By Bob Allen
Malcolm Tolbert, a former missionary to Brazil who taught at two Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, died Thanksgiving Day at age 90.
James “Tripp” Battle III, lead pastor of Bayshore Baptist Church in Bradenton, Fla., died Dec. 4 in a triple homicide that also took the life of the congregation’s children’s minister and a neighbor. Amber Avalos’ husband faces first-degree murder charges.
David Landrith, pastor at the largest Southern Baptist church in Tennessee, died Nov. 18 after a nearly two-year battle with cancer.
Bill Scott, 68, interim pastor at Charity Baptist Church of Gray’s Creek, N.C., and his wife, Charlotte Scott, 64, died Aug. 20 in an apparent murder/suicide.
Braxton Paige Caner, 15, son of Brewton-Parker College President Ergun Caner, died July 30 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Anne T. Neil, a former Baptist missionary whose advocacy for women ministers led to her own ordination to the ministry at age 80, died June 8 in Raleigh, N.C. She was 94.
The May murders of Russell Dermond, 88, and his wife, Shirley Dermond, 87, members of Oconee Community Church, at their home inside a Georgia gated community remain unsolved.
Glen Stassen, 78, an evangelical peace activist who taught Christian ethics for more than 50 years, died April 26 in Pasadena, Calif., months after being diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer.
Willene Pierce, 71, a former leader in Woman’s Missionary Union and the Baptist World Alliance before launching a full-time ministry with Native American women in Oklahoma, died March 18.
Fred Phelps, 84, founding pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., died in March leaving behind a legacy of hate. Media later reported shortly before his death he was excommunicated from the church comprised mostly of members of his extended family. A grandson said his attitudes about homosexuality were softening.
Tom Cleary, one of the first field personnel appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died March 19 in Tampa, Fla., after emergency surgery for a ruptured aneurysm the day before.
Olivia Greenlee, 21, a student at Union University, was found dead Feb. 11 from a gunshot wound in a car parked on the edge of campus. Her fiancée, Charles Pittman, also a student, was charged with her murder and faces trial in 2015.
Bryant Hicks, who taught missions and world religions at Southern Seminary for more than 40 years, died Jan. 12 at age 88.