Buddy McElhannon

A Georgia native, Buddy McElhannon, an engineer by education and training, worked 42 years in management and leadership positions with BellSouth and AT&T. Now, seventy-three years young and retired, Buddy is a father of five, grandfather of ten, and spends his time volunteering at church, writing, spoiling his grandchildren, and playing an occasional round of golf. His writing skills are mostly self-taught and have been refined over a lifetime of writing for finicky executives and being married to a wife who has a degree in English and a Masters in Divinity. In 2011, Buddy lost his first wife of thirty-eight years to cancer. His grief journal later won a writing award and was published as Walking Through the Valley of Tears. Today, this insightful look at grief through the eyes of a widower, is a helpful tool in grief ministry. After years of sharing personal reflections via email, Buddy started TheBuddyBlog.com in 2017. Over the past seven years, his 330 posts have been read in 126 countries. He has worked in various pro-life ministries in Georgia A Catholic convert at age 28, Buddy has served as Lector, Eucharistic Minister and RCIA teacher in his parish and volunteered in homeless shelters and food banks. In 2015, Buddy joined CatholicMatch where he met his future wife, Patrice online. After a year of courtship, they married and resettled in the Augusta Georgia area.