Learn about the rescuers who sailed from Halifax, and hear intriguing stories of heroism and faith that survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Presented by Dr. Melinda Ratchford, Road Scholar.

Dr. Ratchford is a native of Kannapolis, NC, where her parents worked for Cannon Mills. Dr Ratchford received her B.S. in Social Science and a Sixth Year degree in Curriculum from Appalachian State University. She received her Masters in Library Education from UNC-Greensboro. She also attended UNC-Chapel Hill where she received her Doctorate in Education.

Dr. Ratchford worked in the North Carolina Public Schools for 31 years and retired in July 2000. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Sister Christine Beck Department of Education at Belmont Abbey College. She was the 2002 Adrian Faculty Excellence Award winner at Belmont Abbey College.

Her avocation has been a 58 year interest in the study of the R.M.S. Titanic and her history. She has visited Belfast where she was built; Southampton from where she sailed; Chelsea Piers in New York where she should have docked; Halifax, Nova Scotia where the bodies were interred; and spent a week at the site in the North Atlantic in 1996 where she sank. She has given presentations to over 240+ groups (ages 4-104) on the topic.

She is an avid reader and a life long learner, returning every ten years to get another degree. Her degree in 1999 was an A.A. in Paralegal Technology from Gaston College. In 2009, she immersed herself in a year log research project on Camelot: The Myth and Mystique of the Kennedys and has presented several week long workshops on this topic.