Dear New Friends at St. John United Church of Christ,

Greetings in the name of Christ! I am very excited and eager to get to know you, minister with you, and serve with you! In case you would like to know more about me, I hope this snapshot of me helps. My parents named me Laurette Colleen Hurd, hoping for the nickname of “Laurie”. I was born in Rockford, but we lived in Winnebago, a southwest “suburb” of Rockford. My father was transferred to New Jersey, so we moved when I was almost five. We lived in three towns until they settled in Warren, NJ where they still live. My Grandmother, who is 100 years old lives with them now. Shortly after moving to NJ, my baby sister, Valerie was born

I went to college at University of Dubuque, Iowa, to be close to those northern IL relatives. I majored in Elementary Education and Spanish. I met, dated and married a Presbyterian seminary student named Stephen Hill. Steve’s first call was in Lafayette, Indiana. We decided this was a good time to have children, so we had two daughters: Victoria Elizabeth and Gwendolyn Anne. While they were growing up, I earned an MA in pastoral counseling and then started on the Masters of Divinity. I was Presbyterian at the time and the Presbytery would not allow me to continue my education at CTS in Indianapolis. So, we moved to Granite City, IL and I transferred to Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. However, that, too, didn’t work out (because of events at Granite City not ETS), so I transferred yet again and eventually graduated from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1990. After which we moved to Evansville, IN.