Dr. Alston Arnold Morgan

Services for the Rev. Dr. Alston A. Morgan will be held 10:00 a.m. Monday, June 4, 2018 at Eastern Hills Baptist Church, with Pastor Ken Macken officiating. Burial will follow at Oakhaven Memorial Gardens in Claremore.
Visitation will be held at MMS-Payne Funeral Home on Sunday, June 3, 2018, from 1-6 pm, with family greeting friends from 4-6 pm.

Better known in his adult years as Dr. Al, he passed away Tuesday, May 29, 2018, at the age of 84. Born December 23, 1933, in Dallas, Texas, the place he always called home, he spent his childhood and young adult years in that city and graduated from Adamson High School in 1952. Additionally, he graduated and received degrees from Dallas Bible College, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, California Graduate School of Theology, Texas A&M University at Commerce (formerly East Texas State University), and International Seminary.

He was the son of the late Mack. L. And Anna M. Packham-Morgan, formerly of Oklahoma City, who moved to Dallas in the 1920's. He was one of five children. He is preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Mack Lee Morgan and Ray Morgan.

With high school behind him, he served with the Texas National Guard for a short time, then volunteered for the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict era. He was especially proud of being "regular" army rather than a draftee. During his time in military service, he graduated from the Armed Forces Information School in New York as a writer, one of many professions he maintained throughout his life. However, he was involved in a number of professions which overlapped, providing him opportunity to write and teach as a journalist. He wrote for many newspapers and secular and religious periodicals.

Two beautiful daughters were born, Dawn Renee and Victoria Lynn. He married Barbara Ellen Rudd-Morgan and raised her three children, Janie Keller, Marcia Morgan, and Alston A. Morgan, Jr. He always considered himself the father of six children. He had eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. One grandchild, Chelsea Klinke, was always looked upon as another daughter, since she was the only grandchild for five years, and many of her early years were spent with her grandparents.

Dr. Al was a man of many interests and talents. He started a long career with law enforcement when he joined the Texas Highway Patrol in 1956. And though he entered the Southern Baptist ministry in 1962, his association continued with police. He ended his police work as a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office in 2005. He also studied criminal law at Tulsa Junior College.

Among his many writing awards and other honors received, he cherished his Michael the Archangel Award. It was presented to him by the American Police Hall of Fame in 1985. A second police honor award came in 1993 for his efforts in helping to rescue a mentally impaired child in the Colorado mountains where he was vacationing. In 2002, the Oklahoma Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association conferred the Distinguished Service Medal for his work with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, which also awarded him a Letter of Commendation.

As an ordained minister, Dr. Al served both small and large congregations, including the First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff, and the mammoth, charismatic Beverly Hills Church, both of Dallas, Texas. His varied ministry included serving as an educator and administrator with Wayland Baptist University in West Texas, and service with the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Executive Board. He was later president of the Texas Baptist Public Relations Association. As a California Baptist pastor, he was president of the San Fernando Pastor's Conference and was a vice moderator, delivering the annual sermon to all associational church representatives.

Still later, he was one of 33 American and Canadian religious writers and editors selected to tour Israel immediately after that country's historic Six Day War with Egypt in 1967. He was with Billy Graham in 1983 in Amsterdam when 5,000 Third World evangelists and pastors were trained as part of the International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists.

An avid interdenominational minister, he founded the Catholic Evangelization Renewal Apostolate (CERA), and ministered extensively among Catholics, becoming a conference facilitator and a regular speaker on the Catholic Faith and Bible. His writings appeared in several Catholic diocesan newspapers and magazines.

He never lost his love for writing, and as part of his life-long, varied ministry, he retired in May, 2000 from Oral Roberts University, where he had served for 20 years as a professor of journalism and director of student publications and journalism studies. He always considered it one of his greatest ministries.

For a time, he and his wife raised horses in nearby Bushyhead until his health forced him to move into town. As a rancher, he studied horse management at Rogers State University (formerly Claremore Community College).

The family members that survive are his wife Barbara of the home in Claremore, and the several children and grandchildren, Dawn, Victoria, Janie, Marcia, Al, Jr., Chelsea, Lauren, Lisa Kate, Brittany, Morgan, Scott, Brady, Heath, Brittany, Cecily, and Tyler.