Reverend Callies was a preacher, teacher and community advocate. He was the founding Pastor of First Gethsemane Baptist church, a church he physically built with his own hands. He was 30-year Math, History and Industrial Arts Teacher who believed in making the world better for the youth. He was an advocate for infrastructure change and called attention to drainage issues that made it difficult and sometimes unsafe for young people to get to school. He also led the first Martin Luther King, Jr. March in San Antonio, a march that has grown to roughly 300,000 participates today.