Obituary: R.L. Herring

R.L. Herring of San Antonio, retired Texas Baptist pastor, military chaplain and administrator for Buckner Baptist Retirement Village, died Aug. 25. He was 97. Herring was born Aug. 18, 1921, in rural Mississippi to Robert Lee Herring and Carrie Carr Herring. His family moved to Southeast Texas when he was young, and he graduated from Port Neches High School. At Clark College in Newton, Miss., he earned an associate’s degree and met his future wife, Mary Underwood. After they married, the Herrings moved to Texas. He earned an undergraduate degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Herring, who was ordained in 1940, served six churches as a student pastor. In 1949, he became the first pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Bryan. He later served at Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches and Lakewood Baptist Church in Dallas. In 1965, he began 20 years of service as administrator for Buckner Baptist Retirement Village in Dallas. He served from 1950 to 1979 as a chaplain in the National Guard. He was state chaplain at the National Guard headquarters in Austin and was involved in building All Faiths Chapel at Camp Mabry in Austin. He received the Minute Man Award from the National Guard Association of Texas in 1996. His denominational service included time as a trustee at Wayland Baptist University and as an emeritus member of the executive board of Hardin-Simmons University, where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2006. He was a charter member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio and later was an active member of First Baptist Church in San Antonio. Herring was preceded in death by his wife of 72 years, Mary, and his sister, Dorothy Mildred Bates. He is survived by his daughter, Cindy Ann Muir, and her husband Donald of San Antonio, and one granddaughter.