On February 29, 2008, Baptist Mid-Missions said good-bye to a dear friend, Dr. C. Raymond Buck, who served as BMM’s president from 1983 to 1989.
The Lord had given Dr. Buck 83 years to serve Him, years he filled to the brim by taking every opportunity to learn and grow and to teach and encourage those around him. Accompanying him was his wife and lifelong ministry partner, Catherine, whom he married in 1945, and their four children, Charles, Cheryl, Christina, and Richard.
While serving in the pastorate, the Bucks sensed God’s call to missions and joined BMM in 1954. Their calling was to French Equatorial Africa in the region now known as Central African Republic. A highly intelligent man, Dr. Buck earned six degrees during his lifetime, including three master’s and one doctorate. He shared his extensive theological knowledge by training Africans for leadership, along with evangelizing and church planting. The Bucks served with distinction in Africa, but in 1964, when health problems prevented their return, they took a pastorate in their home state of Kansas.
It was not long, however, until BMM sought him as its Northern Deputation Secretary, a position now known as Enlistment Director. Dr. Buck served in this post from 1969 until being named Foreign Secretary for Africa and Europe in 1972. Six years later, in 1978, he was chosen as Vice President.
When President Allen E. Lewis announced his intended retirement in 1983, BMM leaders found in Dr. Buck a missionary statesman whom they chose as a worthy leader. The theme of Dr. Buck’s presidency was “The Mission on the Move.” During his administration, we saw our Mission Family grow to more than 1200 missionaries and expand into numerous fields and ministries. Dr. Buck led BMM in another significant change—the move to our present headquarters in the southwest suburbs of Cleveland.
In 1989, at age 65, Dr. Buck retired from the presidency but not from ministry. He and Catherine moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he spent more than a decade as the chair of missions and evangelism at Central Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dr. Gary Anderson paid this tribute to his predecessor, “If asked how I will remember Dr. Buck, it will be as a servant leader. He talked with me of having taught several of the Chadian pastors who were buried alive for Christ in 1973 [During Chad’s “cultural revolution” in which Christians were severely persecuted]. With tears in his eyes, Dr. Buck said of his former students turned martyrs, ‘I was only able to teach them systematic theology. They taught me how to live for Christ even if it meant dying for Him.’ … Praise the Lord for a life well lived, right to the very end.”