About Author
Autobiographical Sketch
I was born 81 days after “Pearl Harbor,” in a hospital in a tiny west Texas town surrounded by peanut fields. My father was an itinerant farmer, and my earliest memories include living in a fruit cellar and in a series of drafty dust bowl farm houses. We were in church twice every Sunday and on Wednesday night, and I have no memories of not “loving Jesus.”
Dad eventually gave up his dream of owning his own farm, and we moved to town and became “settled.” The summer before I entered 7th grade we moved to Mesquite, Texas, an eastern suburb of Dallas, where I finished high school. From there I completed a bachelor’s degree in Sociology at North Texas State University and met my soul mate, Jo Lynn. She is a “PK”, so she should have known better; but she has blessed my life as lover, confidant, best friend, and spiritual inspiration. We celebrated our 61st anniversary on May 30, 2025.
I served two years active duty in the Marine Corps, including a year in Vietnam, and immediately after my release from active duty I entered the Graduate Seminary at Phillips University, where I earned Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees.
As a full-time ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), I served congregations in Edmond, Claremore, and Tulsa Oklahoma and in Pine Bluff and Harrison, Arkansas.
I retired in October 2005, and have served interim ministries in Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Las Vegas, Nevada. I currently serve as part-time paster (an oxymoron) in a small parish near our home in Conway, Arkansas.
My wife and I have three sons and eight grandchildren who we have worked hard to spoil rotten; and we have enjoyed traveling between interims.
We both are musicians. Jo Lynn is a trained choral director and hand bell director (her first love is hand bells). I played trombone from junior through undergraduate school, and then played in the Marine Band at Quantico and the Third Marine Division Band. Since retirement I’ve been studying classical guitar, hoping someday to become relatively proficient.
I love the outdoors, especially Bass fishing. When the weather is too bad for fishing, I enjoy model railroading. I’m a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, having grown up in the Dallas area. Their first year was 1960, the year I graduated high school, and I was in the Cotton Bowl to see the first game they played there. While in Las Vegas I discovered the joys of hiking, and in July 2014 I hiked the Grand Canyon from rim-to-rim.
