By Bob Allen
A memorial service is scheduled Dec. 13 in Baton Rouge, La., for Malcolm Tolbert, a former missionary to Brazil who taught at two Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and died Thanksgiving Day at age 90.
Tolbert, a native of Baton Rouge, graduated from Louisiana College before foregoing his ministerial deferment to enlist in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After his discharge he studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary before serving nine years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Brazil, where he was well known for his command of Portuguese and sermons delivered in idiomatic style.
He returned to New Orleans Seminary for doctoral studies and after graduating was elected to the faculty in 1961. Three years later he was transferred from the missions department to teach New Testament, Greek and theology, becoming one of the school’s most popular professors.
He left in 1977 to become pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., but returned to the classroom in 1979, teaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He retired in 1989, after attempts to mediate among faculty, staff and trustees estranged by the 1987 resignation of President Randall Lolley and several top administrators proved a failure. One of the administrators, Dean Morris Ashcraft, went on to become acting president of the newly launched Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
Tolbert continued his ministry in retirement, serving as interim pastor at more than 30 churches and writing several books. For a time he served as minister of biblical studies at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, which he joined as a member in 2003.
Tolbert’s writings included the section on Luke in the Luke-John volume of The Broadman Bible Commentary published by the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention) in 1970.
Tolbert was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Nell Sills Tolbert, who died in 2006. Survivors include four children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
The memorial service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, at Broadmoor Baptist Church, 9755 Goodwood Blvd., in Baton Rouge, La.