Michael Kurtz
Pastor and author Michael Kurtz was raised in Ashe County, North Carolina, and after 40 years of pastoring congregations outside of Ashe, he is very grateful to have retired back to the “coolest corner of North Carolina”! The 1965 Championship Team was composed of players who Michael, and other childhood aspiring athletes, looked up to as sports heroes. Kurtz played varsity basketball at Ashe Central High School where he was an All-Conference selection for two years. Following graduation at ACHS Michael was a scholarship player at Lees-McRae Junior College, and then finished with two years on the team at Eastern Mennonite University.
For four years following college graduation, Kurtz taught English and coached boys’ basketball and tennis, and girls’ volleyball at Northwest Ashe High School in Warrensville, North Carolina He then studied theology at Duke Divinity School, graduating in 1984 and serving various churches in the Greensboro area, and in Asheville, North Carolina. Michael is married to Karen Christy Kurtz and they have two grown children, two grandsons, and two granddogs.