
Portrait of Leo Eugene Waldrop. IMB Photo
Leo Eugene Waldrop, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Guyana, Suriname and Netherlands Antilles, died March 28, 2024, in Columbiana, Alabama. He was 80.
Leo was born April 24, 1943, in Borger, Texas. He graduated from Rainier High School in Rainier, Oregon; studied at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas; received the Bachelor of Science from Southern Oregon College, Ashland; and the Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
He met Margaret West in 1968 on a visit home to Rainier during a semester break from seminary classes; they were engaged within two weeks. He married Margaret on July 22, 1969.
After his first year at Southern Oregon College, Leo was appointed as the Baptist student ministry’s first summer missionary, going to Guyana. That experience precipitated his interest in missions, and upon graduation from college he applied for the Journeyman Program of the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board).
“After the two most challenging, satisfying and spiritually enlightening years of my life as a missionary journeyman to Guyana, I returned to prepare for future missionary service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Leo later wrote while he and Margaret were seeking appointment as full-time missionaries with the International Mission Board.
In 1971, the International Mission Board appointed Leo and Margaret missionaries to Suriname. He served as church planter among the Hindu and Creole communities of Paramaribo through his work at Calvary Baptist Church and Charlesburg Baptist Church, where he led Vacation Bible School and church camps. In 1982, Leo and Margaret transferred to Netherlands Antilles where Leo served as director of missions and pastor and church planter of Antiano Baptist Church in Curacao. He also served as church planter in Aruba and Bonaire Islands among Spanish-speaking believers. Leo and Margaret retired from missionary service in May 1997.
Leo is survived by Margaret, his wife of 54 years.
Read an obituary here.