Heritage Column for May 4, 2005
By Fred Anderson
There is a pretty brick house tucked away on a side residential street in a Petersburg suburb. There are signs of life everywhere-in the flower garden so lovingly tended, in the song birds which visit, in the pictures of children which cover the refrigerator, in the couple which reside in this house of educators. It is the home of Lucy and Bart Dorr, who are widely known as religious educators.
For nearly 60 years, Bartlett P. Dorr has been an educator. For years he struggled with his sense of calling, finally deciding upon public education during his tour of duty in the Pacific in the Second World War.
A genuine child of the District of Columbia and reared in the First Baptist Church of Mt. Rainier, Md., Bart Dorr earned all the higher education required for teaching, but he kept considering a different direction. For six months in 1952 he was mission pastor at Weems Creek Baptist Church near Annapolis. It was while there that he met a young home missionary from South Carolina, Lucy Richey. She was conducting Vacation Bible Schools and home visitations with the churches. Some of the Bible school sites later developed into churches.
The Home Mission Board forbade missionaries from dating, but the mission pastor had to be courteous and escort the missionary from place to place. During the Fourth of July, the Washington native took the young woman for a tour of his hometown. They are still on a grand tour which began with their marriage in June 1953. Their partnership developed into six children and 14 grandchildren. And it became a partnership in their life interest in education.
The newlyweds enjoyed Southern Seminary and Louisville, where Bart studied under the some of the legends in the field of religious education. Lucy took classes in the seminary's school of church music. In 1955 their first child was born and, the following year, Bart earned his master's degree. He held positions of minister of education at Baptist churches in Missouri and Florida; and one day while living in Jacksonville, the phone rang and it was Buddy Hamilton, a prominent layman of First Baptist Church in Richmond, Va.
Lucy wanted to know what the Virginian wanted and Bart simply said that it was to lead a workshop. When it became evident that more than a workshop was at stake, Lucy exclaimed: “You mean the First Baptist, the Theodore Adams' First Baptist Church?”
“They put us up in the William Byrd Hotel and they called us into the church parlor and surrounded us with about 25 people to ask questions and it was like we were on the hot seat!”
They survived the interrogation and Bart Dorr, at age 42, was called to “the church on the Eastern Seaboard.” It was a time when few churches had a full-time professional minister of education; and Bart Dorr was considered “a top-notch educator” who could lead the 4,200-member church's huge Sunday school and educational program. From 1962-71, Dorr served the Richmond church. In 1971 he resigned but requested ordination prior to his departure.
There were three other churches in Bart's future: First, Waynesville, N.C.; First, Petersburg, Va.; and Bayside, Virginia Beach, Va. And in 1990 there was a Dorr once again on the staff of the First Church, Richmond. This time around it was Lucy, who had come onto to the staff as minister to preschoolers. She had an impressive track record as “the unpaid children's minister wherever Bart was the minister of education.” When the couple first came to Richmond in '62, the church already had a full-time children's minister, Ruth Rainwater, so Lucy taught adults in Sunday school.
By the time of the second tour of duty at the church, Lucy had more experience: minister of music at the Petersburg church; a “multi-tasking” job at Bayside, which included pre-school; and children's work at Woodlawn Church in Hopewell. The Richmond church benefited from Lucy's experience as she helped in the remodeling of the preschool space.
She “retired” from First in September 1995 after five years of service; and before she could catch her breath, in October, she agreed to work part-time at Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond until the church could find a full-time minister of music. At age 76, in June 2006, she continues to make the 64-mile round trip every day to serve Bon Air as its associate pastor for children's ministry. She was ordained to the ministry in 1999. When Pastor Travis Collins arrived in 2002, Lucy politely tendered her resignation; but he objected: “No! When the committee interviewed me, they said that ‘the energizer bunny' stays!” He also added his own appreciation of the children's minister.
Lucy Richey Dorr is a champion of religious education for young children. And you know why? As a child in Greenwood, S.C., a playmate's mother invited the little girl to join them at Bible school. Lucy discovered the Lord and the pastor visited her home so that she could tell her parents. From that Bible school experience, her parents and her brothers and sisters entered the Kingdom. Lucy Dorr says: “ ‘And a little child shall lead them.' It's why I am so committed to Vacation Bible School and put everything I have into it because that's how I came to know the Lord.”
Fred Anderson may be contacted at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.