Ball guest speaker at Memorial Day event in Arbovale

Barry Steiner Ball graduated from The Citadel with a B.A. in Psychology and from Duke University with a Master of Divinity, and was ordained as a United Methodist Minister.

Ball served three different charges on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in Talbot County. In 1998, he was offered a position with the Maryland Natural Resources Police (game wardens and marine police), working Talbot and Caroline counties and serving as the NRP’s chaplain when needed.

In 2008, Ball was moved into the investigative unit for NRP and worked boating and hunting accidents and larger commercial fishing cases. During this time he also served in the Air Force Reserves as a chaplain at Dover Air Force Base, supporting the work of the Port Mortuary.

Ball began a Doctor of Ministry program at Wesley Seminary in Washington D.C., focusing on Military Chaplaincy. In 2012, his wife, Sandra, also a United Methodist Minister, was elected into the office of Bishop and moved to West Virginia where she oversees all the United Methodist Churches in West Virginia and Garrett County, Maryland. With the move west, the NRP offered Ball a position on a Drug Enforcement Administration’s Task Force in Hagerstown, Maryland.

In this position, he worked larger drug cases in Western Maryland and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. During this assignment Ball was exposed to the plight of Drug Endangered Children and changed his doctoral project and began working with local United Methodist Churches helping them discover how they can support these children.

Ball finally earned his doctoral degree in 2017.

He retired from the Maryland Natural Resources Police October 1, 2017, to work full-time with local churches to help them establish a ministry in response to the opioid epidemic.

Ball will be the guest speaker at the annual Memorial Day event Saturday, May 29, at 2 p.m. in Arbovale United Methodist Church. A ceremony at the cemetery will follow.