Born in West Virginia, Rev. Cecil Fike graduated from high school in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Bridgewater College in Virginia, and his Master of Divinity from Bethany Theological Seminary in Oak Brook, Illinois. He did his clinical training at Elgin State Hospital in Illinois and Bowman Gray/North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ordained in the Church of the Brethren, Cecil has served pastorates in Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, and North Carolina. His chaplaincy career began in Roanoke Virginia, where he served as the Roanoke Valley Institutional Chaplain. In 1973, he organized the department of pastoral care at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia, and recently retired as the Director of Pastoral Care for the WellStar Health System. The WellStar System, which includes Kennestone, is a vertically integrated system consisting of five hospitals, retirement and nursing facilities, a hospice, over a dozen neighborhood health centers, and a physicians group with more than 300 physicians. He was co-founder and department head for the first hospital-based hospice in Georgia. That hospice, which includes a new residential facility that Rev. Fike also helped to start, now serves over 100 patients. While serving as hospice bereavement counselor, he began Good Grief Groups in 1985. Good Grief Groups have been provided for over 2000 persons through the WellStar Health System, and is currently being offered in churches and health care institutions in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and California. Rev. Fike continues to conduct Good Grief Groups for the WellStar Health System. Rev. Fike has studied with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Granger Westberg and has attended many seminars, workshops and symposia, including the Harvard Medical School Eric Lindeman Grief Symposium, the Herbert Benson Behavioral Medicine Course, and the Hans Selye Symposium on Stress Management. In addition, he has conducted seminars and workshops for the Cobb County and Georgia Departments of Education, the Department of the Navy, the Veteran's Administration, Clemson University School of Nursing and many other state and local organizations. Cecil received the Kellogg Career Enhancement Award to study hospice and grief programs in Europe. In 1991, through the Friendship Force, Rev. and Mrs. Fike served as Ambassadors to the Soviet Republic of Georgia, where he visited hospitals and doctors to discuss health care and grief rituals. The Georgia Society of Health Care Chaplains chose Rev. Fike as Chaplain of the Year in 1993, and he has served on numerous local, state and national chaplaincy boards and committees. He also served as president of the Cobb County Ministers Association, Georgia Society of Health Care Chaplains, and was co-founder of the Metro Atlanta Chaplains Association. His civic activities include being a charter member and president of the Marietta-Metro Rotary Club where he was named Rotarian of the Year on two occasions.