The Rev. Jack Hyles dead at 74

"...How rare it is to find in the same package both zeal and knowledge! Somebody has said, 'Scholarship and fire seldom walk together.' How wonderful it is to find some scholar who has the fire of God in his soul. As he secures his education and training and gains his scholarship, he keeps the same zeal and fire of his youth ..."

The man who, for more than 40 years was a driving force spiritually and educationally to an uncountable tally of followers in Northwest Indiana and the country, died Tuesday morning at the University of Chicago Hospitals.

His death was a stunning blow, as the 74-year-old pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond and founder of Hyles-Anderson College led his congregation with all the zeal of a freshly starched, spit-shine polished graduate of Bible School.

"I don't have the words to express how sad I feel today," Amber Kent, a senior at Hammond Baptist High School, said as she headed to the parish office in downtown Hammond. "We'd been praying, and singing for an hour before we got the news of Brother Hyles' death."

When students were told about the fatal complications of Hyles' bypass surgery in Chicago, "the whole school lost it," Kent said.

Tears streamed down the faces of teachers and students as they huddled in classrooms, and worries ran deep, even after school had been dismissed. Students at Hyles-Anderson College in Schererville were in mourning, too, according to President Wendell Evans.

"He was our motivator and our leader," said Evans, who has served as college president since the school's founding by Hyles in 1972. "He helped me a lot in learning the principles of leadership, administration and counseling. He was very unselfish in helping people, including our students."

Hyles, who was born in Italy, Texas, and grew up in a poverty-stricken area of Dallas, attended Southwest Baptist Seminary after graduating from Eastern Texas Baptist College. Before coming to Hammond in 1959, Hyles led the Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, for about six years, from a membership of 44 people to 4,000.

By May 1965, Hyles' sermons from the pulpit had become so popular that they found their way into books, such as "Kisses of Calvary," which contains an introduction from Hyles' mother: The Jack she saw grow from boyhood to manhood, was a person who gave Christ first place in his life, she wrote, and always had a great love and burden for lost souls.

Those lost souls, as Hyles put it, found their way onto buses that fanned out across Northwest Indiana and the low-income areas of Chicago, to bring a following to Hammond on Sundays and spread the word about the simplicity of salvation.

The 1970s brought new Baptist-run schools to the area and Hyles-Anderson College. The decade also brought a new First Baptist Church auditorium addition to 523 Sibley St. and a national Christian Life Magazine report claiming that the church operated one of the largest Sunday schools in the nation, and possibly the world.

Annual pastors schools were held in the spring, as were youth conferences, which drew thousands to the area and even prompted marquee "Welcome" signs from merchants along the traffic route between the college and the church. The college also grew in enrollment and influence over the years, as its annual school roster has grown from 300 to 1,800 students from across the nation.

"He had several thousand pastors who looked to him as a mentor, even before this college was founded," Evans said. "They have (since) sent students here."

Hyles was especially good at attracting students, Evans said.

One such student, Phil Merhalski, director of economic development for the city of Hammond, said Hyles was the matchmaker in his marriage to his wife, Gail, in 1977. The pastors' impact on their lives, and the city, was "so encompassing," Merhalski said.

Merhalski added Hyles put buildings to new uses in downtown Hammond, setting up various ministries that included outreach programs for Spanish-speaking people and the homeless.

"He was instrumental in stabilizing the downtown and the city itself," said Merhalski, who has been a member of the church since 1973. "He believed in people and saw things (in individuals) other people didn't. He was a caring, loving man."

Hammond Mayor Duane Dedelow Jr. said he was saddened by Hyles' death.

"His contributions over the years to the city of Hammond have been great, both spiritually, and through his commitment to stay in the downtown area when others were leaving. He has forever left his imprint on the city," said Dedelow, who met Hyles when he first entered politics in 1991.

The city's Redevelopment Commission, in fact, was talking about a plan to add a Youth Center to the downtown cluster of ministries, at about 9:43 a.m., the time Hyles died.

It almost seemed a bit ironic, said commission member Mark Rincon, and seems to be a sign that Hyles' ministry will continue.

Shelton Smith, president and editor of Sword of the Lord, a religious publication based in Tennessee, said Hyles was a major player in a worldwide, fundamental movement over the last 45 years, and as such, has had a "major impact on tens of thousands of people around the country and the world."

Hyles, who served on the board of directors with Sword of the Lord and was a guest speaker for Sword-sponsored conferences, has also had his share of personal- and ministry-related controversy.

When controversy flared, many of Hyles' followers grew more adamant about his ministry and committed to it. Hyles also deflected criticism by saying that when one has a church of more than 10,000, it is inevitable that some members may find their way into the news.

Smith refused to talk about Hyles' controversies.

"This is a time to think about the wonderful things he has done," Smith said. "The big thing that he has kept the focus on is winning people to Christ. A lot of people have been motivated by Dr. Hyles to invest their lives in seeking out others and attempting to bring them to Christ."

Hyles, who at times was called flamboyant and at times, a bit shy, had a "dynamic about his personality that was influential on everybody he came in contact with," Smith said. "I would say that the people who knew him well would describe him as a gentle and compassionate man who cared very deeply about the people around him."

Voyle Glover, a former member of the church, said Tuesday was a sad day for him, because Hyles "did do a lot of good reaching out to all the neighborhoods and ghettos to bring the gospel to as many people as possible."

"I liked the fact that he was, in many ways, a man's man. Right or wrong, he stood where he stood and didn't back down. I always liked that about him," Glover said.

Glover added he believed that many tears were shed across the globe, and in particular in Northwest Indiana.

Kent begs to disagree.

As she and her friend Lili Ruiz, a third-generation member, stood under a mural of Hyles and his wife, Beverly, Kent paused briefly, looked to the sky and said, "I feel like I've lost my security blanket, but it's not gone. It's just a little farther away."

A brief chronology on the life of Jack Hyles

Church member ponders the future without its charismatic leader

Children counseled at First Baptist schools

The legacy of Jack Hyles

Hyles gives a final sermon

'Family' of beloved pastor says goodbye

Rev. Hyles pointed people to God, not himself, for salvation (Letter to the Editor).

Rev. Hyles died of heart attack, but he was stabbed in the back (Letter to the Editor).

Hyles' birthplace to be rebuilt on campus