Eleanor Frances White Davis, a missions advocate, musician and former officer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, died Oct. 8 in Granbury. She was 92. She was born Sept. 30, 1933, in Waco. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. She taught public schools several years, before devoting herself to raising her children. However, throughout her life, she continued to teach piano and to teach English classes for international students. She had a career as a professional singer, performing in musicals and many other choral settings. She held leading roles in productions including “Madame Butterfly” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” She also became a prolific composer, writing many songs featured in her church work. She served alongside her husband Leslie in his ministry in Spring Branch, Baytown, Stephenville, Brownwood, Wichita Falls and Arlington, as well as in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Nassau, Bahamas. Usually in each church, she would play the piano, sing in choirs, teach Bible studies and lead women’s groups. She also was involved in WMU at the local church, associational and state levels. She served on the WMU of Texas Executive Board and was vice president of Texas WMU from 1994 to 1998. She was preceded in death by her husband Leslie Wayne Davis, sister Margaret Eisenbeck and brother James Robert White. She is survived by son Robert Leslie and wife Susan, of Longmont, Colo.; son David Wayne and wife Marci of Granbury; son Paul Arthur and wife Lindsay, of Denton; six grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. A visitation will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 on Oct.16 in the chapel at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home in Waco. Services will be at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct.17, also in the funeral home chapel.

Charles “Chuck” William Davis Jr., chair of the board of trustees at Hardin-Simmons University, died Oct. 1 in McKinney. He was 67. He was born Jan, 4, 1958, in Chattanooga, Tenn., to Charles William Davis Sr. and Delores Eloise (Nellums) Davis. He grew up in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas, graduating from Whitesboro High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Hardin-Simmons University and a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He met Elaine Martin at Hardin-Simmons, and they married in 1983. He served as a student summer missionary in Morocco, and the Davises later served as Journeymen missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board in Taiwan. After seminary, Davis entered campus ministry with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, serving as a Baptist Student Ministries director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Houston Baptist University and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He also led medical mission projects in Mexico and Central America. In 1999, Davis joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service officer. Over a 20-year career, he represented U.S. interests in China, London, Jordan, Singapore, Israel, Nicaragua and Mexico, specializing in embassy management and consular affairs. His career highlights included coordinating humanitarian evacuations, assisting U.S. citizens following the London Underground bombings and organizing official visits for three U.S. presidents. For his service, he received multiple honors, including the Meritorious Honor Award and the Franklin Award, recognizing his efforts to strengthen American citizenship. While he served with the State Department, Davis preached and taught adult Sunday school in churches from Israel to the United Kingdom, even helping to plant an international church in Beijing. Upon his retirement, he served as a trustee at HSU, where he was elected chair of the trustee board in 2023. While on the board, he helped the university craft and formalize its statement of faith. In 2011, he was honored with the HSU Distinguished Alumni Award. He is survived by his wife, Elaine Davis of McKinney; son John Daniel Davis and wife Hannah of Washington, D.C.; daughter Allison Michelle Davis of Abilene; and sister Julie Barclay and husband Tommy of Abilene. Memorial gifts may be directed to the International Mission Board or the Hardin-Simmons University Annual Scholarship Fund.

Herbert Lee “Herb” Pedersen, longtime Texas Baptist pastor and missions leader, died Sept. 15. He was 83.

Herb Pedersen was born Dec. 15, 1941, in a two-bedroom house in Hartville, Mo., to Roy and Geneva Pedersen.

He met the love of his life, Barbara Gail Holman, at an A&W Root Beer drive-in more than 63 years ago. The two were married Aug. 4, 1962, in Mountain Grove, Mo., and began a lifelong journey of love, ministry and family.

After graduating from Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Mo., Pedersen went on to earn his master’s degree and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

During his more than six decades in ministry, he was the pastor of several churches in Missouri, as well as First Baptist Church in Kennedale and more than 20 years at First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff in Dallas.

During his time at First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff, he led the congregation to become a Key Church in Texas Baptists’ Mission Texas church-starting initiative.

While leading the church, he made thousands of hospital visits and drove a church bus hundreds of miles for mission trips, youth camps and ski excursions. He also managed a construction company, Diversified Homebuilders.

Led Texas Baptists’ missions division

At the invitation of Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director William M. Pinson Jr., Pedersen joined the BGCT staff as director of the missions division of the State Missions Commission.

The same “spirit of cooperation” and leadership by example that he demonstrated as a pastor characterized his work at the BGCT, Pinson said.

“His innovative, indefatigable, cooperative leadership style once again set an example for others,” he said.

When he left the BGCT staff, Pedersen returned to the pastorate, leading two congregations in Midlothian—Mountain Peak Community Baptist Church and then Longbranch Community Baptist Church, where he served until his retirement.

He served in a variety of roles at Dallas Baptist University, as an adjunct professor of New Testament and member of the DBU board of trustees, as well as the contractor who oversaw construction of the president’s home and drove the bulldozer creating water features on the DBU campus.

He received an honorary doctorate from DBU in 1983, and the university named the Barbara and Herb Pedersen Residential College in the couple’s honor.

“Along with a host of others, I thank God for his gift of Herb Pedersen to our lives,” Pinson said. “He was my pastor, coworker and friend for decades, and during all those years, he remained steadfastly committed to serving the Lord Jesus Christ whether in his role as pastor, husband, father, denominational worker, university trustee, encourager, friend or whatever.

“A creative and hard-working disciple of Christ, heaven is more populated because of his diligent ministry.”

He was preceded in death by his brothers Gerald and Garry.

He is survived by his wife Barbara Gail Pedersen; daughter DeeDee Bailey and her husband Darryl; daughter Angie Cagle and her husband David; daughter Beth Savage and her husband Denny; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to the Herb and Barbara Pedersen Endowed Scholarship Fund providing scholarships to Christian ministry and education students at Dallas Baptist University.

Harold Bell Wood Jr., longtime volunteer with the Texas Baptist Men cabinetmakers, died Sept. 8. He was 92. He was born to Harold Bell Wood Sr. and Myrtle Howell Wood on May 27, 1933, in Stephenville.  He married his high school sweetheart, Rosemary Spindor, on Aug. 8, 1953. After graduating from North Texas State University in 1955 with a degree in chemistry, he worked briefly with the U.S. Customs Department in New Orleans before beginning his career with Dow Chemical Company in Freeport. He retired from Dow Chemical after 34 years at age 57 and began his second career as a volunteer woodworker after he inherited a workshop from his uncle. He became skilled at cabinetmaking, furniture making and carpentry. While he enjoyed making gifts for friends and family, he found his true calling serving with Texas Baptist Men—now Texans on Mission—and Habitat for Humanity. As a longtime Baptist layman, he was familiar with TBM, and he joined the TBM cabinetmaking team in 1992. Over the next 25 years, he worked on projects at churches, seminaries and encampments across Texas and beyond. Highlights included working on My Father’s House in Lubbock, major renovations at Palacios Baptist Encampment and work on the Canadian Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and College near Cochrane, Alberta, as well as a mission trip to Sri Lanka. He also benefitted his local community, working with Habitat for Humanity on 104 homebuilding projects. When he sold his home and moved into a retirement community, he donated all of his tools to Texans on Mission. He served many years both at First Baptist Church in Freeport and later at First Baptist Church in Lake Jackson, where he was a deacon. He and his wife Rosemary often served together, teaching in preschool and elementary Sunday school classes, ministering to widows and participating in missions. They served together 20 years as director and secretary of a senior adult Sunday School class at First Baptist in Lake Jackson. He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Rosemary Spindor Wood; daughter Jerilynn Armstrong and husband Don; son Steven Wood and his wife Mary Jo; son Larry Wood; six grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and  a sister, Sue Kelley. Services are scheduled Sept. 13 at Lacy Funeral Home in Stephenville. Family visitation will be held at 1 p.m. with the service following at 2 p.m. A memorial service also is scheduled at 1 p.m. on Sept. 27 at First Baptist Church in Lake Jackson, followed by a reception in the church parlor. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made to Texans on Mission, First Baptist Church in Lake Jackson or Southern Brazoria County Habitat for Humanity.

James Virgil “JV” Thomas Jr., who led Texas Baptists’ church-starting initiatives to new heights, died Aug. 27 in Colleyville. He was 94.

Thomas was born March 13, 1931, in San Benito to James Virgil and Agnes Thomas. He spent his childhood in Shepherd.

He attended East Texas Baptist College, graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Southern Methodist University.

In his early 20s, he felt called by God to vocational ministry. He was pastor of Texas Baptist churches in Harleton, Smyrna, Aubrey, Cleveland and Corpus Christi. He also served as the director of missions of the New Bethel Baptist Association.

Thomas joined the Baptist General Convention of Texas staff in June 1969. For the next 24 years, he served as the director of church extension before retiring in March 1993.

Thomas was instrumental in developing creative strategies and innovative approaches to church planting. They included the Key Church strategy—beginning with First Baptist Church in Arlington and its Mission Arlington ministry started by Tillie Burgin—and the development of western-heritage cowboy churches.

He helped recruit and train a new generation of pastors and leaders focused on helping churches start churches to reach every socio-economic, ethnic and language group in Texas.

‘Heart and mind’ of Mission Texas church starting

When BGCT Executive Director William M. Pinson Jr. challenged Texas Baptists to start 2,000 churches in five years as part of the Mission Texas emphasis, Thomas played a key role.

In fact, Pinson called Thomas “the heart and mind” of the Mission Texas church-starting effort.

“His compassion, dedication, innovation, creativity and organizing ability guided the effort to reach the goal of 2,000 new churches,” Pinson said.

Working with State Missions Commission Director Charles McLaughlin and Missions Division Director Charles Lee Williamson, Thomas led the church extension staff “to implement the strategy of reaching the Texas mission field with its rapidly growing, diverse population for Christ, and thereby strengthening the Texas mission base to help reach a lost world for Christ,” Pinson said.

“The BGCT did not start these churches. Existing churches did that. And JV Thomas and staff developed creative ways for Baptist associations and the BGCT to help provide the resources for churches to start churches.

“In so doing, JV wrote new chapters in the story of church planting by Baptists. Only God knows the impact that this has had on making and maturing disciples for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

William Tinsley, former assistant executive director of the BGCT, was among the church planters Thomas recruited.

“Only heaven will measure the influence of this unlikely leader who came from obscure beginnings and ended up spearheading church planting movements that extended from Texas to the ends of the earth,” Tinsley said.

“We should not be surprised. People like JV Thomas have always been God’s chosen way to work in the world.”

Thomas was preceded in death by his childhood sweetheart and wife of almost 60 years, Lucy Jarboe Thomas, and son Timothy Thomas.

Survivors include his wife, Marion Thomas; daughter Teresa Krimm and husband Mike of Dallas; son Terry Thomas and wife Mary Fox-Thomas of Andrews, N. C.; 11 grandchildren; and numerous great- and great-great grandchildren.

Memorial gifts in his honor can be made to the Texas Baptists Church Starting Fund through the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation at 7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1200, Dallas, TX 75231 or online at www.missionsfoundation.org.

Charles “Chuck” Richard Dooley, a former Texas Baptist pastor and leader in church starting, died Aug. 30. He was 91. He was born Jan. 1, 1934, in San Antonio to Francis and Don Dooley. His favorite holiday late in life was New Year’s Day, because all of his family gathered to celebrate his birthday. He preached for the first time at age 16 and accepted his first pastorate in 1954. He studied at Howard Payne University and the University of Corpus Christi, and he earned his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of Freeway Forest Baptist Church in Houston and Calvary Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. After 26 years of pastoral ministry, he became one of the first five consultants with the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Church Extension Department. During his 21 years in that role, he helped more than 600 churches get their start. He was a prayer warrior for his family and others, and he shared his faith every time he had the opportunity. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Carole Mayes Dooley; daughter Debra McCammon and husband Joe; daughter Donna Willingham; and daughter Denise Ansley and husband Tom; six grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. A celebration of life service is scheduled at 6 p.m. on Sept. 8 at First Baptist Church in Conroe. Visitation with the family will follow.

Henry Stovall, longtime Baptist pastor, died June 11 in Bryan. He was 77. He was born Nov. 10, 1947, in Ennis to Burrow “Bill” and Evelyn Downey Stovall. After graduating from Ennis High School, he earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and his master’s degree in religious education from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in Jacksonville. Through the years, he served churches in Tenaha, Greenville, Anson, Palmer, Snook and Leona. He was pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Bryan for 24 and a half years.  When he retired in 2018, Trinity Baptist named him pastor emeritus. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Stephanie Stovall Hejl; a brother, Carl William Stovall; and sisters, Catherine Anne Stovall and Sally Stovall Rizzo. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Karen Stovall; daughters Cari Stovall and Krista Weller; four grandchildren; one great-grandson; and a twin sister, Mary Stovall Maldonado.

R. Keith Parks, international missions leader of both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died Aug. 26. He was 97.

Parks spent 45 years in international missions, serving as ninth president of the SBC Foreign Mission Board—now International Mission Board—from 1980 to 1992.

He and his wife, Helen Jean, were missionaries to Indonesia for 14 years before he joined the Foreign Mission Board home office staff, where he served in several administrative roles.

He went on to become the first coordinator of CBF Global Missions, serving in that role from 1993 to 1999.

When asked by the Baptist Standard in 2018 his favorite aspect of ministry, Parks responded: “Relating to and working with missionaries and local Christians all around the world. ‘Missionary’ is still my dominant DNA.”

Remembering the legacy of Keith Parks

IMB President Paul Chitwood expressed his gratitude for Parks’ legacy.

“We celebrate that Keith Parks and his wife gave decades of their lives to serving Southern Baptists in our cooperative mission work to get the gospel to the nations,” Chitwood said.

“While Keith served as president during a complicated time in Southern Baptist life, his intentional focus on taking the gospel to the unengaged is a lasting legacy that still marks IMB strategy to this day. I am grateful for that legacy.”

Todd Lafferty, IMB executive vice president and chief operating officer, also served on the mission field in Indonesia, in addition to other countries, before joining the U.S. staff. Lafferty said: “Keith Parks’ visionary and strategic leadership led us from familiar mission stations to unmarked roads in the missionary task to reach the least reached. His legacy lives on as we continue to seek to reach the remaining unengaged, unreached peoples in the world today.”

CBF Executive Director Paul Baxley similarly reflected on Parks’ legacy and contributions to the CBF Global Missions.

“Dr. Keith Parks was deeply committed to the global mission of Jesus Christ throughout his life,” Baxley said. “He provided visionary and transformational leadership in the establishment of CBF Global Missions. His experience, missiology and strategic clarity laid a strong foundation for our Fellowship’s participation in Global Missions.”

“Dr. Parks was deeply respected not only by our Fellowship at large, but also by our first generation of field personnel who were touched by his leadership, integrity and vision

“Our Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family joins me in offering prayers of gratitude for his life, leadership and personal participation in inviting people to faith in Jesus Christ and his mission of transforming love in the world.”

Field personnel recall Parks’ personal care

Jim Smith, retired field personnel and CBF Global Missions staff leader, remembered Parks as “sharp, friendly and unafraid to operate from the edges.”

“His vision for reaching the most unreached and most neglected around the globe made a difference in global missions. He visited works in a multitude of circumstances where he spoke very little and listened a lot,” he said.

Smith also fondly recalled Parks’ ministry at a person level.

“He called my mother just before she was operated on for spinal surgery. They actually waited to take her into the operation so he could pray for her. He never stopped learning and loving others,” Smith said.

Nell Green, retired CBF field personnel, likewise appreciated Parks’ care for the families of missions personnel.

“Dr. Keith Parks was our mentor, an inspiring leader, but simply ‘Uncle Keith’ to our children. He said once, ‘God does not call without a knowledge of your children.’ That helped us through some difficult times as we raised children overseas,” Green said.

 Both Keith and Helen Jean Parks considered field personnel as family, she added.

“Keith was always ready to think through a problem with you. Helen Jean would drop everything and take time to pray with you,” Green said. “They were caring, thoughtful leaders ready to invest themselves personally in the lives of those sent out.”

‘Passionate about reaching the unreached’

Karen Morrow, retired CBF field personnel, called Parks “one of my heroes of the faith, who embodied the Christian mission to reach the nations with the gospel message.”

“He was passionate about reaching the unreached and those with limited access to the gospel and established CBF Global Missions to that end,” she said.

Keith and Helen Jane Parks’ participation in a prayerwalk she led in Turkey was “one of the highlights of my ministry,” Morrow said. She recalled Parks overlooking the city of Antioch “with tears in his eyes,” reflecting on how Christians there sent out Paul and Barnabas as the first gospel missionaries and praying “with gratitude for all God had done.”

“Because of Keith’s life, service and leadership, countless people around the globe have come to have a personal relationship with Christ,” Morrow said.

Parks, a native of Memphis in the Texas Panhandle, got his first taste of international missions as a student summer missionary to Colombia’s San Andrés Island.

Thirty years later, when Toby Druin of the Baptist Standard asked the newly named president of the Foreign Mission Board to describe himself, Parks responded, “I am a missionary.” That remained his identity until the end.

An era of new dangers and opportunities

“Parks’ leadership thrust the IMB into an unprecedented era of effectiveness toward fulfilling the Great Commission,” said Jerry Rankin, who succeeded Parks as the mission board president.

“Missionary deployment around the world exploded under Parks’ predecessor, Dr. Baker James Cauthen,” Rankin said. “But Parks looked beyond successful growth to see that part of the world still unreached and closed to missionary presence.”

Parks’ time as Foreign Mission Board president coincided with world-changing events that brought new dangers—and opportunities—for Christian missionaries: the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, growing numbers of terrorist attacks and assassinations, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the proliferation of new technologies and birth of the internet.

Parks’ leadership was a match for the times. Southern Baptists in 1976 had adopted a goal of preaching the gospel to everyone in the world by the end of the century. It fell to Parks to determine what it would take to reach that goal.

The goal has yet to be reached, but research into what it would take yielded “crushing statistical evidence that without an enlarged vision of the world, Southern Baptists would never contribute their full share to global evangelization,” wrote Leland Webb, editor of the FMB’s The Commission magazine at Parks’ retirement.

What the research revealed was more than 6,000 unreached peoples, ethnolinguistic groups who lived with few, if any, Christians among them, had little or no access to Scripture and did not welcome missionaries. The 1.9 billion people in those groups likely never would hear the name of Jesus.

‘New strategies to reach the unreached’

“Keith Parks was a missiologist par excellence,” Clyde Meador—who worked with four mission board presidents—once said of Parks. “He would do what he saw as right whether it was popular or not.”

Meador filled several key roles, including executive vice president, at the IMB before his death in 2024.

What Parks did was urge missionaries to develop daring new strategies to reach the unreached. This gave birth in 1985 to Cooperative Services International, which assigned teachers, doctors, businessmen and humanitarian workers to countries closed to traditional missionaries.

Later, the nonresidential missionary program was born for missionaries to develop creative ways to reach unreached people they could not live among.

“Parks’ vision positioned Southern Baptists to respond to the fall of the Soviet Union and laid the groundwork for changes that followed his tenure to focus on people groups instead of countries and engaging the unreached,” Rankin said.

Parks also challenged Southern Baptists to consider countries where missionaries had long worked as partners in reaching the world. On his last overseas trip as FMB president, to participate in a meeting of Baptist leaders from across the Americas, Parks challenged participants to begin sending their own missionaries as partners in God’s mission.

“Too many Christians in this world are convinced their responsibility is only to the people of their culture and language,” Parks said.

“We’ll never reach the world for Christ if we restrict ourselves to our own language and culture. Local interest always wins when culture dominates Christianity. Global interest wins when Christianity dominates culture.”

Native Texan and faithful missionary

After serving as pastor of Red Springs Baptist Church in Seymour, and as an instructor in Bible at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Parks and his wife, the former Helen Jean Bond, were appointed in 1954 as career missionaries to Indonesia, where they served until 1968.

There he served at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Indonesia in Semarang, Java. He also did evangelistic work in Semarang, was mission treasurer in Jakarta and spent a furlough as an associate secretary in the missionary personnel department at the FMB’s home office in Richmond, Va.

Parks joined the home office staff in 1968, leading work in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1975; directing the mission support division from 1975 to 1979; serving as executive director-elect, September through December 1979; and executive director (title changed to president in May 1980) from Jan. 1, 1980, to Oct. 31, 1992.

Parks earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from North Texas State College (now University of North Texas) in Denton, and the Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

The Parks joined First Baptist Church in Richardson in 2000, where they taught the International Bible Class.

His wife of 69 years, Helen Jean, and their daughter, Eloise, both died in 2021.

He survived by: son Randall and his wife Nancy; son Kent and his wife Erika; son Stanley and his wife Kay; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Parks was the author of Crosscurrents (Convention Press, 1966), World in View, A.D. 2000 Series (New Hope Press, 1987) and numerous articles and columns. He is the subject of Keith Parks: Breaking Barriers & Opening Frontiers, a biography by Gary Baldridge.

Compiled by Managing Editor Ken Camp from information provided by Mary Jane Welch of the International Mission Board and Aaron Weaver of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. 

(RNS)—James C. Dobson, a psychologist who advocated a “family values” brand of conservative Christian morality on his popular radio shows and in his bestselling books, died Aug. 21. He was 89.

“Dr. Dobson was a pioneer—a man of deep conviction whose voice shaped the way generations view faith, family and culture,” said Gary Bauer, senior vice president of public policy at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.

“His bold leadership, integrity and compassion helped equip countless families to thrive in a world of shifting values. He was a mentor, a counselor and a steady voice of truth in turbulent times.”

A child psychologist by training, Dobson founded Focus on the Family in 1977 to promote conservative views on parenting, defending thespanking of children as a means of discipline.

The nonprofit, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., became hugely influential, first among evangelical Christians and then among a broader public thanks to his internationally syndicated radio programs.

Dobson was heard on more than 4,000 North American radio stations and his show was translated into 27 languages in more than 160 countries, according to the website of the institute.

His parenting precepts were further outlined in Dare to Discipline, a book first published in 1970, and its many sequels. Dobson ultimately wrote more than 70 books.

Gained political influence

As Dobson’s popularity with cultural conservatives grew, political leaders sought him out. In the 1980s Dobson regularly was invited to the White House to consult with President Ronald Reagan and his staff. In 1985, Dobson was appointed to Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography.

In 1983, Dobson and Bauer started the Family Research Council in Washington to advocate for pro-family policies.

Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse, who said Dobson died after a brief illness, hailed Dobson’s almost five decades of ministry.

“Dr. Dobson was a staunch defender of the family and stood for morality and Biblical values as much as any person in our country’s history,” Graham, a son of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote in a Facebook post. “His legacy and impact for Jesus Christ will continue on for generations.”

Dobson’s unflinching conservatism rankled some Republican leaders at the height of his influence. During the 1996 presidential campaign, for instance, Dobson warned that any attempt to water down the anti-abortion plank in the GOP platform would result in widespread defection from Republican ranks by evangelical voters. He also objected to suggestions that the party’s presidential nominee, Bob Dole, choose a running mate who backed abortion rights.

But Dobson’s mark on conservative thought and evangelical Christian politics continues to this day. In 1994, he was one of the co-founders—along with evangelical figures such as Bill Bright and D. James Kennedy—of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal organization now known as Alliance Defending Freedom.

The ADF at one point employed Mike Johnson, who has since become U.S. House speaker, and it was a key proponent of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wadein 2022.

“The world has lost a mighty voice for truth and an incredibly influential servant of Christ today,” said Kristen Waggoner, ADF CEO, president and chief counsel. “Dobson’s bold leadership and commitment to the gospel shaped the lives of so many and will continue to do so many years after his passing.”

Child rearing and political themes

A Shreveport, La., native, Dobson grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, the son of an evangelist and pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. After graduating from a Nazarene college in California, Dobson earned a doctorate in child development from the University of Southern California. He then joined the pediatric faculty of USC’s medical school, where he taught for 14 years.

Dobson left academia in 1976, and the next year he launched Focus on the Family, beginning from a two-room suite in Arcadia, Calif. As Dobson’s radio show and the organization swelled in popularity, he increasingly became a force among conservative opinion-makers.

Dobson eventually moved the organization to Colorado Springs, a conservative, largely Republican, city, where he built an international organization with a staff of more than 1,300 employees.

In addition to the radio show, the center attracted 200,000 visitors a year and opened an $8.5 million welcome center where films, videotapes and books espousing Dobson’s worldview could be purchased.

In addition to discussions of child rearing, conservative political themes quickly became a staple of the radio show.

Discussing the state of higher education, for instance, Dobson said on one episode, “State universities are breeding grounds, quite literally, for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, homosexual behavior, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, alcoholism and drug abuse.”

Yet, unlike prominent televangelists such as Pat Robertson, who ran unsuccessfully for president, and Jerry Falwell, a longtime conservative activist, Dobson initially focused on the power of persuasion and his listening audience, which at one time swelled to an estimated 200 million in 95 countries.

Unlike religious conservative activists such as Bauer, who would run for president as a Republican, and onetime Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, Dobson spoke less often to the secular media, an institution he blamed in part for what he deemed society’s moral decay.

“What is tragic and yet curious about the period between 1965 and 1975 is that the radical left had virtually no organized opposition. The media was entirely sympathetic towards its point of view,” said an authorized biography, Turning Hearts Toward Home, written by Focus on the Family official Rolf Zettersten.

Controversial view on spanking

But on his radio shows, Dobson easily switched from political topics to cultural and religious-based ones, always centering his concern on how Americans were raising their children.

“There is nothing more important to most Christian parents than the salvation of their children,” he once said. “Every other goal and achievement in life is anemic and insignificant compared to this transmission of faith to their offspring.”

Many of Dobson’s teachings about child rearing, on spanking in particular, were questioned at the time, and even younger evangelicals have pushed back on his thinking in recent decades.

“Dobson taught people, spank your kid, but sit them down and put them on your lap and hug them,” therapist Krispin Mayfield said in 2024 about Dobson. This combination of pain and affection, Mayfield told Religion News Service, can shape how children view parents and authority figures and can impact their view of God.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which countered Dobson’s statements and actions for decades, criticized his stance on spanking when he was appointed in the 1990s to a federal child welfare commission: “James Dobson deserves a ‘Time Out,’ not political favors.”

In reaction to his death, the foundation said in a posting on X: “James Dobson’s legacy isn’t ‘family values’—it’s intolerance. He blamed mass shootings on LGBTQ rights & abortion and reduced marriage to a sexist bargain. FFRF will keep fighting the Christian nationalism he championed.”

Left Focus on the Family in 2009

Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2009—some reports at the time said he was pushed out—and launched the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute and “Family Talk,” a new nationally syndicated radio broadcast.

“One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority,” Dobson said in a statement when his resignation was announced.

Dobson last recorded a broadcast in March and it aired in April, according to the public relations agency representing his family and the institute.

Dobson also turned his energy toward the imaginary, supporting an “Adventures in Odyssey” radio drama series with Focus on the Family and co-authoring the 2013 dystopian novel Fatherless, in which parents of more than two children are pejoratively dubbed “breeders,” reflecting the anti-family sentiments he sought to counter.

“In 1977 I founded what became a worldwide ministry dedicated to the preservation of the home,” he told RNS shortly after the novel was published.

“That effort placed me in one cultural skirmish after another, unwittingly confronting forces much darker than I knew. I don’t pretend to comprehend what occurs in the unseen realm. But I know that we all live in what C.S. Lewis called ‘enemy-occupied territory.’”

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley Dobson.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 7th paragraph was edited after the article first was posted to correct a date.

Kay Peterson Abney, retired teacher and pastor’s wife, died Aug. 14. She was 77. She was born April 20, 1948, in Lubbock to William Buford Peterson and Etta Margarette (Margie) Shelton Peterson. She attended South Plains College, where she received an associate degree and met her best friend and future husband, Harold Abney. After they married Dec. 28, 1968, the Abneys moved to Oceanside, Calif., where Harold was stationed in the U.S. Navy. She continued her education at Wayland Baptist University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree and teaching certification. She taught elementary school in Plainview, Frenship and Lockney before retiring in 2008 after 20 years. She is survived by her husband Harold; son Koby Daniel Abney and his wife Marla; daughter Kristen Mclendon and her husband Michael; six grandchildren; two bonus grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and her brother Morris Peterson. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts be made to the Singing Women of Texas, West Chapter.

Marion Roberta Donnell Stripling, former schoolteacher and partner in ministry, died Aug. 9 in Waco. She was 87. She was born Feb. 18, 1938, in Kermit to Robert and Marion Donnell. She spent her formative years in Midland, where she graduated from high school in 1956. In 1958, while attending Baylor University, she met Paul Stripling. They married in June 1960, just a few weeks after she received her degree in elementary education from Baylor. She taught in the Fort Worth public schools during the early years of their marriage. She and her husband served together throughout his pastorates in White Oak, Joshua, Ennis, Pasadena and Dallas. In 1982, the Striplings moved to Waco, where Paul served as the executive director of Waco Baptist Association for three decades. During this time, Roberta played a leading role in numerous associational ministries, including in the senior adult council and Woman’s Missionary Union.  She also enjoyed her work at Baylor University in numerous administrative support roles, including as a proofreader in the printing office. She often was the featured speaker at women’s conferences and retreats. She also wrote a cookbook, The Unaware Angel: A Ministry From Your Kitchen, featuring recipes within the context of Christian hospitality. She was preceded in death by her husband Paul and a sister, Billie Franklin. She is survived by daughter Paula Jewell and her husband, Kirk; daughter Mary Nelson and her husband, Alan; and four grandchildren. A celebration of life service will be held at 2 p.m. on Aug. 16 at Grace Gardens Funeral Home in Waco. Visitation with the family will be prior to the service beginning at 1 p.m. Memorial gifts may be made to the Roberta Stripling Endowed Scholarship at Dallas Baptist University.

Donald D. Schmeltekopf of Waco, provost emeritus at Baylor University, died July 30. He was 85. He was born Aug. 18, 1939, in Kyle to Emil and Ruth Schmeltekopf. He was a member of the NAIA national championship basketball team in 1960 at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University). He earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University in 1962, followed by a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Drew University. He also pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton University. Throughout his career, he served in various roles in higher education and as a program officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was vice president and dean at Mars Hill College in North Carolina before joining Baylor University in 1990. There, he served as vice provost and then provost until 2003. He was the director of the Center for Ministry Effectiveness from 2006 until 2014. He also was instrumental in affiliating Baylor as a member of The Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities (formerly the Lilly Fellows Program) at Christ College, Valparaiso University. He was named provost emeritus upon his retirement in 2015. He was instrumental in shaping Baylor’s academic landscape, including the founding of Truett Theological Seminary, the Institute for Faith and Learning, the School of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Honors College, including the addition of the Great Texts Program. He was honored with the Charles D. Johnson Outstanding Educator Award in 2016 for his contributions to Christian higher education. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Judy; their four children, William, Elizabeth, Andrew and Stephen; six grandchildren; and his older brother, Robert of San Angelo. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts to the Endowed Donald and Judy Schmeltekopf Ethics & Culture Lecture Series at the Baylor University Honors College or Christ Church Waco.