Portrait of Nolan Conrad Tobias. IMB Photo
Nolan Conrad “Toby” Tobias, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Costa Rica, and the Bahamas and through the Baptist publishing ministries in El Paso, Texas, and Hollywood, Florida, died Aug. 16, 2024. He was 86.
Toby was born June 7, 1938, in Madison, Minnesota, to the late Birdeen Conrad Tobias and Evelyn Margaret Kellen Tobias. He graduated from New Ulm (Minnesota) High School and received the Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, and the Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
Toby left home on June 9, 1957, to join the Navy. He was stationed aboard the USS Antietam CVS-36 in Pensacola, Florida, as a naval photographer. On Sept. 3, 1960, Toby married Carolyn Leedy. The following year, after he was discharged from the Navy, Toby and Carolyn moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he started college. During this time, Toby worked as a file clerk before accepting a call to serve as pastor of Mount Hermon Baptist Church near Murfreesboro. In May 1967, they moved to Missouri, where Toby enrolled in seminary and continued to serve in several pastorates. After graduation, Toby was called as pastor of North Central Baptist Chapel, a mission of the First Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Within a year, the chapel became Gateway Baptist Church.
While seeking missionary appointment, Toby wrote, “I want to be used by God in even greater ways than I have been in past years. I am no longer afraid to do things on faith. When the Foreign Mission Board contacted us, the door that I thought was closed had now been opened.”
In 1976, the International Mission Board appointed Toby and Carolyn missionaries to Costa Rica. They later worked in the Bahamas, where Toby assisted pastors, and wrote curriculum for the English-speaking Caribbean from posts in El Paso, Texas, and Hollywood, Florida.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Carolyn; daughters Nola Hedgepeth (David), Evelyn Tobias-Merrill (Rick), and Kathleen Faulk (Randy); five grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.
A graveside service was held Sept. 28, 2024, at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas.
Read an obituary here.