Harvey Gene Rotramel, a Texas Baptist pastor more than three decades, died Nov. 25 in El Paso. He was 83. He was born Oct. 9, 1939, in Centralia, Ill., to Joseph Roscoe Rotramel and Eleanor LaRue Gilbert Rotramel. He met and married his wife of 64 years, Dorothy Lillian Henry Rotramel, when they were students at Howard Payne University. His first pastorate was at Cottonwood Baptist Church near Cross Plains. While he was pastor of Seventh Street Baptist Church in Ballinger, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He was pastor of Belmont Baptist Church in Odessa from 1975 to 1986 and First Baptist Church in Edinburg from 1986 until his retirement in 1999. The Rotramels moved to Huntsville, and in retirement, he served at Hawthorne Baptist Church in New Waverly. In his final years, he was a member of First Baptist Church in El Paso, where his son Mark is senior pastor. Throughout his ministry as a pastor, many young men responded to God’s call to the gospel ministry. He was preceded in death by his wife Dorothy in 2018. He is survived by son Harvey Gene Rotramel Jr. and wife Susan; son Mark Rotramel and wife Teresa; seven grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled at 1 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on Dec. 16 at First Baptist Church in El Paso.
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