Family Spotlight on The Wilders

ARC Realty partner, Mechelle Wilder, and her family were featured in the July issue of Greystone Living. Greystone Living is a social magazine for the residents of Greystone Legacy, Founders and The Crest.

Thomas and Mechelle Wilder have been Greystone residents since January 2002. Both had reservations about living in the area because of the congested traffic leading into down town Birmingham. They decided to give it a try when their house sold. Since moving into Greystone, both have enjoyed the location, Country Club amenities and even the traffic-especially now since the new configuration is in place.

Thomas and Mechelle met when they both moved to Birmingham from their respective hometowns. Mechelle hales from Montgomery, Alabama and Thomas is from Aliceville, Alabama. They met on a blind date while Mechelle was in college through a mutual friend. On that first date, neither of them was impressed with the other but they gradually became friends over discussing the Bible. The friendship turned into a dating relationship. Dating turned into engagement and thirty years later, they are still friends and very much in love.

The Wilders have four children: Charis, Gilia, Thomas III and Kendra. Charis will begin work on her third degree in August as a nurse practitioner student at Vanderbilt University. Gilia is completing her second degree as a nursing student at Jefferson State College. Thomas III, who graduated from Tuskegee University in 2012, is an engineer with the Chevron Corporation in Houston. Kendra is a rising junior at Tuskegee University and is currently at Purdue University for a summer internship. All of the Wilder children attended and graduated from Spain Park High School.

Mechelle is a partner with ARC Realty, a growing company of 110 agents and was recently voted “Birmingham’s Emerging Real Estate Company of 2013.” She began her career in sales as a marketing representative with IBM. She later decided to take a 14-year “Mommy break” from the corporate environment while rearing their four children. She is an accomplished musician and is the assistant minister of music at her church, The Historic Bethel Baptist Church of Collegeville. She will soon begin her second year as President of the Greystone Ladies Club. She is also on the MLS Board of the Birmingham Association of Realtors, founder of the Fine Arts Academy at Bethel, and emeritus member of the Hoover City School Foundation Board. She is an honors graduate from Samford University with a degree in Communications.

Thomas is the senior pastor of the Historic Bethel Baptist Church of Collegeville. He has served as senior pastor for the past 26 years. Thomas, who recently retired from corporate work, was also employed with Alagasco and BE&K, Inc. while serving as senior pastor at Bethel. He has been on various Boards and organizations throughout the state including Girls Inc., United Way, Shelby County Department of Human Rescources, United Cerebral Palsy, President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama, Leadership Shelby County and Leadership Birmingham. Currently he is on the Addiction Prevention Coalition Board. He holds an undergraduate degree from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a master’s degree from UAB and an honorary doctorate degree from Faith Grant College.

Thomas and Mechelle truly enjoy living in Greystone and hope to enjoy many more years in the community.