May 12, 1999
Pantoja killed in auto accident
___DALLAS (BP)--Elias Pantoja, regional director for special groups in the Annuity Board's church retirement marketing department, died in an automobile accident April 30.
___Funeral services were held May 5 at First Baptist Church of Duncanville.
___Pantoja, 49, joined the Annuity Board in 1993 after serving three years as an associate in the missions department of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. At the Annuity Board, Pantoja related to more than 8,000 language, ethnic and African-American churches in the Southern Baptist Convention.
___He was instrumental in doubling the number of language and ethnic groups served by the Annuity Board and in developing materials for these groups. The Annuity Board currently has materials translated into Spanish, Korean, Chinese, French-Haitian and Vietnamese.
Elias Pantoja
___"Elias Pantoja was the embodiment of leading 'with the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands,'" said Annuity Board President O.S. Hawkins. "He will be greatly missed here at the Annuity Board. His passion for helping pastors and church workers in need will live on in all of us. He had a genuine love for people which emanated from his deep devotion and love for the Lord."
___Fermin Whittaker, executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention, first met Pantoja when he was a home missionary. "Elias Pantoja was a compassionate, caring leader who had kingdom interest in his heart," Whittaker said. "He was one of those few individuals who crossed all barriers--racial, social and economic--to help ministers prepare for their future and give them a sense of peace while they ministered in reaching the lost for Jesus.
___"I have had a few special friends in my life. Elias was one of them," he said. "He was one of the few men I know who impacted the lives of ministers and their families through his ministry of having worked in several areas of Southern Baptist life."
___Pantoja was born in McAllen and attended Pan American University in Edinburg. In 1973 he earned a bachelor's degree from Dallas Baptist University and in 1976 received his master's degree in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
___While a seminary student, Pantoja was associate pastor of Iglesia Bautista Calvario in Dallas and later pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Carrollton. He also served as a home missionary in Tennessee, on the staff of the Sunday School Board and the Missouri Baptist Convention.
___Pantoja is survived by his wife, Martha; a son, Elias Jr.; a daughter, Maria; brothers Marcos Garcia and David Pantoja of McAllen and Raul Pantoja of Midvale, Utah.
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