On August l3, l966, my father died of lung cancer at age 43 in Grenada, MS. He had spent most of the last ten months of his life in the Baptist Hospital in Memphis, TN. Our family received the ministry of Chaplain Charles McKnight, a former student of Wayne Oates. Following my father's death Chaplain McKnight recommended to our family one of Dr. Oates early books, GOD'S REVELATION IN HUMAN SUFFERING. Although I had never heard of Wayne Oates, I received the benefit of his ministry as an l8-year-old college graduate.

During my junior year at the University of Missouri I sensed God's call in my life to a full-time Christian vocation. Chaplain McKnight and my pastor encouraged me to enroll at SBTS to discover more specifically God's will for my life. I had the privilege of taking a couple of classes with Dr. Oates. Although my interests were not in the field of pastoral care, I thank God I took the opportunity to be his student. What a tremendous experience that was! How inspiring he was to my life! In addition I have read many of his books and therefore I have been touched also by his writing ministry in my adult years.

For a few years Dr. Oates and I were fellow church members at the Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. Finally, a few years ago, the church where I am a member, Hurstbourne Baptist in Louisville, began a counseling center with another of Dr. Oates' students, James Fleming. Dr. Oates was present for the dedication service. At that service I got his autograph for my mother, who has admired and appreciated him since reading that book in l966 after the death of her husband, my father. She was thrilled with his kind note to her and his autograph.

I also have placed in my "album of treasures" the handwritten note Dr. Oates sent me recently in response to my note to him following the death of his son. Finally, Dr. Oates affectionately referred to his wife, Pauline, as the guardian of his solitude. I have never forgotten that comment he made in the classroom at SBTS between l970 - l973.