O. S. Hawkins Elected Annuity Board President

by Thomas E. Miller, Jr.                                                                                                                               Vol. X, No. 8, Sep/Oct 1997

O. S. Hawkins, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, has been elected president of the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Election came 12 September during a brief, called meeting of the Board of Trustees at the Hyatt Hotel at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Hawkins, who has been pastor of First Baptist Church since August 1993, is 50 years old. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and received degrees from two Texas schools.

The prominent Dallas pastor was offered the nomination by an eight-member presidential search committee named in November 1996. Chaired by J. Ray Taylor, a retired Fort Worth Texas, insurance executive, the committee brought a list of 12 “qualities, traits and/or characteristics” for approval by the full board of trustees in February 1997 before beginning a nationwide search that ended last week when Hawkins agreed to allow his name to be presented.

Paul W. Powell, Annuity Board president since March 1990, said' "I commend the presidential search committee, their chosen nominee, and the full board of trustees. Dr. O. S. Hawkins brings to the office a solid track record of leadership and pastoral ministry. I am excited for him, and I am excited for the Annuity Board.

Before accepting the pastorate of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Hawkins served congregations in Florida and Oklahoma. He came to Dallas from First Baptist Church, Fort Lauderdale, where he was pastor from 1978-1993. In 1993 he was named Fort Lauderdale's Distinguished Citizen of the Year for his perennial leadership of ministries to people in need in Fort Lauderdale.

He now becomes head of one of four general boards of ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Annuity Board is assigned management of retirement annuities, relief for ministers and their widows, and insurance and risk management programs. The Annuity Board, with assets exceeding $6 billion' manages active retirement accounts for more than 80,000 Southern Baptist ministers and other employees of churches, agencies and institutions. The board has more than 400 employees in its offices in Dallas. Some 27,000 annuitants in pay status receive benefits that total more than $200 million a year.

Hawkins received the Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas Christian University before studying for the ministry. He received the Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Doctor of Ministry Degree from Luther Rice Seminary. Honorary doctorates have been awarded by Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, Missouri; and Dallas Baptist University.

Timothy E. Head, chairman of the trustees, presided at the meeting attended by 40 of the 49 current trustees. Head is pastor of the Cooper River Baptist Church in North Charleston, S.C.

Taylor told the trustees at an August 4, 1997, meeting the search committee had considered 22 biographicals and resumes in their six-month work. He did not give any names of persons being considered, and did not share Hawkins' name with the Board of Trustees until Friday, Sept. 5. By then, rumors of Hawkins' possible nomination had been widely discussed and reported in local media.

Paul Powell became president in March 1990. In February 1996, citing the approach of several officer retirements in close proximity, Powell and W. Gordon Hobgood, Jr., chief operating officer, asked the trustees to begin the process of finding successors for the two top offices. Hobgood, who turned 65 in August 1997, and Powell, who will be 65 in December 1998, both expressed a desire to retire near their 65^th birthdays. The Annuity Board has no mandatory retirement age.

The Annuity Board has a World Wide Web site which can be accessed at: http://www.annuityboard.org.