In memoriam: Emeritus missionary Ernest ‘Buddy’ Hinze Jr., 80

Buddy Hinze

Dr. Ernest Carl “Buddy” Hinze Jr., an emeritus International Mission Board missionary who shared the gospel among South Asian Peoples, died Jan. 10, 2019. He was 80.

Hinze was born the eldest of 10 children to Ernest and Marjorie Hinze on October 23, 1939, in Blevins, Texas. He graduated from San Marcos (Texas) High School in 1957. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg in 1968. He studied toward a master’s degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and graduated with master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Luther Rice Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla.

In 1960 at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, he met Jamie Sue Cox, and they married in 1962. Hinze passed away one week before their 57th wedding anniversary.

Hinze invited the Lord Jesus Christ into his life in 1953, and he felt the call to preach soon after. He was licensed to preach in 1955 by Calvary Baptist Church in San Marcos. After his marriage to Sue, Buddy spent the next 19 years serving as pastor to churches in various towns and cities across Texas: Plainview Baptist Church in Stamford; First Baptist Church, Donna; Tabernacle Baptist Church in Fort Worth; First Baptist Church, Mission; and Park Street Baptist Church in Greenville.

In 1981, Hinze was called to pastor in Casper, Wyo., and 10 years later in 1991, he was called to pastor in Colorado Springs, Colo. In Colorado, the Hinzes answered a call from earlier in life to serve in international missions. They were appointed in August 1996, based in Southeast Asia, where they traveled to six other countries to provide Bible school to pastors and missionaries who had no opportunity for Bible education. In 2001, Sue suffered a sudden brain aneurysm, and the Hinzes’ foreign mission ministry came to an abrupt end.

Miraculously, Sue recovered from her illness, and the couple relocated to the home they had prepared for retirement in Cherokee Village, Ark. For the next three years, they traveled and spoke to churches across the U.S. about their mission work. In 2005, Hinze felt called to pastor Village Bible Church in Cherokee Village. It was during this time that he began to experience neurological symptoms and received the devastating diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The last church he served before becoming disabled was Grace Country Church in Sidney, Ark., where he was interim pastor for 18 months.

Hinze volunteered in many capacities throughout his life. He served as an executive officer for every associational ministry and Southern Baptist convention where he resided, serving as vice president and president for the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention in 1984-85. He was involved in several radio ministries. He established a staff missionary program in Mission, Texas, working on the border and in the interior of Mexico.

He is survived by his wife, Sue, and their three children: Mark (Dianna), Kevin (Lynette), and Jamie; grandchildren, and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. A memorial service was conducted on March 16, 2019, at Calvary Baptist Church, San Marcos, Texas.


Read a full obituary here.