About Ronnie Kidd

Best Selling Author

My Story

I wear and have worn many hats in my life. My hats? Christian, husband, family man, teacher, preacher, musician, and more. I graduated from David Lipscomb College (Nashville) in 1970 as an English major with a degree to teach secondary English in Kentucky and Tennessee. I employed that degree in Eastern Kentucky first, for nine years, and then in Middle Tennessee for the remaining twenty-nine years. Added to those twenty-nine years in Tennessee classrooms were twelve years as a personnel manager and safety director (or was it personnel director and safety manager?) for a flooring manufacturer (5 years) and an electric utility (7 years).

When I retired from teaching in 2016, my wife Suzanne estimated that about 4,000 students had traveled through my classroom. I was known simply as Mr. Kidd. Besides teaching mostly English grammar and literature, I sometimes made my students listen to me play the guitar and sing, or listen to a short story I wrote. I might even have coached a little basketball and football along the way. As to whether I was a good teacher, you’ll have to ask my students.

School teachers in Tennessee and Kentucky aren’t known for making money, so when summer came it was time for me to find additional employment. Sales? Construction? Yes, I’ve done those. Music gigs? Yes, those, too! My daddy taught me the hammer and saw when I was eight; and I’ve played the guitar since I was thirteen. And believe me, that is now lots of years!

I had to do formal writing in some of my jobs. After all, I was an English major and had taught grammar and writing; so writing was no big deal to me. I even enjoyed it–and still do!
But to continue with the hats, Christianity has been major–since I was ten years old! and it still is! It has affected me in almost every choice I’ve made since becoming a Christian.

Choices like what college(s) to attend; whom to date and marry; where to work; where to live; how to live; habits to avoid; places to avoid; relationships to avoid or build; goals and hobbies to have; hundreds of choices more!
God has blessed me with the best companion: an help meet as God calls her—the perfect aid–a smart, beautiful, talented woman with a beautiful name, Suzanne! She has born us three smart, beautiful daughters (Rachel, Rebekah, and Elisabeth); and we later fostered and then adopted two more (Mary Ann and Samantha). Now, in my autumn of life, I have eight grandchildren. God is good!

Just Busy Living

My father, an important man in my life, was a church of Christ preacher for about 60 of his 80 years. He was also a college graduate with a degree in music (from Tennessee Technological Institute, better known as just Tennessee Tech, in Cookeville, Tennessee). I was born in Cookeville (1949) while he was getting his degree. We lived in a small community called Baxter, located a few miles from Cookeville. He was preaching then and, though I didn’t know it, I already had an older brother and sister waiting at home (respectively three and six years older than I—Ralph and Judy). My third sibling, Joy, was born about six years later in another Tennessee town.

I suppose that as a child I didn’t worry about a roof over my head or where my next meal came from, but life was always okay to me—as long as I could go outside and play. My father provided for us always, and my mother was always at home for us. My parents were faithful Christians, and they taught us to be the same. It didn’t seem unnatural, then, that brother Ralph and I both grew up to teach and preach. We had seen, heard, and lived it from day one! I didn’t set out to follow in the footsteps or either my father or brother, but it seems we were much alike.