July 27, 2008
When Stephen Allen talks about the importance of praying for guidance in the presidential search process, he speaks with a high degree of personal understanding. Bison Hill wasn't exactly top-of-mind for Stephen as he was growing up in suburban Boston, Mass.
The son of church planters who were commissioned by the former Home Mission Board to serve in New England, Stephen's experiences as a Southern Baptist teenager were somewhat different than what Oklahoma Baptist youth would enjoy at Falls Creek. But being a part of Baptist life brought him into contact with a hospitable OBU couple while at an evangelism conference in Glorieta. After his junior year of high school, Stephen and his father were waiting for a table at a popular hamburger place just outside the Baptist conference center when Dr. Lyle and Willa Ruth Garlow, both 1950 OBU graduates, asked the strangers to join them at their table. That prompted a conversation about Stephen's future, and the Garlows convinced him the aspiring pre-med major to add OBU to his list of college options.
After what he described as a "great" visit to another Baptist college, he arrived in Shawnee to learn more about OBU. His tour guide was Dr. James Hurley, OBU's legendary biology professor.