BIO:John Franklyn Norris

1877-1952
Fundamental Baptist pastor. J. Frank Norris was born in 
Dadeville, Alabama. He was graduated from Baylor University 
in Waco, Texas, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 
Louisville, Kentucky. He was ordained to the ministry in 1899 
and soon after began his long, stormy career by serving as 
editor of The Baptist Standard, the official voice of Texas 
Baptists. He aided Dr. B.H. Carroll in the founding of South-
western Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
        In 1909 he accepted the pastorate of the First Bap-
tist Church of Fort Worth and remained there until his death. 
In 1935 he also accepted the pastorate of Temple Baptist 
Church, Detroit, Michigan, and held joint pastorates of these 
two great churches separated geographically 1,300 miles for 
15 years. During those years, the combined attendance of both 
churches, under the leadership of one pastor, constituted the 
world's largest Sunday School.
        A master pulpiteer, Dr. Norris was a fierce opponent 
of communism, liberalism, and evolution, and was acclaimed to 
be one of the twentieth century's outstanding leaders of Bi-
ble fundamentalism.
        In 1939, with the aid of Dr. Louis Entzminger, he or-
ganized the Bible Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, an 
institution which excelled in the training of young preachers 
in the building of large Sunday Schools and churches. Many of 
the graduates of this school have built some of the largest 
churches in America. A friend of world leaders, compassionate 
soul-winner, and Bible expositor, Dr. Norris died in 
Keystone, Florida, on August 20, 1952, and was buried in Fort 
Worth, Texas, on Saturday, August 24, 1952.

ARTIST'S NOTE: The colors selected strive for the presenta-
tion of an iron personality with steel in its ministry.

