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Sample has been active throughout his career in both the church and in the community. While living in Phoenix, AZ the last 13 years, he was actively involved in the Asbury United Methodist Church in Phoenix where he was volunteer minister to the community. In that capacity he was heavily involved in the Valley Interfaith Project, a broad-based organizing effort associated with the Industrial Areas Foundation. He was also active in the Arizona Interfaith Movement, an interfaith group that includes 25 different faith traditions. The Samples moved back to Kansas City in November of 2012 in order to help care for a severely ill granddaughter.
An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, Sample served on four occasions as a delegate to The General Conference of the UMC, the world meeting of his denomination, and on six occasions to the South Central Jurisdiction of the UMC, a regional meeting of his denomination.
Sample was born and grew up in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and as a young man drove a cab, worked in construction, and was a roustabout in the oilfield. A baseball fan to his dying day, he pitched and caught in high school, college, and city leagues and continued to play both baseball and softball for a total 45 seasons.
Sample is married to Peggy Sanford Sample, who is a watermedia artist and a musician. They have three children, one of whom is deceased.
“Tex” is his real name, not a nickname. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who lived near Shelbyville, Texas.
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Tex Sample Vitae
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Former Academic Dean at Saint Paul School of Theology, Judith L. Orr, has described Tex Sample as "...a man with a baseball bat in one hand and a copy of the philosopher Wittgenstein in the other...a man of the people and a man of the academy...a man who can tell it like it is to a group of tough urban Job Corps participants, to an upper middle class white suburban Sunday school class, and to distressed Heartland farmers...a man who is comfortable at his daddy's taxi-cab stand and on the General Conference floor [the national meeting of his denomination]...a man of the community and a man of the church...a man who was born in the South, 'trained up' in the Northeast, who has grown to maturity in the midwest."
Tex Sample is the Robert B. And Kathleen Rogers Professor Emeritus of Church and Society at The Saint Paul School of Theology where he taught for 32 years. He holds a B.A. degree from Millsaps College, an M.Div. from the Boston University School of Theology, a Ph.D. from the Boston University Graduate School. and a D.D. from Coe College. Boston University School of Theology gave him the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” in 1999.
Sample is a freelance lecturer and speaker in North America and overseas. He has published 12 books, with one of those being a co-edited work. His book, Blue Collar Ministry, was named a “Judson Classic” by the Judson Press, and his book U. S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches was the bestseller for Westminster/John Knox Press for over two years. He is also the author of articles in academic journals, magazines, and books.
Sample has been active throughout his career in both the church and in the community. While living in Phoenix, AZ the last 13 years, he was actively involved in the Asbury United Methodist Church in Phoenix where he was volunteer minister to the community. In that capacity he was heavily involved in the Valley Interfaith Project, a broad-based organizing effort associated with the Industrial Areas Foundation. He was also active in the Arizona Interfaith Movement, an interfaith group that includes 25 different faith traditions. The Samples will move back to Kansas City in November of 2012 in order to help care for a severely ill granddaughter.
An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, Sample served on four occasions as a delegate to The General Conference of the UMC, the world meeting of his denomination, and on six occasions to the South Central Jurisdiction of the UMC, a regional meeting of his denomination.
Sample was born and grew up in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and as a young man drove a cab, worked in construction, and was a roustabout in the oilfield. A baseball fan to his dying day, he pitched and caught in high school, college, and city leagues and continued to play both baseball and softball for a total 45 seasons.
Sample is married to Peggy Sanford Sample, who is a watermedia artist and a musician. They have three children, one of whom is deceased.
“Tex” is his real name, not a nickname. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who lived near Shelbyville, Texas.
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