What is tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air from one person to another. The bacteria are released into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings. People in close proximity may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.

However, not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. People who are infected but not sick have what is called latent TB infection. Those with latent TB infection typically do not experience any symptoms and cannot spread the disease to others. But without treatment, some people with latent TB infection may progress to active TB disease.

The good news is that TB disease can be treated with appropriate medical care.

For more information, visit the.

What is Ģ����ý doing in response to the case of TB on campus?

Ģ����ý is working closely with the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District and following infectious disease protocols to identify any campus community member who may be at risk for TB infection.

• Privacy: Due to health and education privacy laws, we cannot reveal the identity of the individual who tested positive for active TB disease.
• Contact Tracing: Public health officials will work with Ģ����ý to identify and notify any close contacts who may need to be screened.
• Testing: Once identified, individuals may receive TB skin tests through Ģ����ý’s Medical and Counseling Care Center.

Can a person have TB without feeling sick?

Yes. Not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. Two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection and active TB disease.

People with latent TB infection cannot spread TB bacteria to others, have no symptoms and do not feel sick. They will usually have a positive TB skin test reaction or positive TB blood test and may develop TB disease if they do not receive treatment for latent TB infection.

When TB bacteria are active, this is called active TB disease. People with active TB disease may spread TB bacteria to others, usually feel sick and need medication to treat the disease.

I think I was exposed to tuberculosis. What should I do?

The risk to the general campus population is low.

• If you are identified as a close contact – someone who has spent prolonged time in the same enclosed space with a person who is infected – an Ģ����ý representative will contact you directly.
• If you want to be tested independently, contact your medical provider, the Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District, or the Ģ����ý Medical and Counseling Care Center.
• If you have symptoms (cough lasting longer than three weeks, coughing up blood, chest pain, fever, night sweats or unexplained weight loss), call your health care provider or the Ģ����ý MACCC before visiting, so staff can take precautions to protect others.

For questions about TB exposure, contact the Abilene Taylor County Public Health District TB Program at 325-692-5600.

If I need to be screened or tested, how will I be notified?

Public health officials will work with Ģ����ý to determine which persons are considered close contacts and need testing. Testing is available at no charge.��

An Ģ����ý representative will contact individuals by:

• Phone call
• Ģ����ý email
• U.S. mail (if necessary)

Notification will include specific instructions for screening and follow-up.

Do exposed persons need to quarantine?

No. Latent TB infection (without symptoms) cannot be spread to others, so isolation is not required.

Only individuals with active pulmonary TB disease are infectious. They will be placed under medical care and isolation until cleared by the local health department.��

If directed by the local health department, exposed individuals may continue attending classes and following their normal work schedule unless they develop symptoms.

What if I cannot attend the scheduled campus testing window?

Students who cannot attend on-campus screening sessions will be provided with instructions from the local health department or the Ģ����ý Medical and Counseling Care Center about where and how to get tested. Please contact the Ģ����ý MACCC at 325-674-2625 or the health district at 325-692-5600 for guidance.

Key Reminder: If you are not contacted by the local health department or by the Ģ����ý MACCC, you do not need to be tested at this time.

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Frederick is currently an affiliate faculty member at Lipscomb University and director of the ENGAGE Youth Theology Initiative. She will begin her new role at Ģ����ý on Aug. 1. Beck will continue his role as professor of psychology at Ģ����ý in addition to serving as Senior Fellow at the Saunders Center, effective immediately.��

The Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing aims to promote research, education and community engagement focused on fostering well-being and thriving across various domains of life. The center is named in honor of the late Dr. Landon Saunders (D.H.L. ’23), a renowned speaker, mentor and advocate for human potential and spiritual growth. The Saunders Center will officially launch on July 26, Saunders’ birthday, with a campus-wide ice cream party where Landon’s beloved Ben and Jerry’s Vermont Ice Cream will be served.

Frederick holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, a Master of Divinity from Lipscomb University and a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. At Lipscomb, she has taught in the College of Bible and Ministry and led the ENGAGE Youth Theology Initiative for seven years. This Lilly Endowment-funded initiative seeks to develop cultural competencies, compassion and empathy among youth through shared narratives, conflict transformation skills, active listening and constructive dialogue, particularly around racial justice and reconciliation. Prior to her work at Lipscomb University, Frederick was a minister at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville and an accomplished singer/songwriter in the country music industry.

“Landon Saunders understood the importance of seeing people the way Jesus saw them – as inherently valuable individuals, created and loved by God,” Frederick said. “His message of belonging, connection, welcome and joy transcends labels and categories human beings often place on one another; it resonates with both religious and non-religious people and is desperately needed in today’s world.”

In addition to serving as a faculty member in Ģ����ý’s Department of Psychology, Beck teaches in the Doctor of Ministry programs at Fuller Theological Seminary and Ģ����ý. HIs most recent, soon-to-be-released book is The Shape of Joy: The Transformative Power of Moving Beyond Yourself. Beck’s other books include Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age,�� Trains, Jesus and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash, Stranger God: Meeting Jesus in Disguise, Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality and Mortality, The Slavery of Death, The Authenticity of Faith: The Varieties and Illusions of Religious Experience, and Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted.

“As I survey our mental health crisis and the political polarization of our nation, a conversation about joy is a pressing and urgent need,” Beck said. “I am thrilled to partner with Dr. Frederick and the center to share, especially with our Ģ����ý students, Landon’s vision about the centrality of joy for a full, rich and deeply meaningful life.”

In their new roles, Frederick and Beck will collaborate to shape the vision and strategic direction of the center, foster interdisciplinary research and teaching, and engage with students and community partners to promote human flourishing in Abilene and beyond.

“We are thrilled to have these two accomplished and thoughtful leaders in place with the Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing,” said Dr. Phil Schubert, president of Ģ����ý. “Their combined expertise and passion for exploring the factors that contribute to human thriving make them an exceptional team to lead this exciting new endeavor for the Ģ����ý community and beyond.”

The Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing has a range of initiatives and programs planned for the upcoming academic year.

— Wendy Kilmer

June 14, 2024

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Church historian

A Celebration of Life will take place at 10:30 a.m. March 25, 2024, at the Chapel.

He was born Sept. 18, 1926, in Springfield, Missouri, and attended Freed-Hardeman University before earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Ģ����ý, a master’s degree in history from the University of Colorado (1949) and a Ph.D. in religion from the University of Iowa (1964). He wed Ģ����ý classmate Geraldine “Jerry” Carrington (’48) on Aug. 24, 1948.��

Humble was a preaching minister for congregations in St. Petersburg, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Abilene. Before joining the faculty at Ģ����ý, he taught Bible and church history at Florida Christian College and served as a visiting professor of history at the University of Tampa.

He taught at Abilene Christian from 1964-95, retiring as professor emeritus of Bible. He was founding director of Ģ����ý’s Center for Restoration Studies and also was a veteran administrator who served as academic dean/vice president for academic affairs (1969-76), chair of the Bible department (1979-84) and chair of the Department of Graduate Bible and Ministry (1988-90). He was highly involved in beginning the university’s first doctoral degree program, the Doctor of Ministry.

Humble is best known as an energetic historian of the American Restoration Movement. His writings and research, combined with documentary and travelog films he produced, gave fresh insights on church history to generations of Christians.��

Videos he narrated and produced with former Ģ����ý faculty member and videographer Dr. Dutch Hoggatt (’77) were Our Restoration Heritage (1986); Light From Above: The Life of Alexander Campbell (1988); The Bible Land: Walking Where Jesus Walked (1988); Archaeology and the Bible (1990); Like Fire In Dry Stubble: The Life of Barton W. Stone (1992) and The Seven Churches of Asia (1995).��

Humble also authored books including Campbell and Controversy: The Story of Alexander Campbell’s Great Debates With Skepticism, Catholicism and Presbyterianism (1952, 1986); The Story of the Restoration (1960, 2021); Like Fire in Dry Stubble: The Life of Barton W. Stone (1991); and The Seven Churches of Asia (2002, co-written with 1968 Ģ����ý alumnus and former College of Biblical Studies dean Dr. Ian Fair).��

Hoggatt and Humble also teamed on Challenges: The Restoration Movement In Texas (1985), Ģ����ý’s video contribution to the Texas Sesquicentennial. The duo received the Christian Media Award from The Christian Chronicle in 1997.

“Thanks to Bill and others who had his vision, we have the largest archives of Churches of Christ in the world, and one of Ģ����ý’s centers of excellence,” said Dr. James Wiser, dean of library services and educational technology. “None of that would have been the case had he not seen the need to preserve history for others to study and appreciate.”��

Humble teamed with R.L. Roberts (’47), assistant professor emeritus of library science, in growing the center in its early years. One of his early significant additions to the center was an historic wooden pulpit used in Ireland by Thomas Campbell, the father of Alexander Campbell, before their family emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1800s. The Campbells were patriarchs of the American Restoration Movement.

Dr. Carisse Berryhill, Brown Library’s special assistant to the dean for strategic initiatives, said Humble’s passion was to help the church connect with its roots. “By establishing the Center for Restoration Studies in partnership with our library, he collected, exhibited and interpreted historical sources,” she said. “The center’s development as a repository makes it possible for church members, students and researchers to explore our story. His enthusiasm for helping church people appreciate our shared history shed light from the past on the present.”��

Humble was among Ģ����ý’s first professors to lead study abroad trips with students, including archaeological excavation work with students at Caesarea Philippi and extensive touring of other historical sites such as Capernaum, Hazor, Dan, Megiddo, Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

“He and his wife, Jerry, were ideal tour hosts, always engaging in lively conversation with the guests and making the biblical people and places seem to come to life again,” said Dr. Royce Money (’64), Ģ����ý president emeritus. “Personally, Bill was influential in my pursuing further graduate work in American church history.”

His Holy Lands tours in the 1980s and ’90s grew his love for archeology and he became an avid collector of antiquities, leading to the donation in 1991 of the Bill and Jerry Humble Collection of Ancient Oil Lamps. They are displayed in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building’s Hall of Servants, where the exhibit features lamps from 2000 B.C. to 700 A.D., and pieces of Roman glass.��

Humble received the annual Christian Educator of the Year award in 1988 from 20th Century Christian and Power for Today, and was the Ģ����ý College of Biblical Studies’ Teacher of the Year in 1989.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Boyd and Cora Humble; Jerry, his wife of 64 years; a son, Eric Humble (’72); and a cousin, professor emeritus of education Dr. Orval Filbeck. Among survivors are his daughter, Rebecca (Humble ’74) Liles and husband Ted; daughter-in-law Jan Humble; four grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

— Ron Hadfield
�� ��March 22, 2024

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Beloved evangelist Dr. Landon Brady Saunders (’23 L.H.D.) of Norwich, Vermont, the namesake of a new academic center at Ģ����ý, died Nov. 14, 2023, at age 86. A Celebration of Life is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2024, at in Dallas.��

He was born July 26, 1937, in Charleston, West Virginia, and earned degrees from Freed-Hardeman University and Harding University (1959), and attended Harding School of Theology (1961-63). He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Thomas Saunders and Beulah Gladys Null Saunders; a sister, Roberta Meek; and brothers Ross Saunders and John Robert Saunders. Among survivors are several nieces and nephews, and thousands of friends from around the world, all of whom are proud FOLs (Friends of Landon).��

A primary speaker for the international Herald of Truth ministry – along with Dr. Batsell Barrett Baxter (’37), Harold Hazelip and Joe Barnett – he was traveling in India in 1970 when invited by Herald of Truth CEO Clois Fowler to create “a daily radio program for those outside religious walls.” He said that invitation “connected with something very deep within me. It connected to the vision that I most wanted: to say something to the world.”��

In 1971 Saunders began serving as president of Heartbeat Inc. and for many years, hosted its popular “Heartbeat” short-form program heard by millions worldwide on the NBC, CBS and Armed Forces radio networks. Its headquarters were later relocated to Houston, Texas, and then to New York City.

Prior to launching Heartbeat, Saunders served as a minister for Churches of Christ in Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. In Abilene, he preached at Minter Lane Church of Christ.

Saunders was a frequent speaker at churches and universities nationwide, including 10 times at Ģ����ý’s annual Summit (formerly Bible Lectureship), . In his opening keynote lecture that year, “From Memory to Hope,” Saunders recounted his growing-up years in Appalachian poverty, and of being inspired to preach the Gospel by hearing it taught by evangelists and missionaries, and seeing it lived by everyday Christians who aspired to love God and love their neighbors as themselves.��

“The Bible read in your life and mine is the only Bible that millions will ever read in this world,” Saunders said, imploring listeners to be more focused on showing love, justice and mercy than on judging others.����

“That was the mission that was burning in my heart when I arrived here in Abilene all those years ago,” he recalled. “I was on fire with it, that vision that had been kept alive through all those centuries and that had been embodied in the person, work and message of Jesus Christ. This was the vision that no failure could defeat. It was a light in the world that would never go out. It was a fire that could never be extinguished.”����

Saunders received Harding’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981, Ģ����ý’s Excellence in Mass Media Ministry award in 1977 and an honorary doctorate from Abilene Christian in 2023. He also has served on the board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and as a Fellow of the Caris Life Sciences Foundation.

In 2022, Saunders’ personal papers and Heartbeat’s corporate records were donated to Ģ����ý’s Brown Library. The Landon Saunders Collection in the Center for Restoration Studies consists of speech transcripts, sermon notes, photographs, books, training materials, personal correspondence, organizational records and other audiovisual content created by Saunders and colleagues over more than 50 years of ministry.

In 2023, Brown Library named him its Friend of the Year, and Ģ����ý announced a $4.5 million campaign to establish the Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing, an academic center dedicated to preserving his legacy and forwarding his vision to develop generations who will learn how best to live as human beings.

“Landon will be remembered for his decades of ministry through Heartbeat, touching millions of lives around the world. He leaves behind a legacy of joy, faith, service and compassion,” said Ģ����ý president Dr. Phil Schubert.��

Insightful video interviews with Saunders are archived on the Brown Library website, where are available as well.

Saunders penned one of his last lessons in “A Journey of Joy,” :

“I am 86 years old, have stage 4 cancer, am near the end of my journey – yet, my joy is expanding!

More than 50 years ago I lived in Abilene during the initial launch of Heartbeat, which became my life’s work. My aim was to take a message of love, joy and hope to those who felt disconnected from organized religion.

During my time in Abilene, I taught a class on Wednesday nights that drew more than 1,500 students each evening – one of the great joys of my life. Their bold and questing spirits thrilled me. Conversations with them greatly influenced me and the work I was creating.

That’s why I’m so thrilled, all these years later, with the establishment of the Landon Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing at Ģ����ý. I still feel that connection with students! The center will welcome every student regardless of differences and will invite the creativity and participation of all.��

The center will be situated in a busy and easily accessible main floor wing of Brown Library. One floor beneath the center, the Heartbeat archives is being assembled and will provide an invaluable resource for the center.������

The archives contain a record of Heartbeat’s work from the beginning. It is a diary of my direct engagement in teaching and listening to thousands across this nation and many others. It is a glimpse into the experience of the hunger for love, belonging and hope, of the lonely tears, and the sometimes nearly silent cries of human hearts. And it provides a helpful resource for responding to
those needs.

Joy is a theme that runs through it all. I have come to believe that joy is the surest sign of the presence of love, that it makes our love less fragile, less fragmented, in addition to making us a whole lot more fun to be with!

We all yearn for love. Love is the essence of “human flourishing,” yet what we sometimes call love is so often fragile and fragmented. We see that fragility and fragmentation in marriages, in families, and in our neighborhoods and churches.

There is also an important connection between joy and human flourishing. Joy is love’s great ally! Joy holds no condemnation, judgment or fragility. Joy provides the atmosphere in which love grows, stays healthy and endures. Joy surrounds love, paves the way to love, evens out the bumps along the way of love. Joy steps in when love is strained; it keeps us balanced when anticipated love comes up short. In the presence of that joy, love is at its best.

I have made joy the default setting of my heart. No matter what happens, no matter my failure, no matter my loss, no matter my sadness, no matter the disease that now weakens my body, my heart returns to joy. Joy has room for all our disappointments, grief, tragedies, depression and fears.��

From these direct experiences came the realization of the need to give joy a major emphasis, first in my own life, then in my messages to others – both to those outside the walls of religion and to those inside those walls.

Jesus spoke of giving us a joy that the world could not take away. Poet June Jordan wrote: “Maybe the purpose of being here, wherever we are, is to increase the durability and occasions of love among and between people.”����

I believe achieving this purpose is the great challenge of every generation, a challenge especially true today.��

I believe this purpose is a part of the dream and mission of Ģ����ý. And I believe this new center can contribute to that mission. And to that end I hope that this emphasis on joy and love will be deeply embedded in the heart of every student, that increasing the occasions of joy and love will be their mission as they make their ways into every part of this nation and world, that they will be the leavening power this world so deeply needs.������

It brings me great joy – to think of the young, bold, questing spirits of new generations.��

I picture them increasing the durability and occasions of love and joy all along the ever-changing and challenging new frontiers that lie ahead.”

– Ron Hadfield and James Wiser

Nov. 15, 2023

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The Gayle and Max Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center (SERC) – home of Ģ����ý’s Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Laboratory and the future home of one of the first advanced reactors in the United States – opened on Friday with more than 300 people on hand to celebrate the occasion and tour the facility, including donors, government officials, and scientists from Ģ����ý and other research institutions.

“The Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center is a building unlike any other at Ģ����ý or on the campus of most universities across the nation,” said Dr. Phil Schubert (’91), Ģ����ý president, at the opening of the facility. “This 28,000-square-foot facility will allow students, especially undergraduates, to contribute to world-class research and groundbreaking technology in ways not available at most other universities. It also will bring scientists from other organizations and universities to Abilene to collaborate with our scientists and students in this unique space.”

The $23 million, 28,000-square-foot facility features a 6,000-square-foot research bay with a 25-foot-deep by 80-foot-long shielded trench and a 40-ton crane, as well as a training control room, conference room, office spaces, machine shop, and a series of specialized labs for radiochemistry, molten salt systems and instrumentation. A public foyer highlights the research within the facility.

The SERC houses Ģ����ý’s Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing (NEXT) Lab, which has joined with Abilene-based Natura Resources to design, license and commission a molten salt-fueled research reactor. To support these efforts, Natura established the Natura Resources Research Alliance, which consists of Ģ����ý, Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and The University of Texas at Austin, supported by $30.5 million in sponsored research agreements. A construction permit application is under review with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Currently, NEXT Lab employs more than 75 people, including 45 undergraduate students.

“The success of your reactor will spark the imagination and provide inspiration to the world. The path you’ve chosen requires skill and dedication as the Ģ����ý research reactor is only the next step, not the end goal,” said Dr. David Holcomb, molten salt reactor technology leader at Idaho National Laboratory. “Ģ����ý has picked up the gauntlet in the creation of this science and engineering research center. Members of the Natura Resources Research Alliance have the responsibility and privilege of training the next generation of leaders.”

The new facility is made possible by the generosity of Gayle (Jenkins ’57) and Max Dillard. Max is a first-generation college student and second-generation oil man from Lueders, Texas. They went on to found D.I. Industries, which grew to become one of the largest publicly traded drilling companies in the United States, pioneering many engineering breakthroughs in drilling methods and advancement since 1978. Max currently serves as managing director of The Dillard Group of Texas LTD.

This career allowed the Dillards opportunities to support others in research and scientific advancement, including supporting Gayle’s alma mater, where lifetime friendships were made. They provide engineering scholarships at Ģ����ý and also are the namesakes of Dillard Hall, the three-story venue a block west of campus housing about 170 students and providing living space for sophomore women at the university.

Max and Gayle’s three daughters – Denise (Dillard ’81) LaPosta, Pam (Dillard ’82) Minter and Julia (Dillard ’85) Hayashi – are Ģ����ý alumni, and three grandchildren have also attended Abilene Christian.

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Moody Coliseum was nearly new in 1971 and half the buildings on today’s Ģ����ý campus had not been built when Dr. John Thomas Willis (’55) returned to his native Abilene, Texas, with his wife and four school-aged children.��

He brought 15 years experience on the faculty at Lipscomb University and a scholarly vitae including publications in professional journals of international standing. Three years later he was honored with the Trustees Award as Abilene Christian’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year, an honor he repeated 32 years later during his alma mater’s Centennial.

Willis – Ģ����ý’s Burton Coffman Chair for Biblical Studies and professor emeritus of Bible, Missions and Ministry – died Aug. 21, 2023, in Abilene, Texas, at age 89. Arrangements are pending.

Born Nov. 21, 1933, in Abilene, he grew up there, graduated from Abilene High School and enrolled in Ģ����ý, earning a bachelor’s degree in Greek in 1955 and a master’s in Old Testament in 1956, just months after marrying Evelyn Forrest (’56) and shortly before moving to Nashville to join the faculty at Lipscomb.

Baptized at Abilene’s Highland Church of Christ in 1946, he would later serve there as an elder for nearly five decades. Dr. David Wray (’67), faculty emeritus in the College of Biblical Studies and former director of Ģ����ý’s Summit, served with him 37 of those years.��

“He was one of the most remarkable elders I have ever been around. While he was a scholar, he also provided a great blend of pastoral care with theological practices and reflections,” said Wray, who also expressed amazement at the hospitality of John and Evelyn, who hosted countless meals in the Willis home and local restaurants through the years and had a special interest in making international students feel loved and at home.

Willis’ prodigious scholarly agenda never kept him from energetic service to the congregations where he preached.��

While still an undergraduate student, he preached four years at Truby (Texas) Church of Christ, 21 miles northeast of Abilene. Upon moving to Nashville he preached four years at Maple Hill in Lebanon, Tennessee, and five more at Pennsylvania Avenue in Nashville.

While in Nashville he began doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University, completing his Ph.D. and dissertation on the Old Testament book of Micah in 1966. Then in 1971 the family returned to Abilene, where Willis became the professor undergraduates loved for the cookies he handed out in class, and graduate students feared for his detailed critiques of their papers.

“It was different as a grad student because he sort of bled all over your papers,” said Dr. Ken Cukrowski (’84), associate professor of New Testament and dean of the College of Biblical Studies. “He was meticulous. He went over every line of your paper. He invested a lot of time. Just indefatigable.”

Perhaps no man of such slight stature ever had such a giant impact on students and colleagues.

Willis was the teacher who for decades knew every student’s name in huge sophomore-level Old Testament classes and remembered their birthdays. In the 1970s, students stood in long lines in Moody Coliseum during registration for classes to gain the coveted data punch cards that reserved their seats in Genesis through Esther or Job through Malachi, or as Willis liked to say it, “Gen-EEE-sis through Esther, and Job through Ma-LAH-chee.”

If they came for the cookies he passed out at the beginning of every class, they stayed for the wisdom and wit. And for years he and Evelyn filled their home on Campus Court every Sunday night with students, serving spaghetti or some other student-loved but low-cost meal.��

Nearby, the couple was a fixture at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store on Highway 351, where a framed photo of them sits on the fireplace mantel in tribute to the untold number of meals they hosted for students and other friends. Jason’s Deli, just down the street, was another favorite Willis mealtime venue to share with their mentees of all ages.��

When he transitioned in 2015 to senior scholar with a half-time course load, John’s only question to Cukrowski was, “Will I still be able to teach students and have an office up here where I can see the students?” He did.

It was always about the students.

Of his 61 years in the classroom, 46 were devoted to Ģ����ý. Only one other Bible professor, the late Dr. Neil Lightfoot, taught more years on the Hill than Willis (47, from 1958-2005).��

By the time he retired in 2017, Willis had given away somewhere between a half million and a million cookies to Wildcat students. A conservative estimate of 200 students per year would seat more than 16,000 in his classrooms – whether the old Roberson Chapel in the Hardin Administration Building or one of the lecture halls in Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building. Even those who never took one of his classes knew the diminutive man with the twinkle in his eye and slow, thoughtful way of speaking.��

Often unknown by those sophomores was the depth and duration of Willis’ scholarship. He wrote approximately 30 books and 100 scholarly articles in Old Testament studies and was associate editor of Old Testament Abstracts for many years. He remained an active scholar even as he entered retirement.

He was a prolific author of books, including Lord, Teach Us to Pray: A Study of Prayer in the Bible (2023), Images of Water in Isaiah (2017); Yahweh and Moses in Conflict: The Role of Exodus 4:24-26 in the Book of Exodus (2010); Message of the Old Testament (1989); The World and Literature of the Old Testament (1984); and The Old Testament Literature: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (1982).��

In the mid-1980s, Willis authored three volumes of The Living Word Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, Isaiah, and I and II Samuel. Volumes he authored in The Way of Life Series include My Servants the Prophets (1984), The Old Testament Wisdom Literature (1982), The Message of Old Testament History (1977), and Insights From the Psalms (1974).

In 1999, former students and colleagues authored Worship and the Hebrew Bible: Essays in Honor of John T. Willis. Dr. Mark Hamilton (’90 M.Div.), professor of Old Testament, and Willis’ son, Dr. Tim Willis (’81), professor of religion at Pepperdine University, edited Instruction Shall Go Forth: Studies in Micah and Isaiah, a collection of John’s articles in 2014.

Beginning with his dissertation on Micah, Willis helped pioneer a major shift in the field of Old Testament studies. “He continued to participate in the long-running seminar on the book of Isaiah held at the annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting,” Hamilton said. “There he was, I assure you, a luminary, one of the sages of old, yes, but also one who continued to write and present.”

Cukrowski credits Willis among legendary Bible professors who put Ģ����ý on the theological map.

“Drs. Willis, Abe Malherbe (’54) and Everett Ferguson Jr. (’53) were kind of pioneers – Dr. LeMoine Lewis (’36) got it started. We have more than 200 folks who have graduated from this college who went on for doctorates – more than any other program on campus. That began with that crew,” Cukrowski said.

Yet Willis never expected special treatment, never complained about course load, never angled to get the best classes.��

“He loved teaching and loved students so it didn’t really matter for him whether it was undergrad or grad,” Cukrowski said. When Abilene Christian launched its University 100 program for first-year students, Willis was the first faculty member to be named University Seminar Teacher of the Year.

Willis twice delivered the address to students at Ģ����ý’s Commencement, in August 1979 and May 2009, and he and Evelyn were voted co-marshals of the Homecoming Parade in 1998 and 2017.

When given the opportunity to make a final Chapel talk, the international Old Testament scholar just stuck with the theme for the semester – spiritual disciplines – and chose the discipline of listening.

“I mean, to pay attention to the words of God and the words of Christ,” Willis told the audience. “Hearing, listening, giving heed, yielding to advice, is a fundamental Christ-led discipline. … If we would just be willing to listen to what Jesus said, Jesus can change our hearts. While we thoughtlessly set our minds on things on earth, Jesus guides us to set our minds on things that are above.”

Memorials may be made to the (Gift Records, Ģ����ý Box 29132, Abilene, Texas 79699-9132).

– Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon

Aug. 22, 2023

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