God Has His Hand
on This School
The final chapter of Volume II follows Dr. Walter Grubb through illness, retirement, unexpected returns, leadership transitions, and one enduring conviction about the school he served for decades.
The final chapter
of Volume II.
In Session V of A Venture of Faith, Volume II, Dr. Walter Grubb reflects on the final years of his leadership, the health crisis that changed his perspective, his eventual retirement and return, and the faithfulness he believes has sustained The King’s Academy through generations of change.
The final session
The King’s Academy entered the middle of the 2010s with strong people, growing programs, and a school community that understood its mission.
Leadership changed. The mission endured.
Dr. Grubb is diagnosed with cancer and begins treatment while continuing to lead the academy.
After more than three decades at TKA, Dr. Grubb steps away from leadership.
Less than two years later, he agrees to return for one year as interim head of school.
His leadership role has ended, but his connection to alumni and the academy continues.
The final years began with strength.
When Dr. Grubb thinks about the period following 2015, one theme rises quickly to the surface.
People.
He remembers high-quality teachers, strong staff members, and a talented leadership team.
Rex and Jackie Smith arrived from North Carolina and quickly became part of the school family.
Jackie eventually assumed leadership of the elementary division. Rex stepped into the high school principal role.
Their arrival added another layer of experience to an already strong academic team.
Another family would make an unexpected impact in a very different part of school life.
From no team to state champions.
softball team
in the state
state championships
Mark Weekly joined the academy initially with a proposal to rebuild the girls softball program.
He also stepped into the role of athletic director.
His experience, name recognition, and relationships helped attract talented athletes to TKA.
In the first season, the team finished second in the state tournament.
Within five years, TKA softball had won three state championships.
Several players moved on to Division I programs. Media attention increased.
The school was becoming visible to people who might never have encountered it otherwise.
Athletics represent the front porch of your house.
A principle Dr. Grubb remembers from Mark Weekly
It was not a statement that athletics mattered more than academics or spiritual formation.
It was recognition that athletics were often what outsiders saw first.
That front porch needed to represent the rest of the house well.
The next challenge was not institutional.
It was personal.A cancer diagnosis changed the way he thought about leadership and time.
Dr. Grubb had been experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms.
After initial testing and months of worsening pain, the phone call finally came.
It was cancer.
He returned to campus knowing the diagnosis would affect more than himself.
He called his staff together.
We’re going to have to go through this.
Dr. Walter Grubb
His plan was simple.
Continue working as faithfully as possible. Let others carry more when necessary. Step aside if the day came when he could no longer serve the school well.
Staff members rallied.
Trustees supported him.
Responsibilities shifted.
Then treatment began.
radiation treatments
additional rounds of chemotherapy
hours in a major surgery
Chemotherapy drained his energy.
He continued working when he could.
Sometimes leadership meant working from the couch in his office with a telephone and laptop nearby.
Sometimes it meant taking a nap.
More importantly, it meant allowing others to carry responsibilities he once would have instinctively carried himself.
An army of prayer warriors.
Encouragement came from the academy, family, church, parents, alumni, and friends around the world.
Messages arrived from across the globe.
Dr. Grubb remembers encouragement from international families and from Dr. Billy Kim in South Korea.
He felt carried by the prayers of others.
The illness also forced another realization.
His time as head of school would eventually end.
When will my tenure actually be up here?
By 2018, the answer had become clear.
The decision began at home.
Dr. Grubb and his wife had talked openly about retirement and what life after TKA might look like.
Eventually they reached a practical conclusion.
They could make it work.
With that came peace.
The first conversation outside their home was with Board Chair Dr. Carter Davis.
They met over breakfast or coffee.
Before Dr. Grubb could get far into the conversation, Dr. Davis reassured him.
I knew that’s what you were going to talk to me about.
Dr. Carter Davis, as recalled by Dr. Grubb
A search committee was appointed.
Dr. Grubb intentionally remained removed from most of the search process.
After decades of leadership, he believed choosing the next head belonged to the Board of Trustees.
Matt Mercer eventually emerged as the candidate.
In the spring of 2018, the academy announced its next head of school.
By early summer, Dr. Grubb moved off campus.
Then he did something that can be difficult for a longtime leader.
Get out of the way.
He remained available when asked, but intentionally created distance so new leadership could lead.
He thought he had left for good.
Steps away after more than three decades.
Asked to serve again as interim head.
Leadership passes to Jeremy Sandifer.
Then 2020 happened.
Dr. Grubb remembers watching the COVID-19 pandemic unfold with one recurring thought.
“I am so glad I am not a head of school during this COVID pandemic.”
Then the phone rang.
The academy was entering another leadership transition.
The Board of Trustees asked whether he would consider returning as interim head until another leader could be identified.
He and his wife discussed boundaries.
The board understood those limitations.
He agreed.
Less than two years after leaving, Dr. Grubb returned to the role.
Strengthen the experience and care of students living on campus.
Care for the people directly teaching, coaching, and mentoring students.
Protect the core identity that had carried TKA through previous transitions.
Residence Life remained especially important to Dr. Grubb.
He considered the residential community one of the academy’s most distinctive treasures.
Students from across the world were not simply occupying dorm rooms.
They were living through formative years in a community that had the opportunity to shape their lives.
The adults serving them carried an extraordinary responsibility.
Faculty care mattered just as deeply.
Dr. Grubb was concerned about strong teachers who had left the school.
Yet even in difficult seasons, he noticed something that had been true throughout the academy’s history.
There has always been a core of outstanding educators.
Dr. Walter Grubb
Some had served faithfully for years.
Others arrived exactly when the school needed them.
Dr. Grubb had seen it happen too many times to dismiss it as coincidence.
A vacancy would seem impossible to fill.
Then the right person would appear.
Someone was still standing in the gap.
Teaching faithfully. Coaching faithfully. Guiding faithfully. Keeping the mission moving.
This time, the transition looked different.
The search for the next head of school was extensive.
A search committee reviewed a large pool of interested candidates.
Dr. Grubb was invited to participate this time, primarily as an advisor who could provide historical perspective.
Jeremy Sandifer eventually emerged as the leading candidate.
The transition took place in the summer of 2021.
Unlike his previous departure, Dr. Grubb had more opportunities for conversation with his successor.
He was also careful not to make decisions that would unnecessarily limit the incoming leader.
Temporary leadership meant preparing the school for someone else, not building an administration that the next leader would inherit without a choice.
Once again, he stepped away.
He spent several years working with students through a grant program at Maryville College.
He enjoyed something he had rarely experienced during decades in administration.
Working with students without taking administrative problems home.
Then another transition came.
In 2024, school leadership changed again.
Dr. Grubb discussed whether he should return once more as interim head.
This time his answer was clear.
No.
He believed another return would be inappropriate.
He remained willing to help, just not from the head of school chair.
Dr. Grubb returned to campus in a different capacity, working primarily in development and alumni relations.
His decades of relationships with graduates and longtime supporters gave him a natural role in reconnecting people with the academy.
As Dr. Eaves assumed permanent leadership, Dr. Grubb intentionally reduced his role again.
Today, his focus is narrower.
Alumni. History. Relationships.
The things a person can carry forward without needing to hold the institution itself.
A thirty-year-long game of whack-a-mole.
Resolve one issue and another appears. Occasionally two arrive at once.
After all the change, one answer remained.
Dr. Grubb has watched The King’s Academy survive extraordinary amounts of change.
Presidents changed. Board leadership changed. Administrators changed. Teachers changed.
Enrollment rose and fell.
Money ran short.
Buildings aged.
Cultural expectations shifted.
A pandemic disrupted nearly every assumption about how schools functioned.
And yet, on the day of this conversation, Dr. Grubb could look around campus and see students full of energy.
He could see dedicated employees.
Some had served for years.
Some were brand new.
But the school was still here.
The beloved Bible teacher gave the academy’s history a title that still explained the story decades later.
A Venture of FaithDr. Grubb believes Hall said it better than anyone else could.
The academy’s history is not primarily a story of perfect leadership.
It is not a story of flawless decisions.
It is not even a story of uninterrupted success.
It is a story of faithfulness.
“What we experience here is God’s faithfulness to us.”Dr. Walter Grubb
years of ministry
years on the horizon
The story began with a young principal arriving from California in 1987.
It moved through financial crises, growth, new buildings, international students, leadership transitions, personal illness, and repeated moments when the future seemed difficult to predict.
Yet the conclusion is simpler than the story that produced it.
God has His hand on this school.
Through every generation, every transition, every challenge, and every opportunity.
The venture of faith continues.