Roll Call Tribute

Bivin H. Dunklin 

July 6, 1935 - January 16, 2025 

Bivin Dunklin was born on 6 July, 1935, in the West Texas community of Stamford, a small town north of Abilene, where his parents, Addie Jo Young and Bivin Allinder Dunklin, supported their growing family as sharecroppers. As children, Bivin and his younger sister, Jerre, worked on the farm and raised livestock, assisting their family to eventually relocate and buy their own place. His parents taught Bivin self-reliance and creativity in improvising solutions on a small family farm. They were members of the Methodist Church, and taught him the Biblical values of “love your neighbor as yourself,” with the practical application in helping neighbors in need. In rural east Texas during the Great Depression, neighbors helped each other, because no help was available from elsewhere. At age six, Bivin's father gave him his first horse, and taught him to ride and to help drive cattle. Rare moments of relaxation were fishing with his mother, to help put food on the table.

Bivin graduated Fairy High School in Hico, Texas as one of a dozen seniors, and then entered Tarleton State College where he completed a program of study in Engineering in 1955. Then he transferred to Texas A&M University where he completed a BS in Chemical Engineering. At the height of the Cold War, he enlisted in the Army and served on active duty. At the Army Hospital in Chinon, France, he was assigned to run the blood bank as a medical lab technician. During his tour there, he met the Navigators, a Christian evangelism and discipleship organization. Encountering for the first time the salvation message, Bivin gave his life to Jesus Christ. This changed his outlook on the world. His Bible studies with the Navigators inspired him to charitable works. While on liberty, he frequently assisted a Catholic orphanage nearby, and led efforts to collect funds to assist their operation. In 1962, his father and sister flew from the states and embarked with him on a grand tour, camping across western Europe.

After his honorable discharge from service, Bivin returned to Texas A&M on the GI Bill and completed a MS in Biochemistry. During this time, he reencountered the woman who was to become his wife, Joyce, the sister of the wife of his best friend, Gene Anderson. After a six-month whirlwind romance, they arranged for a babysitter for Joyce’s two children from a previous marriage, and were wed at the local justice of the peace, returning in time to tuck 4-year-old Denise and 3-year-old Douglas into bed. Over the decade their family expanded to include two more children, Warren Jacques Dunklin in 1966 and Clifford Todd Dunklin in 1969.

By this time, Bivin had a fellowship as a biochemist at Texas A&M. He was then hired by Truitt Labs in Dallas on a research grant. When the grant ended, Bivin humbly took up a position as an encyclopedia salesperson in order to support his family. That sales experience and his deep knowledge of biochemistry landed him a job as a sales engineer for medical equipment that relocated them to the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, where they lived for 26 years, raising their children. During this time, Bivin was ordained a deacon in the Southern Baptist Convention, an outcome of his combination of biblical study and application of his faith in service to others. Bivin welcomed opportunities to support the spiritual development of others and mentored foster children, young men in need of spiritual guidance and career development, and served on the board of a shelter for abused women. With Joyce, he embarked on a mission trip to Guatemala. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990s, they worked with YWAM, Youth With A Mission, in the remote mountains of Albania. Rural Albania was desperately poor following a half century of communist misrule. There in Pogradec, Bivin and Joyce lived for a year, and worked to help establish and operate a feeding ministry for under-nourished children.

Bivin undertook a major career change as his youngest child completed high school by obtaining licensure as an Electrician and starting his own business. He continued in this work, especially committed to the renovation of spaces into Goodwill Centers, until just before the pandemic. During his quasi-retirement, Bivin and Joyce undertook the construction of a home, customized to satisfy the dreams of his wife as much as possible. Once the house was done, he could be found remaking the growing property, cultivating a garden and sharing the produce with neighbors, repairing the tractor and other equipment himself, basically keeping up his own small farm – work that he had done since a child. He enjoyed introducing his grandchildren into the techniques of fishing and gardening, patiently teaching them a skill and a way of being, by example. His has welcomed all the children of his children (born, adopted or otherwise) into the loving circle of family just as fully as he did those who came by his marriage to Joyce. The legacy of his generous spirit will live on in all of his family, extended family and friends. If he could speak with you today, I think he would share with you his favorite Scripture verse, Micah 6:8. “He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Bivin Hugh Dunklin passed away January 16, 2025 at the age of 89. He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years, Joyce Marie Pack Dunklin, of Buchanan; daughter and son in law, Dr. Denise King and Patrick King, of Prestonsburg, KY; sons and daughters in law, Col. (Ret) Douglas and Lynn Dunklin, of Sharpsburg, GA, Warren and Joy Dunklin, of Marietta, GA, and Todd and Ricca Dunklin, of Marietta; grandchildren, Joyce King, William King (Corene), Annabelle King, Grace Jackson (Aaron), Samuel Dunklin, Amanda Dunklin (Natasha Kachur), Joseph Dunklin, Daniel Dunklin, Klara Olcott, Johanna Olcott, Janie Dunklin, Jesse Dunklin, and Laura Johnson; and great grandchildren, Mila Ledgerwood and Lachlyn King. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his sister, Jerre Sadler and daughter in law, Mami Rachel Dunklin.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 2:30PM at Lime Branch Baptist Church with Pastor Brian Crisp officiating. He will lie in state at the church beginning at 1:00PM. Music will be provided by Annabelle King, Grace Johnson, and Denise King. Gentlemen serving as pallbearers will be Douglas Dunklin, Warren Dunklin, Todd Dunklin, William King, Samuel Dunklin, and Jesse Dunklin. Interment will follow in Steadman Baptist Church Cemetery with taps and the flag presentation by Col. (Ret) Douglas Dunklin.