Portrait of James Houser. IMB Photo
James Lawrence Houser, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Tanzania and Kenya, died Jan. 19, 2026, in Monett, Missouri. He was 92.
Jim was born Oct. 19, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the late Delbert Henry Houser and Myra Houser. He graduated from Mesquite (Texas) High School and received the Bachelor of Arts from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, and the Master of Education from Texas Wesleyan College, Fort Worth. He also attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Berkely, California, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
He married Molly Alice Rogers on Aug. 28, 1953. After college, they moved to Berkely, California, where Jim attended seminary at Golden Gate and became pastor of First Baptist Church in Dixon, California. After the birth of their first son in 1955, they returned to Texas for graduate study in Fort Worth. During this interval, Jim taught for two years at Mesquite High School. He received his master’s degree in 1959. They returned to California, where Jim spent a couple years teaching in the Oakland Public School System. In February 1961, he received the National Science Foundation Grant to the University of Utah. From Utah, they returned to Texas with plans to continue in seminary and be a pastor.
While seeking missionary appointment Jim wrote, “God closed the door to pastoring and soon closed the door to the seminary. I knew, however, that he had something for me to do. There followed months of earnest praying in which God continued to lay upon my heart the matter of foreign missions. I was able to see that my steps in the few preceding years had been leading me to yield my life to Christ as an educational missionary.”
In 1964, the International Mission Board appointed Jim and Molly missionaries to Kenya and Tanzania. Jim taught at the Baptist High School in Mombasa, Kenya, and was later a math teacher and headmaster at the secondary school in Nyeri, Kenya. They also served in Tanzania, where he worked on the Sukuma Project and served as the mission administrator.
Jim was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Molly Rogers Houser.
He is survived by his wife of one year, Carol; five children, Stacy Houser (Tami), Mona Entwistle (Dave), Bryan Houser, Scott Houser (Ana), and Bill Houser (Lisa); stepchildren, Dan Brubeck (Angela), Clint Brubeck (Ruth), Jessica Eisenhauer, Linda Brubeck, Maria Brubeck, and Mario Brubeck; three brothers, Charles, Don, and Paul Houser; 18 grandchildren, and 23 great grandchildren.
Private services will be held at a later date.
Read an obituary here.