Dr. and Mrs. Jack Hyles

The Biography of Dr. Jack Hyles

Dr. Jack Frasure Hyles was born on September 25, 1926, to Willis and Coystal Hyles in Italy, Texas. After moving to southwest Dallas, he attended the Fernwood Baptist Church. It was at the Fernwood Baptist Church at the age of 11 that he trusted Christ for his salvation and was later baptized.

Mrs. Eva Slaughter had joined the Hillcrest Baptist Church in 1932, and attended with her two children, C.M., Jr., and Beverly. Within a few years, Beverly was saved and baptized at Hillcrest. When a teenager, Jack Hyles joined the Hillcrest Baptist Church. It was through the church that he noticed Beverly, and, after a season of dating, they were married in the pastor's study on October 24, 1945. They would eventually have four children - Becky, David, Linda, and
Cindy - eleven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. By the time they were married, he was already serving in the 82nd Airborne Division and would achieve the rank of sergeant. Upon his discharge from the paratroopers, he enrolled in college and graduated from East Texas Baptist College.

Dr. Hyles pastored Marris Chapel Baptist Church of Bogota, TX; Grange Hall Baptist Church, of Marshall, TX; Southside Baptist Church of Henderson, TX; Miller Road Baptist Church of Garland, TX; and finally for over 41 years, the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. At First Baptist Church, he led us out of the American Baptist Convention, started numerous outreach ministries, and made the church's main thrust the salvation of the lost not only in the Calumet region but also in the greater Chicagoland region. From 1964, a week-long conference he named Pastors' School showed other pastors that "it could be done, this is how you do it," and got them to commit themselves to practice these lessons. He led in the beginning of Hammond Baptist Grade School, Hammond Baptist Junior High School, Hammond Baptist HIgh School, City Baptist Grade School, City Baptist Middle School, and City Baptist High School. He cofounded Hyles-Anderson College, which is today the largest independent, fundamental Baptist college in the nation.

He had a unique platform manner that made us comfortable because he was comfortable. Whether leading pastors at our nationwide Pastors' School to forsake their false Bibles and cling only to the King James Bible, or lying on his back, kicking his feet in the air during Vacation Bible School, we knew he was in total control. Not only was he a master of motivation, but he was also an author. His 49 books and pamphlets covered a wide range of subjects from rearing children, to answering deep doctrinal questions, and from Christian philosophy, to why we should carry a 3 x 5-card in our shirt pocket. Dr. Hyles wrote poetry. Some of these poems he collected and published; many were written to be read just once publicly at the funeral service of one of his members. HIs poetry always said what we were thinking, but couldn't put into words. He also loved to express himself in axioms. How many times have we heard, "everybody's business is nobody's business," or "make your schedule your master." But the promise that he made to God is the axiom that best desribes Dr. Jack Hyles: "I will not use my people to build my work; I will use my work to build my people."