“I’m so proud of what Lee has continued to grow into and what it is today,” said Christian music artist Mark Harris.

Two decades after his graduation from Lee University’s School of Music, and with almost as much time in the music industry, Mark Harris returned to his alma mater Sunday night for a special U-Church concert. A few minutes before sound check he laughed about how for the past few years he has been a voluntary secret recruiter for the university because of what a memorable experience he had as a student.

After being a member of the music group 4Him for 15 years, Mark Harris decided to release his first solo project in 2005, titled “The Line Between the Two” and shortly after undertook a solo tour that led to his 2007 sophomore album “Windows and Walls.” Mark’s personal favorite track from the new CD is a song called “Living Room” which is an analogy of our lives being compared to an old, run-down house.

“What it needs is for someone to come in who has a picture of what it could be and take it and make it new. That parallels with what God does in our lives. We can visualize ourselves as [that house], needing him to come in and make our hearts his living room.”

Mark really attributes nearly all that he is today to Lee and the mentors that he found here. Several influences in his academic life were Danny Murray, Dr. David Horton and Mrs. Virginia Horton.

“Dr. Horton believed in me as a musician and as a singer. Like so many music students are…we’re not organized, we think in colors, we’re right-brained. Dr. Horton would look at me and say, ‘That’s what you are, Mark, and that’s why you find it hard to focus but you’re gifted and you need your degree and so I’m pulling you along.’

“During my [senior year] he was the one who championed me through.”

Reminiscing of the good ol’ days led Harris to conclude that his fondest memories of Lee would have to be all of the friendships that he began while in school and has preserved over the years.