Lott, Knight honored in retirement reception

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary community gathered in the Rotunda of the B. H. Carroll Memorial Building on May 6 to express appreciation to a faculty member and physician set to retire this summer after serving on Seminary Hill for decades.

Southwestern faculty, students, alumni, family, and friends, including eighth President Paige Patterson, were present to honor Allen Lott, professor of music history, for his 40 years of teaching, and Richard Knight, physician of the campus clinic, for his 20 years as part of the campus community. Anna Joy, Knight’s daughter and a former student of Lott’s, provided musical entertainment on the harp.

Lott first came to Southwestern in 1986 after earning two degrees at the City University of New York. Jon Duncan, senior professor of church music and worship, was one of Lott’s first students and reflected on Lott’s impact on him.

“What set him apart from others was his interaction with students,” Duncan said, adding it was Lott’s presence at Southwestern that encouraged him to transfer from a different educational institution. “He always had time. He was never too busy. His interaction was quality. … He was real, and he was genuinely concerned about his students.”

But while he was a professor who invested in his students, Duncan also said he was a man who demonstrated the highest level of integrity.

“It was here that his integrity and trust in Christ was at its brightest,” Duncan said. “… Dr. Lott moved through every situation with full trust and integrity that was anchored in his walk with Christ, and it was that integrity that produced a secure footing. I’ve seen this in Dr. Lott for 40 years. Well done, my friend. You’re a true model of Christ. You have blessed countless lives, including mine.”

Joe Crider, dean of the School of Church Music and Worship, said he is grateful for the opportunities he had to seek his advice. While Lott weathered every season Southwestern went through during his four decades of teaching, Crider said Lott’s scholarship and humor remained steadfast as he taught students the importance of studying the beauty of music from the past so they can be a steward of music in the future.

“We are all better for your scholarship, and we are certainly more joyful for your company,” Crider said. “Thank you for the decades that you’ve given to us, for the beauty that you’ve poured into our lives. Dr. Lott, Southwestern is richer, healthier, and a more beautiful place because you chose to call this hill your home. It’s been an honor for all of us to serve alongside of you. We are deeply, deeply grateful for your service.”

“Over the years, Dr. Lott has touched hundreds of students,” President David S. Dockery said. “He’s been an amazing colleague, friend to so many across this campus, demonstrating the best of Christian scholarship, a meticulous researcher.”

Lott expressed gratitude to his colleagues and his students that he interacted with during his time at Southwestern and said he prays that God will continue to bless them and their ministries.

“My 40 years at Southwestern have truly been a blessing,” Lott said. “It’s not a job or a ministry I would have or could have possibly imagined for myself, but God in His kindness knew what was best for me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to play a small role in expanding the Kingdom.”

Lott has been named a senior research professor of music history and said he looks forward to still being present on campus and in the library at times, though in a different role.

Knight first came to Southwestern in 2006, having spent the first couple decades of his medical career as a pediatrician and emergency room doctor. Patterson discipled both Knight and his future wife, Lennie B., baptized her, and performed their wedding 50 years ago in Arkansas,, and reached out to Knight about bringing a clinic back to the Southwestern campus to minister to the physical health of its students from what used to be the security building on campus.

Joshua Williams, professor of Old Testament, first knew the Knight family when he was about 12 years old and they were members of the same congregation in Arkansas. Even then, he remembers the Knights occasionally leading the congregation in worship through their musical talents while Knight was his brothers’ pediatrician. Williams described Knight as the perfect example of a servant, praying faithfully for the patients that come to him.

“From the very beginning, he was involved in redesigning that space in order to be a place where patients would want to come and feel at ease,” Williams said. “And since he’s been there, he has served countless students, staff, faculty, administration, and their families. … He cares

deeply, not only for the physical well-being but also the spiritual well-being of all those

who come into the clinic day after day after day. He’s the kind of man who is pressing and striving not for his own gain, but in service to others.”

Crider expressed appreciation to Knight, not just for his care for music students who might have lost their voice just before a performance, but also for his commitment to attending the SCMW concerts and events and almost every chapel service.

“As you and Mrs. Lennie B. move toward this next season, we thank you for your healing hand and your listening ears and your servant’s heart,” Crider said.

Dockery said Knight has served “people who have come to him needing physical care and also found friendship and emotional help and spiritual enablement from connecting with you and your service here,” living out 3 John 2 which speaks of caring for people’s physical well-being as well as their souls.

“Being here for the last 20 years has been the best 20 years of my medical career,” Knight said, saying he was grateful for the 800 to 900 chapel services he got to attend and hear God’s Word declared. “The first 25 years before here, that was the time He was really just preparing us to be here. And these 20 years here, it has really changed my life.”

Just as Peter and John in Acts said their act of healing a lame man was because of Christ, Knight said he and his staff know that “anything that is good that’s come out of the campus clinic has been because of Jesus Christ, One who is crucified, whom God raised from the dead. It’s because of His name, that anything good has happened.”

Both Knight and Lott were gifted with framed watercolor works by student Natasha Pittman of the campus clinic and Cowden Hall, respectively, that were signed by various members of the Southwestern community.