DATE: Friday, May 30, 1997                  TAG: 9705300687

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY GUY FRIDDELL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   78 lines

VETERAN PASTOR LUMPKIN DIES IN NORFOLK AT AGE 81

The Rev. Dr. William L. Lumpkin, 81, minister emeritus of Freemason Street Baptist Church and a leader in the Baptist General Association of Virginia, died Thursday at his home in Norfolk.

Funeral services for him will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Freemason Church, with burial Tuesday morning at the Irvington Baptist Church Cemetery in Irvington.

In a final service to the Norfolk church where he was minister 26 years, Lumpkin preached last Sunday at its 149th anniversary.

Freemason's minister, the Rev. Dr. Donald J. Dunlap, characterized Lumpkin as a minister of genuine humility and tremendous warmth who cared for his flock.

A thorough scholar, he was admired by colleagues as one of the Southern Baptist Convention's outstanding historians. In his last sermon, Lumpkin traced Freemason's rich part in Baptist history.

The most recent of Lumpkin's dozen books was ``The Stroller,'' a novel in the form of an autobiography of John Asplund, a renowned itinerant preacher. He traveled 20,000 miles compiling a registry of Baptist churches east of the Mississippi in the 18th century.

Asplund had intended to do an autobiography, but he was too busy to settle down to it. Lumpkin was 25 years on Asplund's trail in research that took him to Sweden and to sites from North Carolina to Vermont.

The book is successful as a truly historical novel, well grounded in fact and an engrossing account of Asplund's fabulous career.

Lumpkin helped shape the Baptist denomination's own history in Virginia, a role he capped in 1983-84 as president of the General Association.

Lumpkin's merit was so well recognized, he was the last of the presidents to be elected without partisan political activity, Dunlap said.

During his year's term, he sought to expand Baptist activity in the rapidly growing population from Washington to Norfolk.

He also encouraged smaller churches, rural and urban, and advocated closer ties with black churches and with recent Asian immigrants.

``We are a diverse group,'' he said, ``and I would hope to draw many people back to the central principles of our tradition.''

One of Lumpkin's former classmates at the University of Richmond, the Rev. Paul Watlington of Park Place Baptist Church, observed Thursday that Lumpkin, ``an absolutely marvelous minister,'' was an effective president of the General Association.

``When divisive issues arose, he was fair-minded, patient and calm, giving everybody a chance to have a say in reaching a solution,'' Watlington said.

Lumpkin's early education was in schools at Irvington, his birthplace. While at the University of Richmond, he was captain of the track and cross country teams. As a distance runner he was two-mile champion and record-holder in the Southern Conference.

He earned a master's degree in theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh with graduate studies at Oxford University, as well.

His first pastorates were in Southside Virginia in Holland and South Quay. The first couple he married was Mills and Katherine Godwin, who became Virginia's governor and first lady.

Other pastorates were in Lexington and in Richmond at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church.

In 1948-49, he directed religious activities at the University of Richmond, coached the track team and was associate professor of religion.

Just before he came to Norfolk he was associate professor of church history at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

There he was among a dozen professors ``who had the courage of convictions to challenge an inflexible administration,'' Dunlap noted.

``For that stand, they were dismissed immediately. A leading Baptist minister said it would take several generations to replace the brain power lost by those dismissals.''

Lumpkin is survived by his wife, Louise Cozart Lumpkin; a daughter, Frances L. Nunnally of Norfolk; two sons, William L. Lumpkin Jr. of Norfolk and John Cozart Lumpkin of Portsmouth; and five grandchildren. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Rev. Dr. William L. Lumpkin stayed active in retirement, preaching

his

final sermon just last Sunday.

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