Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner
Chris Fenner
[b 28 Feb. 1981 at Kalamazoo, MI] Christopher Jon Fenner, son of Richard and Gerri (Emmons) Fenner, lived in a household with his brother Josh on the corner of Forest and Oak streets in Kalamazoo for 22 years until the family moved to Mattawan, MI in 2003. In middle school, Chris started to develop an interest in music, joining his church’s choir, becoming a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, and taking a role in the local New Vic Theater production of A Christmas Carol. This was followed in high school by participation in school choirs, musicals, and state honors choirs. In 1997, he took a leadership role in the music ministry at Glendale Baptist Church, near Paw Paw, MI, where his father was pastor. After graduating from Kalamazoo Central HS in 1999, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education degree at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), where he studied choral conducting with Dr. Joe Miller. Chris was ordained as an associate pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention in 2001. He graduated from WMU in 2003 and became music director of the Mall City Barbershop Chorus (Kalamazoo).
In 2004, Chris became part-time minister of music at Covert Community Church (Covert, MI), through which he was also recruited to fill a K-12 music teacher position in Covert Public Schools. On 6 August 2005, Chris married Desiree Leigh Hill, daughter of Daniel James Hill, granddaughter of Larry and Peggy (Hedges) Hill, at First Baptist Church, Portage, MI. At the time, she was a receptionist and a licensed hairdresser. In 2006, they moved to Louisville, KY, when Chris enrolled in the Master of Arts in Worship degree program at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In May 2007, Chris started working part-time in the music library at SBTS while also serving as a music director in local churches, including Farmdale Baptist Church (Louisville, KY) from 2009 to 2014. Chris was made a full-time librarian at SBTS in March 2011, the same year he completed his degree.
On 11 May 2010, Chris and Desiree had twin boys, Garrett Daniel and Connor James Fenner. Garrett was born with a chromosome disorder, Fragile X syndrome, which caused a wide range of medical issues, including behavior on the autism spectrum, physical weakness, gastro-intestinal malfunction, and dysautonomia, effecting his body’s ability to regulate heart rate and respiratory rate. As his conditions grew more challenging to manage, Desiree shifted toward becoming his full-time caregiver. In spite of his difficulties, Garrett generally maintained a cheerful and patient disposition. Even at a young age, his brother Connor was also supportive of Garrett’s needs. Chris and Desiree divorced 8 May 2014. Garrett’s digestive system failed the following year; he died 29 October 2015 at age 5.
In September 2012, Chris was reassigned to the Archives of the James P. Boyce Centennial Library, SBTS, where he serves as Digital Archivist. Since October 2014, he has served concurrently as assistant music director at Green Street Baptist Church (Louisville, KY). In December 2017, Chris completed a Master of Library and Information Science degree through the University of Kentucky. His academic research specialty is hymnology. He has written articles for the The Hymn: A Journal of Congregational Song (2012, 2014) and has edited The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of Isaac Watts (2016), Spurgeon’s Own Hymn Book (2019), and Amazing Love! How Can it Be: Studies on Hymns by Charles Wesley (2020). Since 2018, he has developed, managed, written, and edited a scholarly website for the study of hymns, HymnologyArchive.com, a long-term project originally conceived in 2007 as a prospective three-volume printed reference work.
Among his other endeavors, Chris has been a family archivist-historian, curator of the Fenner family tree, and webmaster of Fennertree.com since 1998.