Mentor to many noted pastors dies at age 88

Legendary Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) professor Howard Hendricks died early this morning. He was 88.

Hendricks, known by his students as “Prof,” taught for 60 years at DTS and mentored some of the most influential evangelical pastors in the United States, including Tony Evans, Robert Jeffress, David Jeremiah, Erwin Lutzer, Joseph Stowell, and Chuck Swindoll. He also influenced future professors and authors, including Bruce Wilkinson, best-selling author of The Prayer of Jabez.

In a 2003 interview with The Dallas Morning News, Hendricks said, “You’re looking at a completely fulfilled human being. If I died today having produced some of the people God has given me the privilege of shaping, it will have been worth showing up on the planet.”

Hendricks earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College in 1946 and a master’s degree from DTS in 1950. He joined the DTS faculty in 1951 and remained until 2011, when, at age 86, he said his body would no longer cooperate with his mind.

Hendricks served as head chaplain for the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys from 1976 to 1984 and was a frequent speaker at Promise Keepers events in the 1990s. His best-selling book, Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible (Moody Press, 1991), taught scores of believers the inductive method of studying the Bible.

A memorial service for Hendricks is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas.

Listen to a report on the life of Howard Hendricks on WORLD’s radio news magazine The World and Everything in It.