Ide P. Trotter, Baptist layman and a former dean and professor of finance at Dallas Baptist University, died April 4. He was 90. He was born Oct. 27, 1932, in Colombia, Mo., to Ide P. Trotter Sr. and Lena Ann Breeze Trotter. His family moved to the College Station area when his father became head of the Department of Agronomy at Texas A&M University, and he made a profession of faith in Christ at age 9 at First Baptist Church in Bryan. After graduating from Stephen F. Austin High School in Bryan, he enrolled at Texas A&M, where he began attending the campus chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As a senior, he was chaplain of the Corps of Cadets and president of the Student Senate. He graduated as valedictorian of his class with both a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and a National Science Foundation Fellowship to attend Princeton University, where he earned his doctorate. He completed his military service in the Chemical Corps School at Ft. McClellan in Alabama and worked for Humble Oil and Refining Company. While working in Baytown, he and his wife Luella taught a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Baytown. While he worked on a one-year assignment with Esso Research and Engineering Co. in New Jersey, his family was involved in helping a mission church established by Madison Baptist Church. His work in management at Humble Oil—and later Exxon—took him and his family first to Houston and then to Millings, Mont., and Stamford, Conn., where he was chairman of deacons at Greenwich Baptist Church. While in Tokyo, Japan, and he and his wife taught a Bible class for couples at Tokyo Baptist Church. While they were in Brussels, Belgium, he was chair of deacons at International Baptist Church. After completing his career at Exxon in 1986, he became dean of the College of Management and Free Enterprise and professor of finance at Dallas Baptist University, where he served until 1990. He served as a deacon and Sunday school department director at First Baptist Church in Dallas and as chair of the Dallas Life Foundation homeless shelter. He founded Trotter Capital Management, and he served as a spokesman for Texans for Better Science Education. He was also instrumental in helping establish the Trotter Prize and Endowed Lecture Series at Texas A&M University. He was preceded in death by his wife Luella. He is survived by daughter Ruth Penick and her husband Jim; daughter Reni Pratt and her husband Randall; daughter Cathy Trotter Wilson and her husband Kevin; 13 grandchildren; and his brother Ben.
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