MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (ABP) – Keith Beene, the 40-year-old administrator of a professional society for Baptist communications professionals, died unexpectedly in the early hours of Nov. 16, according to the group's president.
David Winfrey, president of the Baptist Communicators Association, said on the afternoon of Nov. 16 that he was still waiting to hear the cause of death.
Beene's widow, Ellen, said he simply “didn't wake up this morning,” Winfrey wrote, in an e-mail to his fellow Baptist Communicators Association officers. Winfrey, a marketing consultant in Louisville, Ky., and former news editor for Kentucky Baptists' Western Recorder newspaper, encouraged his colleagues to pray for Ellen Beene and their two young children.
Keith Beene worked part-time, as the association's only paid employee. The body is a professional-development organization for public-relations professionals, journalists, designers and others who do work for Baptist organizations. Beene helped the group maintain its website and mailing lists, arrange a workshop gathering and awards banquet that attracts scores of members annually, administer a scholarship program and arrange other professional-development and networking events for Baptist communicators.
Winfrey said Beene, who officed from his home in Murfreesboro, Tenn., was also a stay-at-home father to the couple's two young children. Ellen Beene is employed by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, located in nearby Nashville.
“Keith had a servant's heart. Each year, new [BCA] officers didn't have to ‘re-invent the wheel' because he provided both resources and institutional knowledge about BCA. He helped the group operate at its peak capacity,” Winfrey said. “Keith is well-loved by all who worked alongside him, and he will be sorely missed.”
Philip Poole, the director of communications for Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., helped hire Beene and served as the group's president as Beene began his work. He said BCA's only employee moved the group into the 21st century.
“Keith was eager to learn about the organization's structure and operation and was very quick to offer suggestions for how we could improve our association,” Poole said. “He had a very gentle but firm way of prodding me along to make sure things were getting done. Through the years, his tireless efforts made BCA a better organization. Our love and prayers extend to his family during this difficult time.”
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