W. A. Criswell
Southern Baptist clergyman (1909-2002)
Wallie Amos Criswell Jr. (December 19, 1909 – January 10, 2002), was an American Baptist pastor, author, and a two-term elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970. As senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for five decades, he became widely known for his biblical expositions as a great expositor and outstanding orator in Southern Baptist preaching at a popular level. He is regarded as a key figure in the late 1970s "Conservative Resurgence" within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Early life
"Little Criswell" was born in Eldorado in Jackson County in southwestern Oklahoma to Wallie Amos (Sr.) and Anna Currie Criswell, the daughter of a notable Confederate Army surgeon Dr. D.B. Currie. It was not uncommon at the time for boys to be named with initials, and he was simply called "W. A.". In later years when a full name was required for his passport Criswell supplied his father's first and middle names. Criswell grew up in Texline in Dallam County, the most northwesterly community in the Texas Panhandle, where his cowboy-barber father moved the family in 1915.
At age ten, Criswell professed faith in Christ at a revival meeting led by the evangelist Reverend John Hicks.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7945281. VIAF identifies the subject as 97751688. The Library of Congress control number is n79068482. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 2002, 1968 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “W. A. Criswell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.