Page 58 - Discover Fall 2021

A r o und The L a ke
Around The Lake
Same Preacher, Same Couple
50 Years Later
The sun was bright and it was a beautiful day on
the lake. People started gathering at the amphitheater
of the Smith Mountain Lake State Park last Satur-
day afternoon because lake residents, Brenda Gay
Shumaker and her husband, Doug were celebrating
50 years of marriage. Their children, Brett Shumaker
from Pennsylvania and Heather Osegueda from South
Carolina, saw on the guest list the name of Dr. Bud
Calvert and his wife, Mary from Florida, and a plan
started to develop.
This retired preacher married their parents in Ar- family business, Shumaker Industries, in 1979 and
lington, Virginia on Saturday May 8, 1971. It was the
young preacher’s first time to officiate at a wedding
and, since the anniversary party was on Saturday May
8th, 2021, Brett and Heather thought it would be a
good idea to have him do the renewal of their parent’s
vows.
In 1971 the Vietnam War was in full force and
Doug Shumaker was in the intelligence and security
office of the US Navy in Washington, DC. The draft
was still taking place in those days and after graduat- mer. They found the perfect location for their ministry
ing from Cornell University in Engineering, the US
Navy wanted him to work in security and computers.
While he was stationed at Fort Myers in Arlington,
he started attending Cherrydale Baptist Church.
56 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2021
That’s where he met a sassy southern blonde who later
became his bride.
Over the years, they lived in Doug’s home state
of Pennsylvania but not before the Navy gave him
overseas orders to Keflavik, Iceland. Doug always tells
people his city girl wife would have been unhappy in
rural Pennsylvania so after a year in Iceland, she was
happy to return to anywhere that had US soil. A son,
Brett was born in Iceland and after returning home,
daughter Heather came along. Doug took over the
now both children are at the helm. Most likely, some
of their 7 grandchildren will be part of the business
someday.
Doug and Brenda bought their first lake house
here in 2001 and are presently living in their 3rd lake
house which they designed and built in 2011. There
they welcome guests from missionaries, to pastors who
need a break, to international students from Liberty
who have no place to go on holidays or in the sum-
which used to be a sheep farm and named it Shep-
herd’s Gate, which reminds us of the verse in Psalms
23, which reads, “He leads me beside the still waters,
He restores my soul”. To God be the glory!