Alabama Grief Support Services
comfort, compassion, guidance, hope
Larry J. Michael, Ph.D.
AGSS Executive Director
Dr. Larry Michael came onboard as Executive Director on July 1, 2010. He
is responsible for short and long-range planning and overall direction of Alabama Grief Support Services. Other duties include fiscal oversight, support development, group leadership, and public relations.
For the last three years, Dr. Michael served as a Financial Representative with Principal Financial Group. Before that, he served over thirty years in pastoral ministry, working in five different states and in England. He taught as an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, has written for a number of periodicals, and authored a book on leadership.
Dr. Michael is a leader with a wide berth of grief-related experience. He is a recognized public speaker and educator in many areas, noted for his inspirational presentations. He has a strong commitment to the work of Alabama Grief Support, and enjoys his teamwork with Dr. Tharpe, who serves as Program Director.
He is an ordained minister, holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, Master's and Ph.D. degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He resides in Hoover with his wife Kathryn, has three married children--Ashley, Kent and Graham, one married stepdaughter Allison, and one favorite grandson Walker.
Gertrude "Trudy" A Tharpe, Ed.D.
AGSS Program Director
Dr. Gertrude “Trudy” A. Tharpe is a Grief Specialist in Birmingham, Alabama. She keeps a regular schedule of individual appointments with grieving children, youth, and adults. She also leads several weekly Grief Support Groups, plans Grief Seminars, and trains volunteers for work with support groups.
Trudy's experience includes 20 years of crisis counseling and university teaching in the United States and overseas. Wherever she has lived and worked, Trudy has done the same thing: Counseling and teaching.
In addition, Trudy has held several administrative positions. For years, she was Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama. For more than five years she was Publications Director of WMU, SBC, a national women's organization, publishing monthly magazines and books for that organization.
In addition to her B.A. from Tift College, Trudy has an M.A. from Furman University in Counseling, a M.R.E. from Southern Seminary in Religious Education/Social Work, and an Ed.D. from Vanderbilt University in Higher Education/Counseling Psychology. A native South Carolinian, Trudy has studied and worked throughout the southeast.
After her marriage to Ed Tharpe — a minister and university professor — the couple lived and worked in Virginia before going overseas to work in Hawaii and Hong Kong. Trudy has 3 adult children, Alan, David and Jeanie, and 5 grandchildren.
