to the job of publisher and executive vice president in Aug. 2012, Gammons reorganized the parent company into four distinct imprints — Smyth & Helwys Books, NextSunday Resources, Peake Road Press and Stroud & Hall Publishers. He manages 20-plus personnel throughout all divisions of the company, directing print and digital product development, market presence, strategic partnerships and consumer relations.
Launched in 1991 as an alternative to the increasingly conservative Southern Baptist Sunday School Board — today known as LifeWay Christian Resources — Smyth & Helwys is a privately owned for-profit company identified as a partner of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship based in Decatur, Ga.
Cards to Gammons should be addressed: Keith Gammons, Room 458, Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Northside Hospital, 1000 Johnson Ferry Rd., Atlanta, GA.