My name is Joel Gillespie and this website is about the work that I do and the services that I provide to valued customers in Columbia, Greensboro and other communities across the Carolinas.
If you look at the menu above or to the right you will see a diversity of services offered – gardening, photography, writing/editing, web design, tutoring/teaching, and genealogy. I’d like to tell you a little bit of my story so you can see how these skills developed in my life.
I am a native of Columbia SC and am back in the area after living twenty years in Greensboro, NC. In fact, I am actually back and forth between Columbia and Greensboro quite a lot.
For twenty years I was a pastor in Greensboro, sixteen of these years with a wonderful church I had the privilege of planting with good friends in the Greensboro area.
While serving as a pastor in Greensboro I was also Managing Editor of a biblical/theological journal called Faith and Practice. I learned a lot about careful editing from Faith and Practice – about how to edit not just with precision but with the author’s personality and style. This skill has helped along the way with five children as well!
In addition to editing Faith and Practice I became an active blogger in the Greensboro community, known as one of the blogging/citizen-journalism hot spots in the country. With that I learned a lot about social networking – how to integrate it with web pages and blogs, how to use it for connecting with others and, yes, how to use it for marketing.
I taught physics, chemistry, physical science and biology for five years at Brookland-Cayce High School in the Columbia SC area. I love to teach, and have had the privilege of tutoring students of various ages and academic abilities over the years – mostly in the sciences and math but also in English composition.
When I was a kid I had the privilege of being the grandson of Mary Sue Gillespie, who, along with her husband Curtis and two of her neighbors on McGregor Drive developed one of the premier stops on the Columbia SC gardening tour. “Nanny” taught me a lot about gardening – especially how and when to prune, rooting, and grafting. I ended up majoring in Biology at Clemson and South Carolina with an emphasis in Botany, with some horticultural classes to boot.
When I was in college I bought my first camera, a Fujica ST 801. Oh I loved my Fujica and began a lifelong love of photography. I have now graduated to digital and enjoy carrying my Nikon D200 with me whenever I can.
After my grandmother Nanny died and my brother sold her house we discovered a large footlocker and a suitcase in her attic filled with photos and letters going back to the late 1800′s. I had no idea who most of the people were which set me off on a wonderful journey of discovery in which I learned a great deal about the science and art of genealogy. In addition I began getting equipment which would allow for faithful and safe scanning and restoration of so many old and treasured photographs.
I would be grateful to be able to serve you in any one of these areas. You can reach me by e-mail at gillespie.joel@gmail.com and by phone at 336-207-0196.
