Dale Blackwood died on September 5, 2016, with his wife, Sue, by his side. A gentle man with an easy smile and perceptive blue eyes, he leaves behind a 58-year legacy of helping people come to know Christ.
He was born at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1932 to George and Eva Blackwood in Hominy, Oklahoma, a surprise baby who grew up prone to mischief, a trait he inherited from his father who greeted the 4th of July every year by throwing strings of firecrackers into his son’s room.
Dale graduated from Hominy High School and began college at Oklahoma Baptist University, but left to join the United States Army to fight in the Korean conflict, starting out as a heavy mortar specialist and ending as a forward observer. When he returned from the war, he decided to heed the call he’d felt since high school to go into the ministry. He worked his way through the University of Tulsa by tuning pianos, and became the first in his family to receive a college degree. He then went on to receive his Masters of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, working nights and going to school during the day.
Along the way, he met Sue Lakey on a blind date set up by his cousin, and was so smitten he proposed on their second date. Several proposals later, she finally accepted, and they were married in 1957, in Bristow, Oklahoma.
Dale’s first full time pastorate was at High Point Baptist Church in Raytown, Missouri. A few years later, he felt called to serve as a missionary, and took his family to San Jose, Costa Rica where he pastored an English language church for North Americans and established Spanish language churches in the surrounding villages. Upon his return to the United States in 1972, he was call to be the pastor of First Baptist Church of Owasso, and served there for 23 years until his retirement. He never really retired though, and ended up serving as an intentional interim pastor with the job of breathing new life into troubles churches in Missouri, Virginia, and Oklahoma.
He served on the board of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention and Baptist Children’s Home, held various offices with the Tulsa Baptist Association, was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Owasso, was a longtime member of the Owasso Chamber of Commerce, and was an instrumental member of the Character Council for Owasso which established the character program still in use today. At various times he was the president of Rotary Club of Owasso, the Owasso Chamber of Commerce, and the Owasso Ministerial Alliance. He taught courses at Oklahoma Baptist University and at the Extension Seminary in Tulsa for the Southwestern Theological Seminary. He was the first intentional interim director of missions in the Southern Baptist Convention, establishing the model for that program which is still used today.
Dale had a curious, active mind and liked trying different things, usually by reading a book on the topic and then trying his hand at it. He taught himself to sail, carve wood, rebuild a car engine, and build a shed. He learned Morse code so that he could communicate by ham radio with people all over the world while he was in Costa Rica. He enjoyed taking art classes, and developed into a good amateur sketch artist and oil painter, only stopping the classes when they reached the point that required the students to draw a nude model, at which time he thought he better forego the classes and keep drawing on his own.
He refereed junior high football games for four years, pitched on a slow-pitch softball team for several years, rarely missed a Tulsa Hurricane home football game, took up golf in his 70’s, and in his retirement, was the first one at the YMCA five mornings a week.
He read voraciously and frequented book sales, lining his shelves, office, and finally storage boxes with everything from Erle Stanley Gardner, to Louis L’Amour to political biographies and Civil War histories. He solved the daily crossword puzzles in ink, and tested for and was accepted into Mensa just to prove to himself that he could, but never told anyone except Sue, his wife.
He loved to travel, going to Maccu Pichu, England, Athens, Corinth, Amsterdam, and Jerusalem and on mission trips to Russia, Venezuela, Wales, New Zealand, and Africa.
He enjoyed fatherhood even when his children, Mark and Beth Ann, weren’t necessarily enjoyable, spinning tales to them when they were children of adventures of “karM” and “nnA theB” patiently indulging the arrogant certainty of their teen years, and wading in with opinions only when asked in their adulthood. He encouraged his children to shoot for the stars, but reassured them by his steady presence that he’d love them if they fell to earth.
Dale was the rare individual who held his own counsel, not giving his opinions unless asked, and even then being careful in what he said. The overriding theme to all his sermons and his life was one of encouragement. He typed out and taped 2nd Timothy 1:7 to his desk, and did his best to live his life by its guidance:
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”
He was preceded in death by his parents, George and Eva, and his brother, Paul. He leaves behind a family who loved and respected him: his beloved wife of 59 years, Sue; a son, Mark Blackwood; daughter, Beth Ann Blackwood Thomas and husband Tom Thomas; four grandchildren, Tom Thomas II, Amanda Thomas and husband Ross Carmichael, Tiffanye Thomas, and Jennifer Thomas; two great grandchildren, Hanley and Hunter Thomas.
Visitation will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Thursday, September 8, 2016, at Mowery Funeral Service in Owasso. Funeral service will be held 1:30 p.m., Friday, September 9, 2016, at First Baptist Church in Owasso with Pastor Chris Wall officiating. Committal service and interment will follow at Graceland Memorial Park Cemetery in Owasso. The family requests memorial contributions be made to Mission Owasso-FBC, 13307 East 96th Street North, Owasso, Oklahoma, 74055; M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, Texas, 77210-4486; or the International Mission Board for the Southern Baptist Convention, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, Virginia, 23230-0767 or www.imb.org. Arrangements and services were entrusted to Mowery Funeral Service of Owasso.
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