Neil Christian Damgaard is a retired Pastor, former university chaplain, management engineering consultant and resident for 36 years of Southcoast, Massachusetts
BIO
Neil now lives in retirement with his wife Renée of 47 years in Roanoke, Virginia, having grown up in Northern Virginia and graduating from Annandale High School. He was raised and confirmed in the Lutheran Church but had little understanding of the Gospel. He attended and graduated from Virginia Tech in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 1975 and came to faith in Christ in a personal way in 1972. Neil and Renée were married in the fall of 1975. He was employed as a management engineering consultant for two years by R.M. Vredenburg & Co. (McLean VA) under contract to Naval Sea Systems Command. He worked primarily on the Mark 60 CAPTOR ASW mine program but also on the Mark 48 Torpedo and the Surface Effect Ship (SES) programs. Then he joined the staff of Grace Church in Roanoke, Virginia to explore vocational ministry. He and Renée lived there for 2 1/2 years before beginning graduate studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Renée earned her Associates Degree in Legal Secretarial Science at Va. Western Community College, then worked for a law firm in downtown Dallas. At DTS Neil majored in Historical Theology. After a rigorous ordination examination process, he was ordained for ministry by the elders of Grace Church in August 1982. Upon graduation in 1983 with the ThM, he was called to be Senior Pastor of the Dartmouth Bible Church in Dartmouth, Massachusetts and served at DBC until July 2019 when he retired. Neil also served as the Protestant Chaplain for the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth for twelve years (2007- 2019). At the 25-year point in pastoral ministry, he enrolled in the Dallas Seminary Doctor of Ministry program in 2003 and completed his D.Min. in 2008.
Renée grew up in a Navy family, her Dad serving as a carrier pilot from the end of the Second World War, through the Korean conflict and then an early AWACS pilot and C.O. for Reserve Training Centers until 1975 and retirement. She was born at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and her family lived in the D.C. area, Miami, Florida, Argentia Newfoundland, Warminster, Pennsylvania, Sioux CIty, Iowa, and Roanoke, Virginia. She was the middle of three children with an older sister and a younger brother. She was raised in a strong Christian family and found faith in Christ as a child. Beginning college at Virginia Tech, she then married Neil, and she quickly sensed he was heading towards ministry. She faithfully served as a pastor’s wife but also discovered her own ministries and her own career focus. Finishing her Bachelor’s degree at Southeastern Massachusetts University, she delighted to make a career in teaching, first in the Christian school environment and then in public education. She taught at all three levels: elementary level, middle school and finally most happily in teaching math at New Bedford High School. She is an avid reader, and loves supporting our now grown daughters, Jocelyn and Susanna.
Susanna was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, also graduated from New Bedford High School, then graduated from Messiah College (PA) with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She has worked as an R.N. in Washington D.C. (GWU Hospital, in the ER), Yale/New Haven Hospital in Women’s Oncology (while earning her Masters of Public Health at Yale University), Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), Copley Hospital (Vermont), the Carolyn Downs Medical Center (Seattle), Swedish Medical Center (Seattle), Saint Mary’s Medical Center (Long Beach CA), Cedar Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles) and is now living and nursing in Bishop, California. She is also a Triple Crown hiker, having completed the Appalachian Trail in 2009, the Pacific Crest Trail in 2012, the Continental Divide Trail in 2015 and many other hiking treks of significant length. Recently she hiked in NW Italy and in Norway/Sweden at the Arctic Circle. Her professional nursing focus is Labor and Delivery and she loves the “birthing community.” She and her Daddy hiked together the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain in 2018. She has also done significant mountain climbing with The Mountaineers of Washington.
Jocelyn was born in Dallas and graduated from New Bedford High School and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, cum laud). She has worked for Micro-Ant Antenna Design & Manufacture, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft (jet engines for the F22 and F35 fighters) and in recent years for Jeppesen, a Boeing Aircraft company in the Denver area. She graduated from the University of Connecticut Law School with a Juris Doctor degree, has passed both the Colorado State Bar and also the Patent Bar exam, has been inducted into the Colorado State Bar, is a patent attorney and is an Intellectual Property Manager for Digital Aviation. She is married to Aaron, and they have two delightful children, Ray and Jane. She travels some and also owns a home in Rhode Island and has begun working on her Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering out of the University of Southern California. Jocelyn also has a heart for facilitating efforts at her UMD alma mater to encourage women in engineering and in the melding of engineering and patent development.
Our Schools: Mary Dale School, Annandale Elementary School, Poe Intermediate, Annandale High School, Virginia Tech, Dallas Theological Seminary, Cave Spring Junior High School, Cave Spring High School, Virginia Tech, Northern Virginia Community College, Virginia Western Community College, Southeastern Massachusetts University, Gomes Elementary School, Christian School of Greater Fall River, Mullein Hill Christian Academy, Roosevelt Junior High School, Keith Junior High School, New Bedford High School, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Messiah College, University of Connecticut School of Law, Yale University, University of Southern California and lots of single courses at other schools
This website launched October 2022