Dean Blackwell died on April 14th 2003, after a series of strokes. His wife, Maxine, had passed away four months earlier.

Dean enrolled at Ambassador College in 1952 and went on to serve as a minister and evangelist in numerous capacities until 1996. I have vivid personal memories of Mr. Blackwell. He baptized me in 1974 and taught some of the Bible classes I took at Ambassador, Big Sandy. When Big Sandy closed in 1977, I had planned to take two standardized tests for the 12 course units that I lacked, graduate, and go get a computer job in Texas or Arkansas. It was Mr. Blackwell who convinced me to go to Pasadena, forever changing my life.

In 1979, when a court appointed receiver was threatening to forcibly enter the Pasadena Hall of Administration with a large group of police, Dean Blackwell preached for hours to several hundred of us—hoping that the receiver would not break up an "ecclesiastical service". On the other side of the coin, Mr. Blackwell made trips to local WCG churches in the 1990s and humbly asked if any of the local leaders had any difficulty with the new doctrines being taught from Pasadena. He gained the confidence of many who expressed their disagreements to him—only to find themselves relieved of significant church duties a few weeks after he left.

Written by Norman Edwards courtesy of Servants News