A private family funeral service reportedly was held June 15 for Herman Paul Pressler III, a former Texas judge and one of the leaders of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. The service seems to be what prompted news of his June 7 death to be made public. He was 94, and has been at the center of controversy regarding sexual abuse allegations in recent years.
A Houston native, Pressler served as a Texas State representative for Harris County (Jan. 8, 1957–Jan. 13, 1959). Reportedly, Pressler met Paige Patterson in New Orleans to strategize electing conservative presidents for the SBC in 1967 and met with Patterson, W.A. Criswell and Adrian Rogers and other pastors/laymen in 1978 in Atlanta to launch the takeover.
Pressler was judge of 133rd judicial district in Harris County (1970–1978) and of the 14th Texas Court of Appeals (1978–1992).
He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and three children, seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Honors, accusations
Over the years, he served in several leadership roles: SBC Executive Committee (1984–1991), president of council for National Policy (1988–1990), International Mission Board trustee (1992–2000) and deacon of First Baptist Church Houston (2002).
In 2009, he was awarded the Ronald Reagan Award for Lifetime Achievement.
His online obituary states, “When he was 10 years old, Paul accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He began teaching a Sunday School class at the age of seventeen and continued to do so almost without interruption for sixty-four years.”
But in 2017, accusations of sexual misconduct with men by Pressler from his youth ministry and Bible studies as far back as 1978 surfaced. Some were underage at the time of the alleged activity.
Read more from Art Toalston in an article by Baptist Press here.
