East Texas couple’s legacy of support continues to help future ministers

More than $2.5 million has funded scholarships at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for students related to the Neches River Baptist Association in East Texas, thanks to an endowment fund and scholarship established nearly 30 years ago. 

Since then, the Tom and Madge Bean Dauphin Endowed Memorial Scholarships have been awarded to more than 100 students, as many as fourteen in a single semester, with all books, fees, and tuition paid for by the scholarship, said Bill Jones, executive director of missions at the association.

The endowment fund was established on Dec. 6, 1993, on behalf of J.T. “Tom” and Madge (Bean) Dauphin to help students going into ministry from or serving in the association and attending Southwestern Seminary, East Texas Baptist University, or Howard Payne University. However, funds were not distributed until after her death in 2000. 

Tom Dauphin died in 1972 after a career working in the legal department of Humble Oil and Refining Company and serving as a deacon and Sunday School superintendent at First Baptist Church of Grapeland, Texas. His wife, Madge, taught school for more than 50 years and lived to the age of 99. 

Jones, a 1981 Master of Divinity graduate from Southwestern, said the couple had been “faithful church members” at Grapeland but with no children. “Their estate and endowment have provided funds for education for many people going into ministry,” Jones said, adding that the criterion is someone residing or coming to serve in a church in the Neches River Baptist Association, located in Crockett, Texas, and covering Houston, Trinity, and Walker counties in East Texas. 

Jones recalled that the interest in the endowment fund grew for several years until it was first distributed in 2001. The fund is managed by HighGround Advisors, formerly known as the Baptist Foundation of Texas. 

To date, $2.576 million has been given to 131 students associated with Southwestern Seminary, Jones said. David M. Slover, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at HighGround, explained that “an endowment is a permanent fund established by a donor to preserve the original amount given while distributing the earnings to provide ongoing support. Endowments provide a perpetual base over the years to sustain ministry going forward. Endowments also allow donors to ‘leave a legacy’ of support that will continue charitable work they believe in well beyond their lifetime.”

Paul J. Morrison got a significant education in a short amount of time from the scholarship, earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all at Southwestern in seven and a half years. 

Graduating from Crockett High School in 2011, Morrison enrolled in what is now known as Texas Baptist College (TBC) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biblical studies in May 2014, and a Master of Divinity with concentrations in biblical languages and Christian ethics from Southwestern Seminary in December 2015. He immediately went into doctoral studies and earned a Doctor of Philosophy with a major in Christian ethics and a minor in biblical theology in December 2018. 

During his time as a student, he served as youth pastor at Grace Church in Haltom City, Texas, from 2011 to 2015. He then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 2015 to revitalize Trinity Baptist Church in Parma, Ohio, with the North American Mission Board and continued with his studies. That church is now The Church at West Creek. 

Morrison is now the theologian-in-residence at City Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and is the vice president of academic affairs and provost and professor of Christian ethics and biblical theology at Emmaus Theological Seminary. His first book, Integration: Race, T.B. Maston, and Hope for the Desegregated Church, features Maston, whom Morrison describes as “the SBC’s preeminent ethicist,” and “chief among those Baptists who both recognized and fought for their racially marginalized brothers and sisters.” Maston taught at Southwestern Seminary from 1922 to 1963. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, research professor of theology at Southwestern, wrote the foreword to Morrison’s book. 

“Dr. Yarnell, like many of the faculty of Southwestern, gave me my first picture of what it looks like to be a pastor-theologian. I am grateful for the opportunity given to me by the Dauphin Scholarship to pursue my theology in service of the church,” Morrison said.

Another recipient of the scholarship is Tony Wolfe who now serves as associate executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Ten years ago, Wolfe was “a young pastor of a small church in need of continuing theological education and with a heart for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Wolfe said. 

Wolfe recalls Jones took him out to lunch and told him about the Dauphin Scholarship. “It was an answer to prayer. Without the Dauphin Scholarship, I would not have been able to continue my education at all. I graduated from Southwestern in 2016 with a Doctor of Educational Ministry.” Wolfe is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in evangelism at Southwestern and says, “I owe my entire Southwestern journey to the investment of two faithful, sacrificially minded Christ-followers whom I never had the opportunity to meet.”

Jones, who has also served as the president of Southwestern Seminary’s Alumni Association, said it was his pleasure to serve at Wolfe’s defense of his dissertation. 

Daniel Stone, pastor of First Baptist Church of Murchison, Texas, started his higher education at TBC in 2010 and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in humanities. He then earned a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling in 2016 and is now working on a Doctor of Education in church revitalization. “The scholarships allowed me to advance more quickly through my education without loans. I have been able to fulfill my calling without worrying about finances,” Stone explained.

Even with the scholarships, Stone also worked on campus, but after he graduated from college, First Baptist Church of Murchison called him as the youth minister, and after earning his master’s degree, the church called him as pastor. In 2021, Stone began his doctoral degree, which he is halfway through. 

Stone says time at Southwestern has been “top-notch” not only because of the in-class education, but also the “Revive the Nation” experience, which “changed the course of my life. It taught me how to preach and allowed me to preach throughout the nation.” Revive the Nation is an annual spring break event held for Southwestern students and faculty to minister to churches across the country, primarily through revivals and evangelism efforts.

“If I did not have the education I have had, I would not have the ministry that Christ has called me to,” Stone said about Southwestern Seminary and the Dauphin Scholarships.