Paul Childress ’93, the recipient of Pfeiffer University’s 2025 Outstanding Alumni Award, enjoys an unusually strong bond with his alma mater — which he continues to strengthen by supporting the University in numerous ways.

He said that receiving the Award is a reflection of his recognition of Pfeiffer’s value in the community and the importance of continuing to support Pfeiffer as an important asset. Echoing the sentiments of many of Childress’ fellow Pfeiffer supporters, Scott Bullard, University President, said he has “been a fantastic advocate for Pfeiffer and has worked tirelessly to help make community connections that are making a positive difference for the University.”

Childress’ bond with Pfeiffer spans his lifetime. He, his sister Beth Childress Talbert, and his brothers Jeff and Brad grew up in family housing on Pfeiffer’s Misenheimer, N.C. campus. Their mother is Judy Childress. Tom Childress, their father, served as Head Coach of the men’s basketball team and, later, as Athletic Director and Vice President for Institutional Advancement, eventually joining the 1992 Class of the Pfeiffer University Sports Hall of Fame. Jeff Childress, a 1989 Pfeiffer graduate, currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Interim Athletic Director at Pfeiffer.

Paul Childress transferred to Pfeiffer from East Carolina University during his senior year. He says he loved his time at ECU and had a great experience there, but a coaching change and his admiration for Pfeiffer’s Coach Bobby Lutz pulled him back to Misenheimer.

“Completing my senior year at Pfeiffer was really like going back home for me, as the whole Pfeiffer community is like family. My dad, brother and family friends worked there, and many of my friends attended,” he said.

“Pfeiffer was just a neat environment,” said Childress, who is now the head of Childress Insurance in Albemarle, N.C. and a highly committed supporter of many Stanly County causes. “It was a perfect place to grow up with 50-plus kids whose parents also taught or coached at the school, and it later became the perfect place to finish up my college education. I’ve always been around Pfeiffer, and I’ve always known how important it was to the community and to the Childress family.”

Childress has come to see that Pfeiffer imparted “lessons” that went far beyond what he learned in the classroom. “There were so many really good people I got to be around and learn from,” Childress said. Although acknowledging that there were far too many such people to mention in one article, he did refer to his father; Lutz; the late Les “Snake” Roberts, Pfeiffer’s legendary security guard; and Jack Ingram ’74, who served as a former Deputy Athletic Director at Pfeiffer, coached softball and women’s basketball, and taught Sport Management at the University for several decades.

Childress also mentioned Pfeiffer Sports Hall of Famer Dave Davis, who served as the Falcons’ head coach of men’s basketball and head golf coach from 1996 to 2010, and Dr. Mike Riemann ’70 (Hon.) ’10 (Hon.), Professor Emeritus of Chemistry.

Said Childress: “I saw how they treated other people and how they worked to make sure things were done right. I watched how they used their positions to help others learn and grow in their own lives.”

Not surprisingly, Childress has long sought to honor the example that these and other Pfeiffer greats set by doing all he can to advance the University. 

He belongs to a community leadership group that began as a fundraising committee for the Center for Health Sciences, the Albemarle, N.C. home to the University’s Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies and Master of Science in Occupational Therapy programs. Childress plugged the educational benefits of the Center, which opened in 2020, and he spoke enthusiastically about the positive impact it has had on the revitalization of Albemarle’s downtown.

“I’m neighbors with it,” he said, referring to the Center’s close proximity to Childress Insurance’s Main Street location. “Having those students and faculty in our downtown area has meant that buildings have been restored to apartments or turned back into restaurants or turned into retail shops. I love to tell the story of Pfeiffer and the good things it does. A strong, healthy Pfeiffer University is so important to our community as a whole.”

Childress is also a big supporter of Pfeiffer Athletics. As a member of the Pfeiffer University Athletic Advisory Council, he’s joined a group of 20 boosters, each of whom is working to 1) create a $1 million endowment that would spin off money each year to supplement athletic operating budgets, and 2) help fund what Childress described as “a large capital improvement and facilities campaign, redoing the gym and some of the fields with turf and those kinds of things.”

“I’m just lucky that they invited me to participate in this effort,” Childress said. “I appreciate Pfeiffer enough and what it’s done for me and the community to come on board. Hopefully, there will be a lot more folks who participate in the future.”

Perhaps, Childress’ greatest contribution to Pfeiffer athletics is making the golf course at Tillery Tradition Country Club in Mt Gilead, N.C. available to Pfeiffer’s golf teams, which use it for practicing and hosting tournaments. As one of the Club’s owners (the other is Chris Bennett ’02, also a Pfeiffer alumnus), he’s in a position to do that.

“We are happy to be able to support their practice schedule and tournament schedule,” Childress said. “This complements our hosting of events for various nonprofits that do a lot of good things in our community, Pfeiffer included, while providing something our members can be proud of.”