Donald Jordan Dunlap retired from his last pastorate, Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, in 1999; and four years later, in 2003, Don and Kay Dunlap left Tidewater to return to his native Christiansburg. Don and his brother, the late Lilburn Dunlap Jr., purchased the house on Main Street which their father had built in 1925 and in which the brothers and their sisters had grown up. It was a nostalgic homecoming to a house as well as to a hometown after a half-century's absence.
Fred Anderson
Don Dunlap had a lot of memories to unpack in Christiansburg. The first time he had ever left the Southwest Virginia town was for a brief excursion to Tidewater. He was 12 years old at the time and his Sunday school teacher, a salesman by trade, took him on one of his business trips to the military bases around Norfolk. “It was my first time to see the Atlantic Ocean,” Dunlap once recalled, “and I can never forget that thrilling moment. It was my first time to see battleships and aircraft carriers. One afternoon we returned to the motel to dress for dinner. In the kiosk was the afternoon newspaper with the bold headline, “Atomic Bomb Loosed on Japan.” It was August 6, 1945. I can never forget that terrifying moment.”
Dunlap used that childhood memory as an illustration in the sermon which he delivered before the Baptist General Association of Virginia in 1983. He was preaching on the theme of peacemaking. He linked his own childhood experience with that of a Japanese student whom he met while both were studying at Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts. He said: “Masaru Takahashi came over from Japan to [study]. During the Second World War he was a lieutenant in the Signal Corps of the Japanese Army. On the morning of August 6, 1945, while a young mountaineer was running around military bases in Norfolk, Takahashi was putting his platoon through daily maneuvers on a mountainside just far enough from Hiroshima. He turned and looked in that direction just at the moment the first tactical atomic bomb in history exploded over that doomed city.
“He tells me there are no words in any language to describe the terror and horror of that moment. And later he decided that the only reasonable response to what he had witnessed was to become an evangel for the Prince of Peace. [As a minister in Tokyo,] during the week he is a pastor for peace, and on Sundays in his pulpit he preaches for peace.”
Photo courtesy of Virginia Baptist Historical Society
Dunlap delivered the annual sermon at the BGAV in 1983.
Dunlap reflected upon his own life choice: “When I am most caught up in the Spirit, I see ministers [in the BGAV] become pastors for peace in their communities during the week, and on each Lord's Day standing in their pulpits to proclaim the gospel according to the Prince of Peace. And I see laity within these [BGAV] congregations supporting them and participating in these ministries because they, too, are convinced that the only reasonable response is for evangelicals to become evangels for the Prince of Peace.”
Don Dunlap attended Virginia Military Institute; and, possessed of a sharp mind and a captivating voice, he was headed by all accounts towards a career in the law. After finishing at VMI in 1954, he had a change of direction. “When I thought about it, the only thing for me to do with all my abilities was the ministry,” he once shared with a newspaper reporter. “That's how I think God calls — no matter what you choose to do with your life.”
Don Dunlap became one of those evangels for peace and used his mighty speaking voice and his growing influence as a trumpet for the Lord. In his BGAV sermon in '83, he declared: “Beloved in Christ, the trumpet of God is sounding in our ears …. At this moment in history there is no trumpet blast more urgent than this one: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.' ” It was a tune which he played often and everywhere he ministered.
He was ordained by his home church, Main Street Church in Christiansburg. He studied “up north” at Andover-Newton; and during studies at the University of Edinburgh, he acquired additional knowledge and the hint of a Scottish brogue to boot. In 1982, he earned a doctorate from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond.
Interestingly, the bulk of his ministerial career was spent in the region which he visited with his Sunday school teacher in the summer when he was 12. The boy from the mountains found service as an adult in Tidewater Virginia. He was associate pastor of Franklin Church, 1957-59, and pastor of West End, Suffolk, 1966-85, and Freemason Street Church, Norfolk, 1985-99. In retirement, he served interims at Churchland Church and returned for interims at Franklin and Freemason Street.
Don Dunlap practiced what he preached. He promoted peacemaking and social justice. He was active in interdenominational, interfaith and interracial causes. In 1967, he preached at the first interracial Thanksgiving Day service in Suffolk; and at Freemason Street, he continued a long tradition of interfaith Thanksgiving services held jointly between the Baptist church and Ohef Sholom Temple. He was a proponent of the historic Baptist principle of religious liberty and separation of church and state.
During his pastorate, Freemason undertook an extensive and expensive renovation of its historic building in downtown Norfolk. He once shared that he took the architects aside and said: “Listen, we all think this is an important building architecturally, but tell us truthfully if it is as significant as we think that it is.” The architects were honest and maintained that old Freemason Street Church was worthy of preservation.
High atop the 180-foot steeple of the church, there is a six-foot long gold weathervane designed to symbolize Gabriel's trumpet. It was fitting that Don Dunlap, who was a magnificent trumpeter for the Lord, served a congregation and city below that trumpet. On Monday, Sept. 15, the trumpet which had heralded the Lord for over 50 years was stilled. Don Dunlap died at age 75 and services were held in the two places he loved, Southwest Virginia, where he was a member of First Church, Radford and in the Tidewater where a memorial service was held at Freemason Street Church. He is survived by his wife, Kay, and their two daughters, Laura Kay Flick of Norfolk and Rebecca Kent Glander of Summerville, S.C. and by four grandchildren. The magnificent sounds from this trumpeter will be missed.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.