Obit of Prince, Valton L - Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Gene Phillips 21 Feb 2010 Return to Oklahoma County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html ===================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ===================================================================== ::NOT LISTED VALTON L. PRINCE "Val" Valton "Val" Prince, age 87, of Fresno, California passed away on Saturday, July 22, 2006, of cancer. He was born to Z.Z. and Reda Prince on December 29, 1918, near Willis, Oklahoma and grew up in Oklahoma City, where he graduated from Classen High School in 1937. While attending Oklahoma City University, he met and married Beatrice "Bea" Whittington on February 15, 1941. After seven years of marriage, he and his wife felt the call of God to devote the remainder of their lives to Christian Ministry. Val attended Oklahoma Baptist University (1948-1952) for a Church Music degree, followed by training at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas where he received a degree in Religious Education in 1956. Following graduation from seminary, Val served churches in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and California in areas of Christian Education, Church Music, Church Administration, Church Leadership and Associate Pastor. In March 1962, he moved to California to work with an association of Baptist churches in the greater Los Angeles basin to assist them in the area of church administration, church leadership training and music. In November 1965 he moved to Fresno to work with the California Southern Baptist Convention in a similar capacity until his retirement in 1981. For the next eight years he conducted MasterLife Discipleship workshops throughout the United States, Scotland and England. In 1985, he received the Friend of Church Training Award given annually by the Baptist Sunday School Board's Church Training Department in Nashville, Tennessee. In November 2005, Val was awarded the California Baptist Historical Society's Heritage Award for outstanding contribution to the ministry and heritage of California Southern Baptist. For the past five years, Val had been serving as Pastoral Care Minister at the NorthPointe Community Church in Fresno. He was preceded in death by his parents; and both brothers, John Weldon Prince and Ben L. Prince. He was heard to say in February at the couple's 65th wedding anniversary celebration, "50 plus years in the ministry, 65 years with 'My Lovely Lady' and still serving as Pastoral Care Minister at NorthPointe Community Church with this young staff, for what more could a man ask?" Our tears are fresh, hot and stinging, but our memories are sweet and make us smile. As Shakespeare noted, "This was a man...when comes such another." Val is survived by Bea, his wife of 65 years; his nephews, John Valton Prince of Scottsdale, Arizona, Michael Lee Prince of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and John Thomas Prince of Guthrie, Oklahoma; brother-in- law, Adron Whittington of Stockton, California; many nieces and nephews, great and great-great nieces and nephews, cousins and friends, all of whom he loved dearly. A Memorial Service will be held at NorthPointe Community Church, 4625 W. Palo Alto Avenue in Fresno on Sunday, July 30, 2006, at 3:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Valton Prince Pastoral Care Ministry Memorial Fund in care of NorthPointe Community Church, or to the donor's favorite charity. NEPTUNE SOCIETY OF CENTRAL CA CREMATION - MEMORIAL CHAPEL(559)222-7764 (800)225-1604 #1332 Published in the Fresno Bee from 7/26/2006 - 8/2/2006. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Oklahoma County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html