Navy Chaplain - Lt Commander/Captain Ray Fidler RIVERS

• Name	Ray Fidler RIVERS  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  Prefix	Navy Chaplain - Lt Commander/Captain
  Gender	Male
  Education	he graduated from Wilson Hall in 1982, Sumter, South Carolina  [1]
  Education	he graduated from Wilson Hall in 1982, Sumter, South Carolina  [1]
  HIST	of Juneau, Alaska of Camp LeJeune, North Carolina of Silverdale, Washington Sumter Navy chaplain receives national award Ray Rivers in his Citadel cadet's uniform with parents Bud and Margaret Ann Rivers. Rivers pursued dual careers, first as a military officer and then as a pastor, until he combined the jobs as a naval chaplain. He received the Navy's Witherspoon Award for chaplains at the end of last year. BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com Lt. Ray Rivers came to the ministry late in life, but that hasn't stopped him from having success as a Navy chaplain. Late last year, the Sumter native received national recognition when he won the 2011 U.S. Navy Witherspoon Award from the National Bible Association at a banquet in New York City. "It's an award for a chaplain for living, teaching and leading in accord with the word of God," Rivers said when reached by phone at his current posting at Camp Lejeune. "It's not about being the Most Valuable Chaplain. It's just an award for whoever does that." The Witherspoon Award is given annually to chaplains in the three branches of the U.S. Armed Forces - the Army, Air Force and Navy - whose chaplains also serve the Coast Guard and Marine Corps. Rivers has had two major careers since graduating from Wilson Hall in 1982: He entered the Marine Corps in 1986 after attending The Citadel, then from 1995 served as pastor of a small church in Texas. In 2005 he combined his two passions when he re-enlisted as a Navy chaplain and deployed for tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now at the Marine Corps Engineer School at Camp Lejeune, Rivers followed the advice of his fellow service members last year in entering a self-nomination for the Witherspoon Award. "I was not real keen on that," he said, "but I talked to some co-workers and the people at my command, and I got them to submit some recommendations to the (Navy) chief of chaplains." Any chaplain who has been deployed to a combat zone is eligible to receive the Witherspoon Award. Chaplains must nominate themselves with a short narrative and two scripture citations that influenced or motivates their ministry work. When the Oct. 21 deadline passed without his hearing anything, Rivers assumed he hadn't been selected for the award and instead left on a short deployment to Germany. It was there he received an email from his wife, Paula, informing him he'd been selected as the Navy's Witherspoon recipient. Rivers' parents were surprised when they learned their son had received the national award. "We didn't know what it was until after he'd received it," said father Bud Rivers, a former Sumter County councilman. "But after we found out what it was, we were very proud." But the Rivers were not surprised by Ray's dedication to the ministry. As a young boy, his mother, Margaret Ann Rivers, remembers his coming home from church on Sunday mornings and re-enacting the sermon in front of his bedroom mirror. "I said 'I don't know what he's going to do with his life, but it's going to involve full-time Christian work,'" she said. But it was a twist of fate that originally led Rivers to become a pastor. Until 1993, he served as a Marine infantry officer, but he was serving under contract, and before he could become a regular commissioned officer, he was caught up in the post-Cold War reduction of forces, and his contract was not renewed. It was a career disappointment for Rivers at the time, but he considered it God's way of sending him down a different path. Earlier, during a difficult period in his life, Rivers had served a long shipboard deployment with a chaplain who held regular Bible studies in the ship's library. "God put a chaplain in my path," he said. "God planted a seed in my life that didn't grow until later." After getting out of the military, Rivers followed that calling to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, then spent a decade as pastor of a small church in the Dallas suburbs. With the advent of the war on terrorism, Rivers combined his religious calling with his patriotic calling and re-enlisted as a Navy chaplain. He spent time aboard the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, then served back-to-back deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. "They served seven months in Iraq, and then their company got a new commander and after they just got back, he asked Ray to come with them to Afghanistan," Bud Rivers said. "He seemed to respect Ray and his ministry very much, so after three or four months, he deployed for another seven months." Rivers said he felt "blessed and honored" to receive the Witherspoon Award from his colleagues and fellow chaplains. For almost two years now, he's been stationed at Camp Lejeune with his wife and five children, but said he'll always be from Sumter. "I haven't lived there in 30 years," he said, "but that's still my home." Posted in Local news, News on Friday, February 3, 2012  [1, 2, 3, 5]
  HIST	of Juneau, Alaska of Camp LeJeune, North Carolina of Silverdale, Washington Sumter Navy chaplain receives national award Ray Rivers in his Citadel cadet's uniform with parents Bud and Margaret Ann Rivers. Rivers pursued dual careers, first as a military officer and then as a pastor, until he combined the jobs as a naval chaplain. He received the Navy's Witherspoon Award for chaplains at the end of last year. BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com Lt. Ray Rivers came to the ministry late in life, but that hasn't stopped him from having success as a Navy chaplain. Late last year, the Sumter native received national recognition when he won the 2011 U.S. Navy Witherspoon Award from the National Bible Association at a banquet in New York City. "It's an award for a chaplain for living, teaching and leading in accord with the word of God," Rivers said when reached by phone at his current posting at Camp Lejeune. "It's not about being the Most Valuable Chaplain. It's just an award for whoever does that." The Witherspoon Award is given annually to chaplains in the three branches of the U.S. Armed Forces - the Army, Air Force and Navy - whose chaplains also serve the Coast Guard and Marine Corps. Rivers has had two major careers since graduating from Wilson Hall in 1982: He entered the Marine Corps in 1986 after attending The Citadel, then from 1995 served as pastor of a small church in Texas. In 2005 he combined his two passions when he re-enlisted as a Navy chaplain and deployed for tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now at the Marine Corps Engineer School at Camp Lejeune, Rivers followed the advice of his fellow service members last year in entering a self-nomination for the Witherspoon Award. "I was not real keen on that," he said, "but I talked to some co-workers and the people at my command, and I got them to submit some recommendations to the (Navy) chief of chaplains." Any chaplain who has been deployed to a combat zone is eligible to receive the Witherspoon Award. Chaplains must nominate themselves with a short narrative and two scripture citations that influenced or motivates their ministry work. When the Oct. 21 deadline passed without his hearing anything, Rivers assumed he hadn't been selected for the award and instead left on a short deployment to Germany. It was there he received an email from his wife, Paula, informing him he'd been selected as the Navy's Witherspoon recipient. Rivers' parents were surprised when they learned their son had received the national award. "We didn't know what it was until after he'd received it," said father Bud Rivers, a former Sumter County councilman. "But after we found out what it was, we were very proud." But the Rivers were not surprised by Ray's dedication to the ministry. As a young boy, his mother, Margaret Ann Rivers, remembers his coming home from church on Sunday mornings and re-enacting the sermon in front of his bedroom mirror. "I said 'I don't know what he's going to do with his life, but it's going to involve full-time Christian work,'" she said. But it was a twist of fate that originally led Rivers to become a pastor. Until 1993, he served as a Marine infantry officer, but he was serving under contract, and before he could become a regular commissioned officer, he was caught up in the post-Cold War reduction of forces, and his contract was not renewed. It was a career disappointment for Rivers at the time, but he considered it God's way of sending him down a different path. Earlier, during a difficult period in his life, Rivers had served a long shipboard deployment with a chaplain who held regular Bible studies in the ship's library. "God put a chaplain in my path," he said. "God planted a seed in my life that didn't grow until later." After getting out of the military, Rivers followed that calling to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, then spent a decade as pastor of a small church in the Dallas suburbs. With the advent of the war on terrorism, Rivers combined his religious calling with his patriotic calling and re-enlisted as a Navy chaplain. He spent time aboard the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, then served back-to-back deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. "They served seven months in Iraq, and then their company got a new commander and after they just got back, he asked Ray to come with them to Afghanistan," Bud Rivers said. "He seemed to respect Ray and his ministry very much, so after three or four months, he deployed for another seven months." Rivers said he felt "blessed and honored" to receive the Witherspoon Award from his colleagues and fellow chaplains. For almost two years now, he's been stationed at Camp Lejeune with his wife and five children, but said he'll always be from Sumter. "I haven't lived there in 30 years," he said, "but that's still my home." Posted in Local news, News on Friday, February 3, 2012
  MILI	He entered the Marine Corps in 1986 after attending The Citadel. CHC, USN  [1, 5]
  MILI	He entered the Marine Corps in 1986 after attending The Citadel. CHC, USN
  _UID	EA674569208D4481B1DD71E58DB585B8D44B
  _UID	EA674569208D4481B1DD71E58DB585B8D44B
  Person ID	I275899	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	8 Feb 2025

  
  

  Father	John Townsend “Bud” RIVERS, Jr.,   b. 1929, Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina d. 30 Sep 2016, at his home, (Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina) (Age 87 years)
  Mother	Margaret Ann “Maggie” FIDLER,   b. 1935, Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina d. 4 Feb 2025, Agape Hospice House of Lexington, South Carolina (Age 90 years)
  Marriage	1953  [3]
  _UID	40F87849CEDA4DC7B5D8038197F08D2F0970
  _UID	40F87849CEDA4DC7B5D8038197F08D2F0970
  Family ID	F194093	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Paula WILLIAMS
  _UID	CFB5DC57A53D43D09E9BAA3B5170AC2960AC
  _UID	CFB5DC57A53D43D09E9BAA3B5170AC2960AC
  Children	1. Anna Margaret RIVERS   2. Rachel Carolyn RIVERS
  Family ID	F185616	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Dec 2016

  
  

• Sources

  [S17460] Sumter Navy chaplain receives national award. [S22661] RIvers-Pelloni. [S24280] John T. Rivers Jr. [S24608] Local debutantes presented. [S32410] Margaret “Maggie” Fidler.