JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Dan Stringer, believed to be the only person to serve as chief executive of three Baptist conventions, died Oct. 2. He was 79.
Stringer, who served the Florida Baptist Convention, Arizona Southern Baptist Convention and Northwest Baptist Convention, was diagnosed with cancer two weeks prior to his death. Doctors had found cancer in Stringer's liver, lungs, lymph nodes, pancreas and kidneys.
During his most notable tenure, with Florida Baptists from 1979 to 1989, Stringer led them to become the first Baptist state convention to send 50 percent of undesignated receipts to Southern Baptists' centralized budget, the Cooperative Program. The Florida convention lowered the percentage after four years.
Stringer took early retirement at age 61 and moved to Phoenix, where he soon was asked to became the executive director-treasurer of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention.
Stringer had first served in the Arizona convention in a variety of roles from 1966 to 1971. He then worked from 1971 to 1979 at the Northwest Baptist Convention in Portland, Ore., which serves Washington and Oregon.
After his latest term of service at the Arizona convention, Stringer retired in 1995. He was elected to the voluntary board of directors of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona in 1998, just months before the board learned the Foundation was being forced into bankruptcy because of questionable investing and excessive liabilities. Several Foundation executives were later convicted on criminal charges. Stringer helped resolve the subsequent legal dispute and recover some of the investors' funds.
A native of Cordell, Okla., Stringer graduated from Baylor University in 1952 and earned a degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1957. During the ensuing 12 years, he served as pastor of churches in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Funeral services will be Oct. 6 at the First Baptist Church of Sun City, Ariz. Stringer is survived by his wife of 59 years, Harriett, and a son, Kirk. A daughter, Sheridan Kaye Stringer Cox, preceded her father in death.
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