NEWBERRY — When Dan Ratchford graduated from high school in 1968, he started college at the University of Delaware but ended up staying for just a year, the idea of experiencing life and traveling tugging at him.
But Ratchford, the son of a Navy man, had already done a fair amount of traveling as a youth, having been born in Norfolk, Va., then moving all around the East Coast as a youth, eventually settling in Delaware when his father got out of the Navy.
After that year in college, Ratchford, 65, decided he wanted some new experiences so he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy, serving from 1969 to 1973. During those years, he was stationed in California and did a tour in Vietnam.
After being discharged, he used the GI Bill to attend California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock, Calif., where he majored in organization communications (business), got involved with campus ministries and met his future wife, Vicky.
“I graduated from college in 1976 and I married my wife in 1977, the year she graduated,” he said. The couple has three daughters — Marcie, Julie and Sandie — and two granddaughters.
After they married, Ratchford and his wife went to the University of California at Davis where Ratchford was the campus pastor for five years. He went to work as a campus minister because some of the local leaders said there was a need. They asked him if he would consider it and he agreed.
“I was not a pastor at that point, or even considered being one, but I enjoyed working with the students,” he said. “I was not really religious before going into the Navy either.”
As the campus pastor, he worked with the students by having bible studies and working with them spiritually. That experience led him to Argentina where he worked at the University of Buenos Aires in the mission field.
“It was way down south, so the climate was a lot like South Carolina. It was Latin America, but very European,” he said. “You feel like you are somewhere in Europe just in a big city and we were in the big city of Buenos Aires. It was a good cultural experience. I had to learn the language, which was hard, but I finally learned and started to feel at home.”
The Ratchford family was in South America from 1983 until 1989, at which point they moved to South Carolina. Ratchford then went to work for Colonial Life Insurance in Columbia, where he not only used his degree, but his knowledge of the Spanish language.
“I was a claims representative and when Spanish customers came in, I helped them,” Ratchford said.
He left Colonial Life in 1997 and returned to the path of ministry. Ratchford was hired at Saint Andrews Presbyterian in Irmo as an assistant pastor. He began attending seminary at night at the Columbia International University, where he graduated in 2002.
“They sent us up to Chapin to get up a church, Chapin Presbyterian. We spent four years in a school, then bought some property and built a building, moved into the building. They are still there,” Ratchford said.
He was at Chapin Presbyterian for 13 years, but was ready for a change when he turned 65.
He found an opening online for Smyrna Presbyterian Church. Smyrna had been without a pastor for eight months.
When Ratchford applied, it only took four weeks for the church to decide to bring him on as its pastor. He started Nov. 29, 2015.
“The folks there are awesome, a really neat church family,” he said. “Super friendly, warm. They have lots of meals, which I really enjoy. Everything is homemade.”
The congregation numbers around 90 people, mainly farmers, so it’s a typical small country church. Ratchford said his wife also has become active in the church and has jumped in feet first.
“They are very humble, loving people,” he said. “It is just a great experience.”