Tarrant County - Obituaries - Stanton Harris Nash ******************************************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Cheryl Crump Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ******************************************************************************** Stanton Harris Nash - 2007 Stanton Harris Nash, 92, of Dallas died Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. Memorial service: 11:30 a.m. Friday in Watson Chapel at University Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Visitation: The family will visit with guests after the service. Private committal service: Laurel Land Memorial Park in Fort Worth. Honorary pallbearers will be Larry Baker, Floyd Craig, Ken Eakins, Rodney Geno, L. Jack Gray, Earl Hall Jr., Mori Hiratani, "Brother Bill" Marshall, C. Joe McIntosh, John McNaughton, Charles Mixon, Tim Nickell, Gary Redding, William Jensen Reynolds, John Earl Seelig, Mark Smith, Warren Smith, Neta Stewart, Jim Taylor, Stanley K. Togikawa, Richard Uejo and James Lee Young. Memorials: Gifts may be sent to the Joseph Fund, Dallas Baptist University or the Joy Balyeat Nash Fund at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Stanton was a longtime churchman, having served for more than 59 years as minister of music and religious education at several churches, church administrator and in various denominational positions with state Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention agencies. Born in New Roads, La., he grew up in Bunkie, La., which begat the nickname "Bunkie" as soon as he entered Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1938. Before finishing Bunkie High School in 1932, he began a career in the retail drug business with the Star Drug Store and moved in 1934 to the domestic and export lumber business with Turner Lumber Co., branch of Turner-Farber-Love Co. of Lemoyen, La. In 1938 he began a new career as a full-time lay minister by attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. His major studies were in church music and religious education. He remained a lay worker throughout his ministry rather than becoming an ordained minister. When he began his ministry, only those who served in pastoral roles were ordained. In 1940, he attended Trinity University, then in Waxahachie. Because of a prolonged illness, he returned to Bunkie to recover. After his return to good health, he was asked to manage Harris Stave and Lumber Co. in Friar Point, Miss., later returning to Bunkie to join the staff of the R.H. Lester Department Store in Bunkie. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in October 1941. After basic training, he was chosen to attend the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga., where he received his second lieutenant's commission in the infantry. He joined the 820th Tank Destroyer Battalion in Camp Swift and served as a company commander with the battalion until December 1945 when he was honorably discharged and assigned to the Army Reserves at Camp Fannin. He served in the ETO and received three battle stars and the Bronze Star for meritorious service and qualified for the rank of major. His promotion to major was overlooked in the accelerated discharges following the end of the war with Japan. It was finally received Feb. 6, 2003, effective to his date of discharge in 1945. European battles experienced were the Roer River, the Ruhr Pocket, the Battle of the Bulge and with Gen. Patton's Third Army in the Czechoslovakian campaign, where his unit was among the first to enter that country. He graduated from the Communications Officers Course at Fort Knox, Ky., and the Advanced Officers Staff School at Fort Hood. On March 16, 1943, he was married to Joy Annette Balyeat of Alexandria, La. Upon returning from overseas service, he re-entered Southwestern Theological Baptist Seminary to complete his BSM degree in May 1948. At the seminary, he taught voice and conducting and was the assistant conductor to J. Campbell Wray for the Southwest Singers and the Oratorio Chorus and conducted The Men's Chorus. Among the Baptist churches served were First Baptist Church, Bunkie, La.; Indian Oaks (now First Baptist), Lake Worth; First, Waxahachie; College Avenue, Fort Worth; Dauphin Way, Mobile, Ala.; First, Oklahoma City, Okla.; and First, Atlanta, Ga. At Dauphin Way and First, Oklahoma City, he served as the assistant to the pastor with Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, who presided at the wedding ceremony for Stanton and Joy. In 1959, he was elected executive secretary-treasurer of the Hawaii Baptist Convention to form the autonomous state Baptist convention for the new state. After developing the structure and base for the new convention, Stanton joined the staff of the First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Ga. He continued to serve in various consultant roles with the Hawaii convention and the Hawaii Baptist Foundation. In 1965, he began 17 years of service as vice president for development for Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif. Retiring in 1981, he joined the staff at Southwestern Seminary for 11 years as director of planned giving. During this period, the estate gifts and endowments grew three times more than they had in the past 75 years. After his second retirement, he served for nine months at Dallas Baptist University as director of the Joseph Fund and for 18 months with The Annuity Board, SBC, as planned gifts representative. He retired again Feb. 28, 1995, following his 80th birthday. Replying to a need at Southwestern caused by the Bosnian crisis and staff changes, he served from June 1995 until June 19, 1997, as development consultant. Memberships included University Baptist Church, Fort Worth; Siloam Lodge, #326 AF&AM; Cyrus Chapter #7, RAM; Alpha Council #18, CM; Oklahoma Commandry #3 KT: India Temple, AAONMS, all of Oklahoma City; National Society of Fund Raising Executives, Council for Advancement and Support Education (life member); Baptist Communications Association (life member); Le Comite des Archives (Louisiana); and National Genealogical Society, Kentucky Historical Society, Fort Worth Genealogical Society and many other family genealogical societies. He was listed in 12 "Who's Who" publications and qualified as one of the first Certified Fund Raising Executives in the United States in 1982. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the School of Church Music at Southwestern. He was the author of "Adult Axioms, Nash's Laws, Life Through the Eyes of an Octogeranium" and numerous articles for professional journals. He was president of Stonehaven Publishers. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Meeker Nash Jr. and Ethel Lee Robbins Nash of Bunkie, La., and his sister, Lela May Nash Bundy of Wheaton, Ill. Survivors: His wife, Joy Balyeat Nash of Dallas; daughters, April Joy Woods and husband, Forbes, of Duncanville, Stanna Joy Schreiber of Houston and Marel Joy Buffington of Kentfield, Calif.; son, Stanton Harris Nash II and wife, Debbie, of Longview; grandchildren, Joy Noelle Chesney and husband, Thom, Jonathan Woods, Keriann Weger and husband, Mark, Joy Schreiber, Stanton H. Nash III and Emily Nash; and great-grandchildren, Drew and Ellen Chesney and Benjamin and Joshua Weger. Published in the Star-Telegram on 9/28/2007.