Police Commissioner Peter Tesei calls them, “the God Squad” and said he’d love to have them as his personal security detail. They are the Greenwich Police Department chaplains, Monsignor Frank C. Wissel, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Rev. Daniel F. Hickman, who is retired Greenwich Police officer, gave the invocation, and now Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Nins, Pastor of Greenwich’s First Baptist church.
Prior to Wednesday’s police promotion ceremony, Rev. Dr. Nins was was installed by Commissioner Tesei in a private ceremony in the First Selectman’s office. The newly minted chaplain is a graduate of the 2008 Connecticut FBI Citizens Academy. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois. Rev. Dr. Nins grew up in Minnesota (and his son sported a Minnesota Vikings jacket at the event. Both, however, are Yankees fans!) Rev. Dr. Nins attended Virginia Union University in Richmond where he received a BA in Broadcast Journalism. He earned a Master of Divinity Degree at the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology and then went to Duke University for a ThM. He later received a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Eastern Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA.
Currently he sits on several boards including the Executive boards of the Greenwich Boy Scouts of America, the Greenwich Lion’s Club and the Greenwich NAACP. Rev. Nins also sits on the Greenwich Affirmative Action Committee. He is a past-president of the Greenwich Fellowship of Clergy and is also the Communications Director for the Council of Churches and Synagogues and on the diversity committee at the Brunswick school. His biography states, “Sharing his ministry and life is his best friend and wife, the former Dorothy Green.” They have three beautiful children, Kellen, Aisha and Isaiah, the Vikings fan.
