Don Bennett served as Baptist Campus Minister at the University of Alabama from 1981 to 1990. He was also the husband of Mary Sue, who for 16 years served as special assistant to Rick Lance, SBOM executive director.
James Edward Gibson Jr., who served in ministry in Alabama for nearly 20 years, died Jan. 31. He served at Bethel Baptist Church in Robertsdale from 1990 to 2005 and as senior adult minister for FBC Birmingham from 2005 to 2009.
William Thomas “Tom” Espy, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in the United Kingdom, died Dec. 13, 2024, in Canton, Georgia.
Jim Shaddix was a senior professor of preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and served as pastor of teaching/training at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham from 2012 to 2015.
David Earl Tinsley Sr., who served at First Baptist Church Headland, First Baptist Church Slocomb and Bellwood Baptist Church, died Jan. 12.
Emmett Roper, a longtime Alabama Baptist evangelist, died Jan. 11. He was 88. Roper, who called himself “a country preacher,” served in ministry for more than 60 years as a pastor, bivocational pastor, evangelist and author.
James Sampley served as pastor of FBC Ashville from 1996 to 2013 and of James Memorial Baptist Church in Gadsden from 1981 to 1987. He also served as pastor of Faith Baptist Church in West Blocton while he was a student at Samford.
Sid Nichols, retired Alabama Baptist pastor and director of missions, died today (Dec. 28). He served 30 years as a pastor then 15 as director of missions for Calhoun Baptist Association before retiring from full-time ministry in 2016.
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