Lasting Good: The Story of Morris Oldham (by the Oldham Little Church Foundation)

Lasting Good.
O L D H A M
L I T T L E C H U R C H
F O U N D A T I O N

THE STORY OF MORRIS OLDHAM
AND THE OLDHAM LITTLE CHURCH FOUNDATION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Foreword 4
Beginnings 7
Faith 15
Focus 23
Context 31
Stewardship 39
Relationships 47
Legacy 55
Milestones 61
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M O R R I S C A LV I N O L D H A M
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F O R E W O R D
My father, William Carloss Morris, Sr., and Morris Oldham were friends. I’m
not certain how or when they met, although both were Baptist churchmen who
attended different congregations, at least after 1927.
The ranch Mr. Oldham owned in New Mexico had title problems once, and
the two of them went up together from Houston to set things straight. My father
said they drove all the way home from New Mexico in an open air jeep — a sure
fire way to get to know a man if you didn’t already.
My first memories of Morris Oldham were of him delivering milk to our
house when I was a boy. When I was older he invited me along with him to look at
a piece of property in Texas City, Texas. We got in his two-door gray Plymouth —
one seat, no heat — and I sat on my hands the whole way to keep them warm.
I don’t remember looking at the property that day, but I do remember him
asking me a lot of questions about myself. He was the kind of man who wanted to
know who you were — even if you were a young, know-nothing kid. He was also
the kind of man who knew what he wanted and how to achieve it. He built a business
that became the foundation for lasting good — the kind of good that would
outlive him. And it surely has.
My brother Carloss was Morris Oldham’s lawyer and in 1949 drew up the
papers that established the Oldham Little Church Foundation. Carloss served on
the Foundation’s first board of directors, and me after him. My son Stewart Jr.
and I still serve on that board together and are proud to do so.
Some men make fortunes and become famous. Some men are wise enough
to turn the fortunes they make into something that will bless other people for generations.
Morris Oldham wasn’t famous. You probably don’t know much about
him; not many people do. But his legacy is rich.
The world needs more men like him.
Stewart Morris, Sr.
Stewart Morris, Sr. at his
carriage house in Houston
December 2018.
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B E G I N N I N G S
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Left: Oldham Chapel – The little
church that became the Oldham
Memorial Chapel was on a piece of
land purchased by Mr. Oldham in
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Cypress, Texas. Later that land was
donated to Star of Hope Mission,
but the church no longer exists.
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Morris Calvin Oldham loved the Church.
The founder of the Oldham Little Church
Foundation established and managed a thriving
Southeast Texas dairy business for almost four
decades but created lasting good by aiding
thousands of small churches — most of them
long after his death and far from his home —
Morris Oldham saw in Houston of the 1920s and 1930s a small but powerful fraternity of
men who built business empires with integrity and skill, and whose philanthropic energies
matched their business acumen. Jesse H. Jones made a fortune in banking, building
and media before putting his considerable resources to work for the city’s good with the
establishment of the Houston Endowment. Life-long bachelor, banker and cotton trader
Munroe Dunaway (MD) Anderson also leveraged his self-made fortune for the benefit of
Houston and its citizens, creating the charitable MD Anderson Foundation three years
one intentional gift at a time.
Oldham
prior to his death in 1939.
Oldham would follow the example of these and other
founded the Houston-based Phenix Dairy in
1914 as a young, Cornell University-educated
entrepreneur, delivering his product doorto-door
in the company’s earliest days. In his own words, “I hitched up a horse to a dairy
Houston giants as a pioneering businessman, but his philanthropic sights were always fixed
on a higher goal. The good he sought to multiply was eternal, not temporal. He strove to
bring the teachings of Christ and the precepts of Christianity to his fellow man — both
during his lifetime and well beyond it. And he managed his resources to do just that. “I save
wagon, went out and sold my first bottle of milk.”
The Phenix Dairy was the first in
to serve and save to give,” he liked to say.
Houston to pasteurize milk properly, to produce homogenized milk and buttermilk, to deliver
refrigerated milk directly to the customer and to make daytime deliveries. Under Oldham’s
leadership the business grew rapidly, establishing branches
in Baytown, Cleveland, Edna, Wharton, El Campo and Bay
City, Texas. In time it would become the largest retail milk
delivery trade south of St. Louis, Missouri.
The Houston
of Oldham’s earliest days was quickly being established as the
commerce capital of Texas. The completion of the Houston
Ship Channel in 1914 made Houston a thriving port city, some
50 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Seventeen railroads
converged at the Port of Houston, and the discovery of oil at
“We lived on Stuart Street
when I was nine years old-
-a shell covered street south
and west of downtown. Mr.
Oldham delivered milk to
our house in a white wagon
with 100-pound blocks of ice
in the back. He’d carry the
milk in, put it in our icebox
and collect the empties — all
without speaking. Then he’d
go to the next house on his
route and do it again. That
horse of his knew the way to
every house on the route. ”
When the first Phenix Dairy delivery horse purchased by Morris Oldham died,
all the horses in service at that time wore black mourning gear for two weeks.
nearby Spindletop at the turn of the century spawned a string of
petroleum production facilities along the ship channel’s banks,
— STEWART MORRIS, SR.,
DIRECTOR, OLDHAM LITTLE
CHURCH FOUNDATION
feeding the nation’s growing appetite for gas and oil.
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MIDWESTERN ROOTS
Morris Oldham was born in Springfield, Ohio,
in 1886 to Josephine Morris Oldham and John
Calvin Oldham. John Oldham fought in the
Union Army as an 18-year-old Ohio infantryman,
studied to become a dental surgeon upon
his return to his home state and married
Josephine Morris in 1877. The couple also
had a daughter, Katherine, born in 1883.
Very little is known of Morris Oldham’s
earliest years. He attended elementary and
secondary schools in Springfield and studied
briefly at Wittenberg College — a private university
established in Springfield in 1845 by a group
of Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio pastors.
He graduated in 1910 from Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York, with a Bachelor of Science in
Agriculture, including studies in dairying. While
at Cornell he played football and participated in a
men’s glee club — early evidence of lifelong interests
in sports and music. After two years of what
he once described as “odd jobs,” Oldham headed
south to Houston in 1912 and apprenticed for
two more years with a local dairy supply company,
gaining valuable, hands-on experience in the
business at which he would ultimately excel.
When Morris Oldham arrived in
Houston in 1912, the Carnegie-funded
Houston Public Library was eight years
old, the Rice Hotel was already under
construction and the Rice Institute
(now Rice University) had just opened
its doors. Downtown Houston was
home to 16 “tall” buildings of six
stories or more, including three banks,
the Houston Chronicle building and
the Southwestern Telephone Company
building. Passenger trains ran to
and from Houston’s Grand Central
Station and Union Station (now the
site of Minute Maid Park, home of the
Houston Astros), and the Humble Oil
and Refining Co. was barely a year old.
Florence Cummings Oldham, wife of Morris Oldham.
A CHURCHMAN FIRST…
Soon after his arrival in Houston Oldham joined
his adopted city’s First Baptist Church, already a
thriving congregation of nearly 1,000 members.
There he married Allene K. Grauman, also from
Springfield, in June of 1920. (She would die
unexpectedly in early 1928 at the age of 27; the
couple had no children). In 1927 Oldham joined
400 departing members of First Baptist Church
to establish Houston’s Second Baptist Church,
where he would worship and serve for nearly
three decades. Oldham was a deacon, a Sunday
School superintendent, a member of the finance
committee, the Forum Bible Class and the adult
choir. He is said to have personally covered
operating deficits incurred by his church more
than once during his term as finance chairman,
bringing his church “into the black” by year-end.
It was at Second Baptist Church that the
widower met and married his second wife,
Florence Miller Cummings, in 1937. Florence
was a long-time Houstonian and a widow with
no children, well-established in civic and church
service. Florence and Morris had no children together,
but she would come to play an active role
in the Foundation following his death in 1955.
Oldham’s well-known love for the Church
gained him a reputation as “God’s man doing
God’s work.” Oldham Little Church Foundation
founding trustee Carloss Morris, Jr. recalled his
friend’s passion for winning souls: “He and my
dad had come to the conclusion that proportionally,
more people were saved in small churches
than in larger ones, and [Mr. OIdham] wanted
to get the most souls won to Christ.”
Morris Oldham’s fellow churchmen would
become his trusted colleagues and advisors in this
effort after the formation of the Foundation in
1949. Second Baptist Pastor Dr. Kyle M. Yates
became a founding board member along with
Dr. Ross E. Dillon, Executive Director of the
Union Baptist Association; T. C. Gardner, head
of the Southern Baptist Convention Training
Union program for Texas; and Carloss Morris,
Oldham’s acting attorney by that time. This
nucleus of “Baptist brethren” set a steady course
for helping small evangelical Protestant churches
near and far to survive and thrive in winning
souls for Christ.
A BUSINESSMAN SECOND…
The one-man, one-wagon, one-horse operation
that began as Phenix Dairy grew to become a
multi-site dairy production and delivery company
serving Houston and its surrounding areas.
Morris Oldham’s “fleet” of delivery wagons grew
exponentially in the company’s first decade, and
trucks soon began replacing horse-drawn wagons.
The company championed traditional
Morris Oldham might have been
generous towards the Lord’s work, but
he wasn’t wasteful in anything. Jane
Elder, financial secretary at Second
Baptist Church from 1933-1945,
recalled a meeting between herself,
Oldham and then-pastor F. B. Thorn
about a financial matter. The three
met at Oldham’s office, then afterward
walked to the ice cream counter adjacent
to the dairy for a treat. Morris Oldham
himself served his pastor and Miss
Elder ice cream then announced,“That
will be 20 cents.” When Miss Elder
expressed surprise at the charge,
Oldham told her “You know I give
away money — but I sell ice cream!”
values of quality and service but was quite
progressive in its operations. Oldham named
his company after the bird that symbolized
immortality to the ancient Egyptians, making
sure his employees were able to have a stake in its
rising success. While he maintained controlling
interest, he also encouraged employee ownership
in Phenix by reducing the price of stock so that
workers might purchase as many shares as possible.
The dairy sponsored competitive baseball
teams for employees and operated retail ice
cream counters in its production facilities.
Early Phenix Dairy advertising featured
“Phenix Phil,” a cheerful, cartoon-like mascot
whose likeness appeared on milk bottles, paper
bottle caps, delivery crates, trucks, recipe booklets
and all manner of branded collectibles. A
contest was even held to recruit a “real” Phenix
Phil to make promotional appearances for the
company. The dairy’s main facility in the
Houston Heights featured a neon sign on its roof
shaped like a milk bottle together with Phil, and
a local radio station offered a children’s program
on Saturday with Phenix Phil as its host.
While Phenix Phil became a recognizable
celebrity, Morris Oldham preferred to remain
out of the spotlight. Many Houstonians knew his
name, but few would have recognized him had
they met him on their city’s streets. He drove
an old Plymouth, not an expensive, late-model
luxury Cadillac. He lived quietly in a four-bedroom,
Spanish-styled home on Pelham Drive in
River Oaks where he liked to practice chip shots
A Phenix Dairy deliveryman’s cap. Phenix Phil
was the name of the company’s cartoon mascot.
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in his backyard. He enjoyed golfing but was frugal
even in his favorite hobbies. Oldham’s widow gave
his golf bag, boots and Bible to his friend Carloss
Morris, who reportedly wore the boots but didn’t
find much life left in the golf bag. Stewart Morris,
Sr., Carloss’s younger brother, confirms its considerable
wear and tear: “I’ve seen that golf bag.
Not much there.”
The bible he received from Oldham, Carloss
kept open on a table in his library, underneath a
portrait of his father. “Written in the back of it,”
said Carloss, “was a scripture Pastor Kyle Yates
gave him…I John 5:11-13: ‘And this is the record,
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life;
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things I have written to you that you believe
on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know
that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on
the name of the Son of God.’” They were words
Oldham cherished and lived by.
Morris Oldham merged Phenix Dairy with
Foremost Dairies through an exchange of stock in
1952 and began to focus his energies entirely on
the Foundation he had created in 1949.
Every morning like clockwork, a fresh supply of Phenix milk
would magically appear at a customer’s back door
in exchange for another day’s empties.
CREATING LASTING GOOD
The original Trust document establishing the
Oldham Little Church Foundation was executed
on February 23, 1949, by Morris Calvin
Oldham, W. Carloss Morris, Dr. Kyle M. Yates,
Ross E. Dillon, and Dr. T. C. Gardner. All
five men were designated as Trustees, charged
equally “with the powers, rights, authority and
duties…necessary…in order to execute and administer
this Trust, together with the properties
and funds thereof, and to carry out and perform
the terms of this indenture according to the
true intent thereof.”
“The properties” included a tract of land in
Harris County’s “Hadley and Franklin Additon,”
known as “Block Twenty-Two (22),” purchased
by Morris Oldham in 1929 and in 1949 occupied
by the Earle North Buick Company;
another tract of Harris County land known as
“Block Four (4)” of the subdivision “Ten Acre
Lot Twenty-One (21)” comprised of three lots
purchased by Oldham in 1929 and 1937; and
a 1,765.74-acre ranch located in Texas’ Lavaca
and Colorado Counties, portions of which were
purchased by Oldham from 1928 - 1930.
The value of the “properties and funds
thereof” totaled $3 million at the Trust’s inception.
Morris Oldham served as President of the
Trust until his death in 1955, and retained sole
borrowing power against its assets while he
lived. The Trustees were appointed for life or as
long as they were willing and capable of serving,
and Mr. Oldham replaced them when necessary
at his discretion. The Trust’s provisions for
leadership and the leveraging of assets beyond
his lifetime were carefully spelled out in its
founding documents.
Oldham was also careful to stipulate what
the Trust was for, and not for. He aimed that his
assets be used “for religious and charitable purposes,”
but never “to carry on propaganda or to
influence legislation.” He desired that it be used
“for the aiding and helping of small Protestant
churches…spreading the doctrine of Christianity”
excepting the Catholic Church, stipulating
that the churches must be “non-profit organizations
organized for the purpose of spreading
Christianity.” Oldham left the definition of the
word “small” to the discretion of the Trustees
but initially suggested that a church “in excess of
three hundred (300) members is not considered
a small Church.” Further, he did not believe
at that time that “a Church which is paying its
pastor a salary in excess of $200.00 a month is
a small Church.” These, he said, were merely
“grantor’s present thoughts on the matter”;
he left final interpretation of “small” to “the
discretion of the Trustees.”
In the years that ensued, the Oldham Little
Church Foundation and its Trustees have honored
the intentions of its founder. Considering
“what Morris Oldham would do,” they have
operated under an evident — though unstated —
set of core values:
• Faith. Morris Oldham consistently voiced a passion for what he called “soul winning” and
demonstrated a desire to further the work of the small Church and the training of pastors as
evangelists.
• Focus. The Foundation and its board have consistently evaluated requests for funds against
the Founder’s original stated intent of aiding small churches in reaching their communities
for Christ.
• Contextual Awareness. Throughout its history the Foundation has demonstrated awareness
of current cultural trends and movements, market and investing trends and variations,
and even movements within evangelicalism.
• Stewardship. Growth of the Foundation from a $3 million Trust that awarded one $2,000
gift in 1949 to a Foundation that has generated over $44 million in grants to date has relied
upon sound principles of investment and management by its Directors.
• Relationships. Morris Oldham forged solid relationships during his lifetime with friends,
fellow church members, employees and colleagues. The relational aspect of the Foundation’s
work reflects his love and care for persons from all walks of life.
• Results. Morris Oldham aimed for results. He began his charitable work with the same eye
to outcomes that he had long valued in business. For decades, each Board of Directors meeting
of the Foundation included a current report on outcomes and a letter of thanks from a
grantee —evidence of the effectiveness of the work being done.
• Legacy. Oldham left no heirs, but untold thousands have “inherited” lasting good by his
hand. Since its inception, the Foundation has provided grants worth more than 14 times his
original investment and is solidly established to continue this good work in perpetuity.
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Left: Greenville Baptist, Burton,
TX - A $5,000 grant was
awarded in September, 2017
for drainage repair.
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A FOUNDER’S FAITH
Morris Oldham lived in an era when the open
expression of Christian faith in the public square
was not uncommon — but his passion for living
out the gospel would be considered exceptional
in any age.
While the story of how he came to a settled
belief in Christ as Savior is not known, Oldham’s
Christian faith powerfully shaped both his public
and private life. His contemporaries knew him
as a frugal, ruggedly individualistic business
pioneer with an abiding faith in the Lord and a
strong and steady devotion to the church. As a
charter member, deacon, finance chairman and
director of the Forum Bible Class at Houston’s
Second Baptist Church, Morris Oldham was
integrally involved in local congregational life.
Following the death of his first wife, Oldham
met widow and fellow church member Florence
Cummings. Both served on the church’s finance
committee and sang in the sanctuary choir.
Morris Oldham found in Florence a partner in
faith as well as an able ally in matters of investment
and philanthropy. The two were married
by Second Baptist Pastor F. B. Thorn in January
of 1937. Dr. Thorn’s assistant, Jane Elder, stood
up with Oldham and Florence at their wedding
ceremony. “At the wedding he kissed me, but he
married Florence,” Elder quipped. Elder forged
a lifelong friendship with the couple, becoming
especially close to Florence after Morris
Oldham’s death. Miss Jane would become the
Foundation’s third full-time employee in 1972,
assisting Florence in her service as its director.
Houston’s First Baptist Church, 1920s
As a businessman, Morris Oldham maintained
a solid reputation for unswerving ethics
and an almost fatherly concern for those in his
employ. Phenix Dairy workers were also shareholders,
something of an unusual arrangement at
that time. The company was generous to those in
need, partnering with local charity organizations
to supply milk to the poor, regardless of their
ability to pay. 1 Although he amassed a considerable
fortune in the dairy business, Oldham was
never wasteful, rather he was always mindful of
his responsibility to steward well what he had
earned. He gave “freely but wisely and drove a
Plymouth instead of a Cadillac,” The Houston Press
reported at the time of his death.
A story told by many recalls a well-known
evangelist who telephoned Oldham to ask for
a contribution to his radio program. When he
was promised a generous sum, the evangelist
said he would hail a taxi and come straightaway
to Oldham’s office to collect the check. “Nothing
doing,” Oldham replied. “We’ll save the taxi
fare if we both walk and meet halfway.” And so,
they did.
A SOUL WINNING PASSION
Oldham’s strong desire to wins souls to Christ
and his conviction that the small, local church
was best suited for that mission led him in
1949 to commit the fruits of his labor to the
Foundation bearing his name. But long before
then Morris Oldham was engaged in the Lord’s
work, operating with a quiet “back pocket
generosity” and often partnering with his good
friend Carloss Morris, Sr. to aid those faithbased
organizations in his sphere of influence.
Morris, Sr. and Oldham were key benefactors
from the earliest days of both Goodwill
Industries and Star of Hope Mission, where
both men served as directors. Although he had
no children himself, Oldham
also served as president of Boy
and Girl Builders of Houston,
and under his guidance
countless young boys and girls
became followers of Christ. It
was not unusual for Southern
Baptists or other evangelistic
groups to seek his assistance,
and he was consistently willing
to give it. When the Texas
Baptist Encampment in
Palacios, Texas, experienced
serious financial challenges,
Oldham and several of his associates
stepped up to assume the
immediate burden themselves.
Never one to hold back when new ideas
or programs for the Lord’s work were proposed,
Morris Oldham responded with typical
enthusiasm when called upon to assist with specific
projects, contributing both his time and
his money. Oldham’s spiritual leadership and
financial support helped make the 1952 Billy
Graham Crusade in Houston’s Rice Stadium an
overwhelming success; the evangelist spent five
weeks in the Bayou City between May and June
of that year, preaching the gospel to more than
462,000 people. 2
Billy Graham, Rice Stadium 1952
2 “Billy Graham’s crusades fi lled stadiums in Houston,” by Alyson Ward.
The Houston Chronicle, February 21, 2018.
A Resolution by the Board of Trustees of Star of Hope Mission issued upon Morris
Oldham’s death in 1955 stated: “…it is very rare when in the course of this life one is
privileged to associate with and know such a fine, born again Christian who gave of all
of his lifetime substance to the Lords’ work, who spent endless hours to encourage small
churches, who spent time and effort to see more souls making decisions for Christ, and
we observe that here truly was a man who lived the scripture set forth in Matthew: ‘Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where you treasure is there will you heart be also.’ We realize that it is very seldom
that you find a man who will turn over his all to the Lord and live in a modest manner so
that his money might be used for the ongoing of the Lord’s Kingdom. Morris C. Oldham
is indeed a rare jewel in the Lord’s crown.”
1 “Historically Houston: The Days of Dairy at Your Doorstep,” Houston
Remembered, accessed at http://www.sloanegallery.com/historically_houston_2005.htm
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When Graham’s World Wide Pictures
announced plans for a new religious film,
Oiltown, U.S.A., Carloss Morris, Sr. convened
a luncheon to raise funds for the movie
and invited some of the city’s most prominent
Christian businessmen, including Morris
Oldham, to join him. Upon hearing
Graham’s plans for the evangelistic film and
the need for immediate underwriting, Oldham
told Morris and the other attendees that he
would personally guarantee any portion of
the needed $75,000 not raised that very day.
His spontaneous generosity prompted on-thespot
commitments from others, too, and the
full amount was quickly raised.
In addition to his personal contributions
as a lay leader to Houston’s First Baptist
Church and the Second Baptist Church of
Houston, through his Foundation Oldham
aided other Houston-area churches still in
operation today. Sagemont Baptist Church
received funds from the Oldham Little Church
Foundation at a critical stage of its growth
in 1966; Bethel Independent Presbyterian
Church was the recipient of generous loans
from the Foundation in 1964 and 1969 that
allowed the church to retain and improve its
property. Oldham Foundation funds were also
critical to the start-up of Sugar Creek Baptist
Church (sponsored by South Main Baptist
Church), paying one-half of the pastor’s annual
salary for two full years, beginning in 1974.
Oiltown, U.S.A. was one of the first
movies produced by the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association’s World Wide
Pictures. The film debuted in 1954
and was filmed in Houston — partly in
the home of Raymond E. Hankamer,
who served the Oldham Little Church
Foundation as a director and director
emeritus from 1956 - 2005.
Oiltown, U.S.A. album cover, 1953
From the first days of the Oldham Little
Church Foundation, men of faith partnered
with Morris Oldham to lead the work. Directors
often convened in the office of Second
Baptist Church pastor and founding trustee
Kyle M. Yates, and without fail, board meetings
began with prayer. Oldham frequently
emphasized the importance of “soul winning”
or evangelism and it was common for churches
receiving grants from the Foundation to report
their baptisms to the board; at one such meeting
Oldham opined that “all churches should
place more emphasis on soul-winning and
should have soul-winning classes and…classes
of instruction for new converts training them
in soul-winning.” 3
The subject of soul winning was raised
again nearly a year later, when “it was decided
that the Foundation should assist small churches
by helping them set up and organize Soulwinning
Classes and methods…to strengthen
Also in 1959, the trustees granted
$1,000 to the Institute of Religion in
Houston’s Texas Medical Center for
the “training of pastors in bedside
manners and as a go-between between
the family and the patient and between
the bereaved patient and the doctor.”
Thirty-three of the 36 pastors funded
completed the six-week training
regimen. 6
new-born Christians in the faith,” and that
“Morris C. Oldham be authorized to do such
things as may be necessary or convenient to
implement this program.” 4 Shortly before
his death in 1955, Oldham hired a “religious
specialist” to conduct soul-winning classes
for small churches, serving as long as such
assistance was needed at each church. 5
Oldham’s influential love for the teaching
and preaching of the gospel in order to win
souls to Christ would shape the decisions of the
many Foundation trustees who followed him.
Asking, “What would our Founder do?” often
helped trustees determine which of the many
funding requests they received to approve.
Aware that many smaller churches employed
bi-vocational pastors or depended upon
visiting pastors or pastors-in-training for
weekly pulpit supply, in 1959 the Foundation
granted funds to cover the traveling expenses
of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
students to churches where they preached on
weekends. It was unanimously agreed by Foundation
trustees “that this would be a wonderful
opportunity to aid small churches across the
country.” 6 The small church and its need for
support was never far from Morris Oldham’s
mind. Because of his strong faith, he and his
successors would focus their energies on its
health and productivity for the good of
God’s kingdom.
3 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes, May 5, 1953.
4 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes, May 27, 1954.
5 Encyclopedia of American Biography, New Series; OLDHAM,
Morris Calvin, p. 80
6 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
September 29, 1959.
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“FAITH IS OUR FOUNDATION FOR
ALL OF LIFE…”
Gregg Matte, Pastor,
Houston’s First Baptist Church
Morris Oldham joined Houston’s First
Baptist Church not long after his arrival in
the city in 1914. The church was already 73
years old. Thirteen years later he would join
nearly 400 members leaving First Baptist to
found the Second Baptist Church of Houston.
The Oldham Little Church Foundation
has maintained significant ties to both
congregations throughout its history. Gregg
Matte, the 35th pastor of Houston’s First
Baptist Church, challenges the sacred/secular
dichotomy of work and encourages all believers
in Christ to be difference makers, regardless
of their vocation: “You were made for
more than watching,” says Matte. “You have a
history-changing, difference-making, lifegiving,
Spirit-empowered legacy to leave. As
Jesus works deeply in you and clearly through
you, you will be a difference maker.” 7
Q: Morris Oldham was a successful businessman
who loved the Church and used his secular
gifts to support its “soul winning” efforts. Does
the church need those same gifts today?
A: The ‘your work is secular/mine is sacred’
dichotomy is a false one. I’m a Christian who
happens to be a pastor. Morris Oldham was a
Christian who happened to be a dairyman. But
for every believer our primary identity is who
we are in Christ. Whose we are. I John 4:9 says
that God’s love was revealed to us in this way:
that God sent his one and only Son into the
world so that we might live through him.
Whatever we do for a living, we want to live
through Jesus in our work — and let Jesus live
through us — so that we might make a difference
in this world.
If every one of us was a pastor, we’d be
missing out on touching a lot of lives for
Christ. Not everyone is going to come to
church, or hear a pastor preach. But they may
still hear the gospel through the Christians
they come in contact with every day. For
every businessman or woman who practices
their vocation with integrity and faith, there’s
a winsomeness in your retail establishment,
your downtown office or your Energy Corridor
cubicle. You are the embedded light of Christ,
the aroma of Christ, in the world! The average
person spends far more time at work than he
or she does in church, yet our faith is the
foundation for all of life.
Q: Megachurches like Houston’s First are more
common today than ever before, yet a recent
study notes that more than half of the churches
in America fall below triple digits in weekly
worship attendance. 8 Is the small church still
significant today?
A: It is. Typically, preachers like church “big.”
We want to preach to a big room and reach as
many folks as we can. But people do still love
the intimacy of smaller settings. Small churches
have mattered throughout history and they
will continue to matter in the future. They’re
the fabric of Christianity. God was using small
gatherings from the Church’s very beginning.
In Acts 2 Peter preached and thousands were
saved, but they went home from Jerusalem to
form small house churches in the towns where
they lived and worked. There’s no way the
small church is ever going away. It’s too established,
too core. It will always be there. And
the resourcing of it — which the Oldham Little
Church Foundation does so faithfully — will
always be necessary. A small church still has
facilities that need upkeep in order to continue
reaching out to its community — and it has a
limited base of supply to pay for those things.
So when the Foundation is able to come in and
say, “We can help you with that new roof, help
you with that project,” that little jump start
can become a powerful thing.
Q: You were a business major in college, and
essentially a young entrepreneur in founding a
successful college ministry, Breakaway, at Texas
Gregg Matte
in his study Feburary 5, 2019
A&M University. If you had become a business
executive and not a pastor, how would you
imagine serving the church?
A: Well, first, I’d be giving. And encouraging.
After being a pastor for 15 years, I know
first-hand what a gift encouragement from the
laity is to those of us in vocational ministry.
I’m overwhelmed with the encouragement and
prayers I receive on a daily basis. I need them.
I know people are praying, and the prayers of
the people mean so much. And I hope I’d be
offering my knowledge and expertise to the
Church, too. The encouragement and advice I
receive from those in the business community
is invaluable. We have a staff of 200. Some of
the executives in our church manage companies
of 2,000 or more. They get it. They know it’s
not easy to engage so many with a single focus,
a single goal. Every once in a while I’ll see a
kind of “holy jealousy” when someone says,
“You get to do this God-thing all the time and
I have to think about pipelines or product life
cycles or personnel challenges, then try to
minister to someone.” But if I were a business
person in the community I hope I’d do what so
many that I know do — live out my faith boldly
in my daily environment and also leverage
my strengths and my wisdom on behalf of my
church. Morris Oldham was a fantastic example
of that.
Q: Are there significant gifts or givers that stand
out in your mind as Pastor of Houston’s First?
A: Some of the greatest ones have been secret.
They’re people that no one could name, or
gifts that hardly anyone knows of. I’m thinking
of one family that has consistently given
amounts that would not be considered large
— but they’ve done it so faithfully over such a
long time that the cumulative impact has been
unbelievable. This man and his family…you’d
just never know the contribution they’ve made
over time. Sometimes we lift up the big gifts
really high, and we honor that because a big
gift can make a real difference — and quickly.
We can only be obedient with what we have,
and God does the rest.
I look at Breakaway now, about to celebrate
30 years. I was around for the first 15, and
yes, I planted a seed. I tended it and worked
hard to water it. But it has continued to grow
far beyond that. I get a lot of credit for things
I didn’t do! Something was begun that was an
organic idea of the Lord. That’s what I think has
happened with the Oldham Foundation. What
Morris Oldham began others have sustained,
and God has blessed many, many churches because
of it. It’s not, “Little church, you’re going
to get $10,000 a year every year from now on.”
It’s “We’re going to take this one-time gift, this
specific amount, and light a fuse. But it’s God
who’s going to ignite the spark, pop the firecracker.
He’s the one who creates lasting good
from our simple obedience.”
7 Matte, Gregg. Difference Makers: How to Live a Life of Impact and
Purpose, B&H Books, Nashville, TN, 2019.
8 https://factsandtrends.net/2016/02/24/majority-of-americanchurches-fall-below-100-in-worship-attendance/
20 21

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Left: Pageville Missionary Baptist
Church, Richmond, TX - A
$7,000 grant was awarded in
March, 2010 for the purchase of
3
pews, tables and chairs following
a fire that rendered the church a
total loss.
22 23
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HELPING THE SMALL CHURCH
Neither Houston church attended by Morris
Oldham could be considered a small church by
the mid-20th century. Both Houston’s First
Baptist Church and Second Baptist Church
boasted thousands of members and were among
the largest houses of worship in the city when
Oldham belonged to them. Nevertheless,
Oldham felt the small church was integral to
the spread of the gospel and it was the small
church he labored to support.
There was no equivocation about this;
the documents that established the Oldham
Foundation Trust (incorporated as the Oldham
Little Church Foundation in 1995) made the
founder’s intent crystal clear.
The assets transferred by Oldham into the
Foundation Trust at its inception were to be
“together with all additions and accretions
thereto by all other and further gifts or additions
to said Trust, and all rents, revenues, dividends,
income and profit …held, used, managed and
administered for religious and charitable purposes
in the manner and according to the
provisions herein set forth.”
Those provisions specifically instructed
that the Foundation trustees “in their absolute
discretion as to amounts, shall use and apply the
income of the Trust property, as defined by the
Texas Trust Act and all amendments thereto…
for the aiding and helping of small Protestant
Churches. By Protestant is meant all Churches
spreading the doctrine of Christianity except
the Catholic Church.”
The delineation of Protestant from Catholic
churches was not prejudicial; Oldham intended
no disrespect to any Catholic believer. He simply
observed Protestant churches to be centered on
“soul winning,” and noted also that the small
Catholic church, by virtue of its centralized polity,
tended to be much more consistently funded
that the typical small Protestant church.
With this general dictum, Oldham empowered
Foundation trustees to aid and help small
churches “by lending them money, making
donations to them or in such other manner as
the Trustees shall see fit.” As for the definition
of a “small” church, Oldham gave initial guidelines,
but he offered them as suggestions only.
In his view, a small church in 1949 would have
fewer than 300 members and pay its pastor no
more than $200 a month. In the ensuing years,
trustees would continue to adjust and refine
those guidelines while maintaining the founder’s
focus on the “small” church.
What would those gifts, in the form of
grants, be used for? Trustees did not fund
requests toward any work or goods already
contracted or ordered, as they did not fund debt
of any kind. Likewise, they did not assist in the
purchase of property, or the building of parsonages.
But in truth, each grant has been as unique
as the church requesting it. In 2008, one small
Tennessee church requested funds for indoor
restrooms “due to elders in attendance”;
the request was granted. While the church’s
membership fell slightly below the desired
threshold, the trustees voted to fund construction
of the bathrooms, perhaps compelled by
the color photographs of men’s and women’s
outhouses attached to the request!
During its first year of operation, the
Foundation made a single grant for $2,000. The
next year (1950), 37 grants were made for a total
of $24,309; in 1955 (the year of Morris Oldham’s
death) 64 grants were made for $21,655.
By its 10th year, 1959, the Foundation had
made a cumulative total of 981 grants for
$622,224 — generosity that represented more
than 20% of the Foundation’s original investment.
As requests continued to grow, the trustees
continued to invest and manage the Foundation’s
assets of cash, stocks and bonds, lands and
buildings wisely for maximum kingdom impact.
Morris Oldham would have no doubt been
quite pleased with their work.
The funding request for indoor plumbing for the Unicoi Chapel Baptist Church read in
part, “We are a country church with no inside bathrooms. Along with the congregation
of older and younger members, we often have visitors who have to go outside to use the
restrooms. Not only in the cold where they could fall on snow or ice…[but] mothers with
babies who have no feel of cleanliness for their babies. We would like to offer our church
and its visitors, from babies to older, inside restrooms. I have enclosed some pictures
of our church. It is a very old church filled with the Holy Spirit and love. Thank you,
Unicoi Chapel Baptist Church.” Oldham Little Church Foundation President and CEO
Ed Finlay traveled to Tennessee to deliver the grant check of $5,000 in person.
Phenix Dairy
workers were offered
stock options in the
company for reduced
sums to encourage
employee ownership.
24 25

HELPING SMALL CHURCHES BY
HELPING OTHER MINISTRIES
Beginning in its second decade, Foundation
trustees began to consider new ways to help small
churches in addition to direct grants. In 1959,
Carloss Morris moved that the Foundation give
Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU) a sum
of $1,000 a year for three years to “send teams
to little churches…for the purpose of evangelism
and training church members in personal soul
winning.” 1 The motion unanimously carried.
This creative way of assisting small churches
in evangelistic outreach was characteristic of
similar efforts to come, but each request made
by an organization other than a small church was
considered critically, and on its own merits. For
example, later that same year a request by another
evangelistic organization, Youth for Christ
Greater Houston, was denied because “it perhaps
does not lie within the scope of the Foundation…
unless further information [be] given establishing
direct connection with small churches.” 2
In 1961 the Foundation decided to assist
the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with
a sum of $350 a month to put a full-time pastor
to work with smaller churches on the Hawaiian
Islands, with a Honolulu radio station, KAIM,
paying the other half of his compensation. 3
Also in 1961 the Foundation granted a sum of
$30,000 to Peach Creek Encampment “to build
dormitories to house delegates of small churches
sent to the encampment, which churches could
not afford to establish their own housing on the
encampment.” 4 Another grant was made to the
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1965
to support the training of Greater Houston
Crusade counsellors from small churches, as
well as sending BGEA associate evangelists to
speak at small churches. 5
It was not uncommon for the Trustees
to support the preaching efforts of individual
evangelists, including men like Cliff Brannon
of Longview, Texas, who was compensated for
conducting revival services in small, East Texas
churches in 1963. 6 Again and again, the Trustees
measured grant requests against the proposed
project’s ability to aid the small church in its
important ministry of winning souls to Christ.
SMALL CHURCHES STILL TRENDING
Given the growing trend toward evangelical,
multi-site megachurches — do small churches
still exist — and do they still need help to fulfill
their role? A National Congregation Study
overseen by Duke Divinity School and funded by
the Lily Endowment indicates the answer to both
questions is an emphatic“yes.” While the study
suggests that most American churchgoers attend
a church with a median attendance of 400 and
an annual budget of $479,000 — there are still
more smaller churches than large ones, and those
numbers are growing. “The typical American
congregation is small,” according to the study,
“with a median weekend attendance of about 76
people.” Among those small churches the average
annual budget is about $85,000 and most of
these churches (84%) own their own building.
About half have one full-time minister and about
a third have no full-time staff at all. Sixty percent
of small church congregants are women.
Given these challenging demographics,
it appears the need for help for these small
churches is still a pressing one. Morris Oldham’s
decades-old focus on the small church — and
his visionary provision for it — have proven as
critical as ever.
1 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, April 20, 1959.
2 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, September 29, 1959.
3 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, May 22, 1961.
4 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, June 19, 1961.
5 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, June 3, 1965.
6 Oldham Little Church Foundation, Board of Directors meeting
minutes, October 15, 1963.
“KEEPING THE MAIN THING,
THE MAIN THING…”
Hank Rush, President & CEO, Star of Hope Mission
The histories of the Oldham Little Church
Foundation and Houston’s Star of Hope
Mission have intertwined for many years.
Both nonprofit organizations were born of
the vision of a deeply committed Christian
founder who saw a pressing need and conceived
a way to meet it. The Star of Hope
was only five years old when Morris Oldham
arrived in Houston — and although there is
no record of it, Star of Hope founder Rev.
Dennis Peveto and Oldham almost surely
met one another. Both Carloss Morris, Sr.
and Morris Oldham served on the Star of
Hope’s Board of Directors, with Morris,
Sr. serving until his death in 1950. Carloss
Morris, Jr., who drafted the legal documents
establishing the Oldham Little Church
Foundation, served as a Star of Hope
Director for decades after his father. In
1956 OLCF deeded a 50-acre farm property
near Hockley, Texas, to Star of Hope and the
mission operated it for a number of years. In
1969 Oldham Little Church Foundation voted
to give the Star of Hope Mission a grant to
purchase and move a church on to the farm
to be used by small churches wishing to hold
services there.
Q: Both the Oldham Little Church Foundation
and Star of Hope Mission were begun through
the efforts of entrepreneurial founders with a
singular focus. What significance has that focus
had through Star of Hope’s history?
A: Star of Hope’s goal is simple: to end homelessness
one life, one family at a time. This
has been our focus since our founding in
1907. Very early on, we observed that “change
typically starts with a warm meal and a place to
sleep.” We’ve found that statement still holds
1 Peveto, Dennis Rupert, From Plow to Pulpit, An Autobiography of
Dennis Rupert Peveto, ii. Unpublished.
Morris Oldham served faithfully on the Star of Hope Board
of Directors, as did OLCF Trustees Carloss Morris, Sr., and
Carloss Morris, Jr.
26 27

true today.
In the beginning, the homeless population
of Houston was almost exclusively male. Star of
Hope was born when evangelist Mordecai Ham
(whose preaching Billy Graham says led to his
conversion) came to Houston in the Fall and
Winter of 1906 and 1907 to lead a revival. All
the major churches of Houston were involved —
First Methodist Church, First Baptist Church,
First Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal
Diocese… the revival was going on up and down
Main Street. One night after a revival service a
group of church men hit the streets to meet the
people and found a dozen homeless men living
under the two bridges near Allen’s Landing.
The church men were shocked that someone’s
life could have fallen so far as to be living under
a bridge and vowed to do something about it.
One of those men was our Founder, Rev.
Dennis Peveto, an assistant pastor at First
Baptist Church. Later, on a steamer traveling
from New Orleans to Richmond, Virginia
and then New York, Peveto had a dream about
founding a mission in his home city, envisioning
“the name, the chapel, the dormitory, the
lunch counter, the rest and reading room,
the employment bureau,” and when he returned
to Houston, he did. 1
Today the face of homelessness has
changed, but our focus has not. We now serve
men, women and children — because families,
single mothers with children, experience
homelessness, too. Most of the men we see are
street homeless. Seventy percent of the adults
we serve have addiction issues, and almost all of
the children have suffered some kind of abuse,
either physical or emotional. Our goal is to end
their homelessness, helping them to find new
life in Jesus Christ — and to achieve successful
independent living.
Hank Rush
in the Star of Hope offices
January 28, 2019
Q: How important has Star of Hope’s faith
focus been to its continued success?
A: Star of Hope is part of the body of Christ.
Christians from all over the city participate
in our work — we have 5,000 to 6,000 volunteers
a year. Over 60 churches and affiliate
groups provide evening worship services at our
Men’s Center week in and week out, and 200
churches that are involved with Star of Hope
in some way in any given year. Together, we all
do this amazing ministry. We’re one of the top
10 largest non-profit ministries in the city of
Houston, and we’ve always been thoroughly
evangelical. People know what we stand for;
there’s no question.
We are housing and serving 1,400 individuals
every day. We have 400 women and
children in permanent housing and extended
services. They are coming in crisis: homeless
men, men coming out of prison on parole,
single women, single moms and their children.
Almost all government funding today is toward
permanent housing, but housing without rehabilitation,
without recovery, without addressing
the issues of addiction — is basically a revolving
door. The gains are temporary, not permanent.
We’re a member of a group of associated gospel
rescue missions called City Gate whose aim is to
address the issues that keep people from moving
forward to establish themselves and achieve
successful, independent living. We do that by
helping them find new life in Christ, new faith.
At our Men’s Development Center we hold
18 preaching services a week — three times a
day, six days a week. At every Board of Directors
meeting we address the number of men,
women and children who have professed faith
in Jesus Christ. We’ve always done it. We still
do it. In that way, we’re keeping the main thing,
the main thing.
Q: Are there any more Dennis Pevetos today?
Any more Morris Oldhams?
A: Absolutely. There are folks very much like
them in today’s world — deep, sustaining,
ministry-minded givers who quietly support
and who know how to help. They’re here in
our city: professionals well into their careers
seeking to lift others up. Executives in early
retirement with tremendous gifts of leadership
and expertise. I pray that the next generation
coming behind them will have the same focus,
because that’s what it takes. Churches that give
through their budgets and deploy thousands
of volunteers from their membership; family
foundations that love this kind of work. Many
of these folks are “quiet philanthropists” like
Morris Oldham was. They’re not well-known
in social circles, perhaps, but when God moves
their heart, they get moving and things get
done. Dennis Peveto’s grandchildren still come
to our annual Star of Hope Banquet every year,
so our founder’s legacy of faithful presence
among those in need continues to this day.
28 29

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Left: The Living Rock Missionary
Baptist Church, New Orleans,
Louisiana – 2012-2016 multiple 4
grants for electrical, HVAC, plumbing
and paving following Hurricane
Isaac. Total $37,000.
30 31
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TRANSLATING FOUNDING
PRINCIPLES
Small churches. Soul winning. These were the
stated focus of Morris Oldham in establishing
the Oldham Little Church Foundation. For the
next six years, these two priorities continued to
guide Oldham’s decision making and after his
passing, that of Florence Oldham Weaver and
the Oldham trustees.
In 1965 for example, the trustees unanimously
granted “$1,000 to Maize Road Baptist
Church, Columbus, Ohio, to apply to a part of
the salary of a man to work for the church whose
responsibility would be to train each member
to be a soul winner, and to stress the fact that all
members of the church let Christ work through
their lives.” 1
A year later in 1966, “It was unanimously
decided that the Foundation spend $10,000 a
year sending ministers to small churches to help
them in evangelistic and soul winning programs.”
2 While this annual sum did not represent
a grant to a specific small church, it represented
a means to aid numerous small churches in their
ongoing evangelistic efforts.
In the early 1970s the trustees helped
fund evangelistic outreaches on behalf of small
churches through the ministries of speakers like
Billy Hanks, Jr., a former intern with the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association, and others.
The support of these itinerant evangelists coin-
cided with the rise of The Jesus Movement — a
youth revival groundswell that began on the West
Coast and spread through the United States and
Europe, causing many young “hippies” to abandon
drugs and turn to Christ. Funds granted to
Hanks and other young evangelists supported
revival meetings “in the smaller communities
of the United States.” 3
In a 1972 Board meeting, trustee Raymond
Hankamer read a thank you letter sent in connection
with one of Billy Hanks’ crusades in
Colorado City. John McIntyre also read a thank
you letter from a crusade in Brazil, and Florence
Weaver read another. “These letters never cease
to give us inspiration and satisfaction at being in
this work,” minutes from that meeting reflected.
Holding firmly to its founding precepts, the
Foundation continues to translate those precepts
year after year in response to the prevailing
social, financial and spiritual environment.
During the “Jesus
Movement” of the
early to mid-70s, the
Foundation supported
several large youth
gatherings, and
provided scholarships
for students to attend
others on behalf
of small congregations.
SOCIAL CONTEXT
Harry Truman was President in 1949. The U.S.
flag sported 48 stars and the economy was in an
11-month, post-war downturn. Mao Tse Tung
proclaimed the communist People’s Republic of
China that year, the Geneva Convention was ratified,
and the Cold War had begun. A man could
fill his Ford or Studebaker or Plymouth with gas
for 17 cents a gallon and a typical family’s average
annual income was less than $3,000. This was
Morris Oldham’s world when he sold the Phenix
Dairy and created his Trust.
The 1950s launched an era of tremendous
social change — nationwide and also in
Oldham’s adopted home city. As the Foundation
ended its first full decade of operation
with Oldham’s widow Florence at the helm,
Houston was home to the largest African
American population of any city in the South.
With its churches solidly segregated and the
Civil Rights Act five years away, the all-
In early 1972 a motion carried for “ten black students to
be financed at the rate of $75 each to go to Explo ’72…
to create a training for these in soul-winning so that
they would go back into their own small churches with
this knowledge and ability.” Explo ’72 was an evangelistic
conference sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ.
Caucasian board of trustees in 1959 approved
a grant for “Providence Baptist Church (colored),
Houston, TX” for $300, 5 and another
three years later to Greater Mt. Pilgrim Baptist
Church in Houston’s historic 5th Ward for 50
folding chairs for approximately $4.25 each. 6
Both grants were in line with the Foundation’s
stated values: Providence and Mt. Pilgrim were
small churches winning souls to Christ. The
consideration of the current social context did
not always lead trustees to go with the flow, but
in at least a few instances, to challenge prevailing
norms and anticipate positive change.
Trustees also responded to environmental
needs when natural disasters threatened the
viability of small churches. In 1969 the Board
deliberated on how best to aid those churches
devastated by Hurricane Camille — a Category 5
storm causing more than $1.4 billion in damages
along the Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana
coasts. In 1982 trustees made the unprecedented
decision to grant $15,500 to rebuild the Victory
Baptist Church in Paris, Texas, six months after
a deadly F4 tornado completely destroyed it. 7
As the race to space captivated America
in the 1960s and early 70s, the Board “heard
from Dr. Bill Rittenhouse of Nassau Bay Baptist
Church about [the] potential for astronaut Jim
Irwin’s ‘High Flight Foundation’ for presenting
the gospel of Jesus Christ to the small churches
around the world.” 8 Irwin was the lunar module
pilot of Apollo 15, the fourth lunar landing,
and was the eighth and last person to walk on
the moon.
5 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
January 27, 1959.
6 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
May 22, 1962.
7 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
September 14, 1982.
8 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
August 24, 1972.
1 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
November 9, 1965.
2 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
June 16, 1966.
3 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
February 18, 1971.
4 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
May 18, 1972.
32 33

FINANCIAL CONTEXT
The original Trust, which was denominated the
“Oldham Little Church Foundation” dedicated
“certain real and personal property to public
usefulness” by Morris Oldham, “to provide a
means and instrumentality which may be used by
him in applying additional property to similar
[religious and charitable] purposes.” The assets
conveyed were all Oldham’s; the Trust granted
and conveyed these to the original five trustees
and their successors “TO HAVE AND TO
HOLD…forever.” 9
The intent, of course, was that they would
be managed and grown in perpetuity, so that the
trustees might “invest and reinvest any funds
from time to time arising or accruing through
the receipt or collection of investments, income,
revenues, profits, proceeds from the sale
of properties, or otherwise, using their best
judgment in such investing and re-investing.” 10
Until his death, Oldham as grantor gave “express
approval in writing to the borrowing of any…
funds.” 11
With a generation scarred by the market
crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the
1930s, most people in the 1940s and early 50s
were leery of investing in stocks. In fact, it was
only in 1954 that the Dow Jones Average surpassed
its 1929 peak, a full 25 years after the
crash. Investment choices in the 1950s were also
somewhat limited. The great mutual fund boom
was still years away, and the concept of overseas
investing was non-existent.
The first stock purchases by the Foundation
were noted in Board minutes of March 12,
1954, when stocks reached their highest point
post-Depression. All were all made by Morris
Oldham: American Barge; Consolidated General
Products; Continental Fidelity Investment,
Inc.; Dallas Railway and Terminal; Empire
Petroleum; Foremost Dairies (by far the largest
purchase at $665,526.00); Gulf Federated Feed
Assoc.; Jack & Heintz, Inc.; Madings Drug;
National Tank; Pan American Sulphur; Peden
Iron & Steel; Punta Alegre Sugar; River Brand
Rice; Textiles Incorporated; Trinity Petroleum
Trust; West Indies Sugar. 12
That the original Trust granted investment
powers to its trustees and their successors was
important; it gave the trustees leverage and
relieved them of the pressure to raise funds.
It also assigned them significant responsibility to
remain constantly abreast of financial trends and
engaged in the investing and managing process.
In early 1975, Board meeting minutes reflect
a lengthy discussion of the general economy,
including an earlier drop in the stock market in
1974, and the effect of high interest rates, the
general recession and a drop in new housing
starts on the real estate market.
By using their collective acumen, Oldham
Little Church Foundation trustees have continued
to grow the Foundation’s assets with an
entrepreneurial spirit not unlike that of Morris
Oldham himself, and in more recent years, to
utilize the assistance of three active investment
advisors and measure ongoing investment performance
against current market benchmarks.
RELIGIOUS CONTEXT
The Foundation’s granting over the decades has
also reflected the movements of evangelicalism
— both at home, and abroad. Although always
focused on ways to aid the small church, the
Foundation also recognized the contributions of
campus ministries like the Navigators, Campus
Crusade for Christ (now CRU) and Young Life
in evangelizing young people.
In 1954 trustees authorized a loan of
$170,000 to the Navigators secured by a lien
against Glen Eyrie, the ministry’s Colorado
Springs headquarters. Thirteen months later
they agreed to the sale of $150,000 of the note
to Navigators to three Colorado Springs banks.
Morris Oldham was quite supportive of the
Navigators and their founder, Dawson Trotman.
Trotman’s daughter Ruth was one of the Foundation’s
first employees.
In the early 1960s Houston’s religious
landscape was enhanced with the addition of
Houston Baptist College — a new university
whose providential beginnings provided new
opportunities for educating those in vocational
service. In 1963 “It was decided that the Foundation
should expend up to $10,000 in grants
to small churches to be used for the purpose of
their pastors, music directors, organists, pianists,
church missionaries and other Christian
workers in small churches to attend the Houston
Baptist College for additional training,” and “it
was envisioned that this would greatly strengthen
the small churches whose pastors and other
workers do not have sufficient training to properly
carry on for the Lord in their churches.” 13
In the Spring of 1963 when the Baptist
General Convention of Texas and the First Baptist
Church of Dallas, Texas, launched the Japan
New Life Crusade, the Foundation arranged
to send persons to aid small churches in Tokyo
during the crusade. 14 Florence Weaver reported
that year that “over 5,000 souls had been won
to Christ in the Japanese crusade.” 15
In July 1974, over 2,400 participants from
150 nations gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland,
for the First International Congress on World
Evangelization. TIME magazine described it as
‘a formidable forum, possibly the widest-ranging
meeting of Christians ever held’.
Where the winds of the gospel were blowing,
the Foundation was seeking to respond.
9 Founding document, the Oldham Little Church Foundation,
February 23, 1949.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
March 12, 1954.
13 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
October 15, 1963.
14 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
September 25, 1962.
15 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
April 17, 1963.
“WE’RE TRANSLATORS. YOU MUST
TRANSLATE YOUR MISSION, YOUR
VISION.”
Robert B. Sloan, President,
Houston Baptist University
Shortly after the charter of Houston Baptist
College in 1960, a task force of five men
including “founding father” Stewart Morris,
Sr., then a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Oldham Little Church Foundation,
drafted a formal statement describing the nature
of the new institution. They envisioned
“a Christian liberal arts college…dedicated
to the development of moral character, the
enrichment of spiritual lives, and perpetuation
of growth in Christian ideals.” 16 They
asserted that “Founded under the providence
of God…HOUSTON BAPTIST COLLEGE
shall stand as a witness for Jesus Christ, expressed
directly through its administration,
faculty and students.” 17 Since that time HBU
has flourished, in no small measure due to
its ability to continually translate its original
vision to its current context.
Q: How important is it for any institution,
business or organization to be cognizant of and
responsive to the changing context or environment
in which it exists?
A: I can’t think of anything much more
important for any organization than to be
cognizant of its surroundings. On the one
hand, you have the history, the tradition,
the brand reputation and core values of your
organization, and on the other hand you have
the environment in which you operate. You
are constantly taking those core commitments
and translating them into where you are.
16 Looser, Don. An Act of Providence: A History of Houston Baptist
University, 1960-2010, Halcyon Press Ltd., 2010; p. 25.
17 Ibid.
34 35

We’re translators. You must translate your
vision, your mission, into your current setting
whether that setting is five days or five hundred
years from the time you began.
Q: Why are some institutions able to thrive and
adapt over time and others are not?
Q: Morris Oldham was an entrepreneur whose
success enabled him to establish the Oldham
Little Church Foundation. HBU was established
through the entrepreneurial drive of men like
Stewart Morris, whom you mentioned. Why are
entrepreneurship and free enterprise so critical
for a flourishing society?
A: It’s a matter of keeping those two things —
core values or commitments and your current
context — in tension. You never give up your
core values. If you do you’re doomed to failure.
You might still exist as an entity, but you won’t be
the same entity. And if you ever cease to translate
those values to your present context, likewise,
you will fail. One of the stages of death is that
you work to survive rather than to fulfill your
mission. It’s all about leadership. That’s why you
need founders like Morris Oldham. You need
that visional purpose.
Q: What are some of the greatest challenges facing
Christian organizations — schools, churches,
non-profit ministries — in the next decade?
A: The same forces that plague every business
and organization in our culture today plague
churches, charitable foundations and universities.
The encroaching environment of regulation is
a great challenge. Twenty or 30 years ago you
would have seen no one at a university working
in the area of compliance and now compliance is
a business. Whether you’re talking about medicine,
banking, insurance, energy, small businesses
or universities, increased regulation presents
a great danger of loss of freedom, loss of respect
for entrepreneurship. When you create an environment
where risk is no longer feasible you kill
off great institutions. Loss of religious freedom,
restrictions on freedom of speech — these are
very damaging to institutions. The homogenizing
of cultural values to the point where you’re
considered offensive if you’re not aligned with
everyone else is a challenge. Financial challenges
are a function of these deeper problems. The
loss of freedom, a compliance environment, a
highly litigious society…these go hand in hand.
Robert B. Sloan
HBU campus, January 29, 2019
Q: Early in your tenure of leadership at HBU
you established a vision for the University’s
future known as the Ten Pillars. What cultural or
contextual issues did you and your team consider
in drafting this visionary document?
A: First, we were looking at Houston — at our
city. It’s a place with great entrepreneurial spirit,
thriving in energy resources, real estate, banking
and technology. It has an international feel,
diversity, [coastal access with] the ship channel...
and it’s such a philanthropic city. It has the energy
of a [place like] New York City yet with deeply
faithful values. That’s why all these entrepreneurial
people like Stewart Morris and others were
here — and that’s fertile ground for flourishing
for a university. You tend to find great Catholic
schools in major cities, but you don’t typically
find great Protestant colleges and universities
there. Those are more often located in small
towns, not great cities — but HBU was here,
Mrs. Florence Oldham Woltman (far right) was the first woman elected
to serve on the Houston Baptist University Board in 1961. She is pictured
here at the groundbreaking ceremony for HBU’s academic quadrangle in
May of 1962.”
in what is now the third largest city in the United
States. So, we considered the city.
And we considered HBU. You start with
the university or the organization as it is. To
get better you have to have standards, to know
where you are. Then you raise the standards and
develop strategies to get there. I came to HBU
in 2006 when HBU was 46. We’d made unbelievable
progress for a school at that time. We
had historic strengths in nursing, business and
theology. You start with what you have and get
better at what you do, looking at ways to expand.
You build off your strengths to other mission-oriented
things.
A: The Oldham Foundation has a very
distinctive mission. Not just to support
Christian causes, but to support the spread of
Christianity through small churches and their
pastors. HBU is now home to the McNair
Center for Entrepreneurship and Free
Enterprise, training the next generation of
principled, visionary entrepreneurs. I believe
there will always be Morris Oldhams. There
will always be Stewart Morrises. I had a minister
tell me years ago that he would say to his people,
“Let me remind you, we’re thriving today. But
there’s not a single local church that hasn’t died
or won’t 100 years, 400 years from now. This
local church is going to die. But we’re here now.
Let’s be faithful.” The gospel is what goes on.
Not the buildings. That’s why you need entrepreneurial
founders like Morris Oldham.
You need that visional purpose.”
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Left: Mt. Rose, Brenham, TX -
A $5,300 grant was awarded in
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and chairs.
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From a $3 million trust making one $2,000
grant in 1949 to an established, private charitable
foundation generating more than $44 million
in grants over 70 subsequent years, good stewardship
has long been the “secret sauce” of the
Oldham Little Church Foundation.
Beginning with Oldham himself, the
Foundation’s leadership has consistently drawn
upon Biblical principles of stewardship to
maximize assets for Kingdom gain. A continuing
stream of income on Oldham’s original investment
was anticipated from the outset. Oldham
trustees were given absolute discretion to use and
apply “the income of the Trust property…for the
aiding and helping of small Protestant Churches.”
The idea was always to secure and grow the
principal and generously distribute the income.
As dedicated churchmen, Oldham and his
founding trustees were undoubtedly familiar
with Jesus’ parable of the talents, told in Matthew
25. The story of a master entrusting financial
holdings or “talents” to his servants to manage
in his absence — and two of those three praised
for investing with good return — illustrates that
the effective steward doesn’t manage what is given
only to maintain it, but to increase the master’s
gain. Those servants who made more with what
they were given were entrusted with the care of
even greater amounts. The servant who buried
his single “talent” to safeguard it was relieved of
Investing for Kingdom Gain
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man
traveling to a far country, who called his own
servants and delivered his goods to them. And
to one he gave five talents, to another two, and
to another one, to each according to his own
ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Then he who had received the five talents went
and traded with them, and made another five
talents. And likewise he who had received two
gained two more also. But he who had received
one went and dug in the ground, and hid his
lord’s money. After a long time the lord of
those servants came and settled accounts with
them.” — Matthew 25: 14-19, NKJV
that talent — and of the responsibility for any
future stewardship. Thoughtful gain was the
name of the game — in the master’s name.
REFLECTING A FOUNDER’S EXAMPLE
Morris Oldham was the guiding force for the
Foundation that bears his name for only the first
six years of its existence. In those early days its
assets, investments and charitable grants to small
churches quite naturally reflected his character.
“Mr. Oldham was very careful with money,”
founding director Carloss Morris recalled.
“When he’d come to see me, he would always
have his notes written on the back of a used
envelope. He wouldn’t even waste scratch paper.”
1 Morris also noted that Oldham’s frugality
extended to his hobbies, as well. “If he’d break a
golf tee he’d whittle it off and use it again. He
was real careful that way — and I guess what he
had in mind was that that money should be
used for the Lord’s work.” 2
Foundation President and CEO Paul
Sanders concurs. “He was frugal and conservative,”
says Sanders. “We remain frugal and
conservative today. We give away as much as we
can each year, but we are ever mindful of how
Morris Oldham made and invested his money
as we make financial decisions.”
Soon after taking the helm of the Foundation
in 2011, Sanders discovered an early letter
Grants Ledger –
first entry on
October 24, 1952
for a matching church
grant of $1,000
in the files from the Baptist General Convention
of Texas, proposing a merger of the Foundation
and its assets into the BGCT. “I’m thankful it
never happened,” says Sanders. “He [Oldham]
must have believed that with continued wise
stewardship the assets would provide the ongoing
help to small churches that he originally
envisioned.” This visionary decision at a critical
juncture would become one of many that would
shape and secure the future of the Oldham Little
Church Foundation in years to come.
CONTINUED, CAREFUL DILIGENCE
From an endowment chiefly comprised of fixed
rate assets and real estate, the Foundation’s
investments diversified from decade to decade.
“Early on, everything was bonds and real estate,”
says Sanders. “You could make good money in
bonds in the 60s and 70s. Those first real estate
holdings eventually sold, and [then] the Foundation
got into equities.” By 1982 approval was
given by Board trustees to “begin the placement
of a portion of Foundation funds in stocks
or stock funds with specific investments to be
approved by the investment committee.” 3 Six
years later the Board approved an expenditure of
$1,250,000 in equity investments — a significant
change from it is history of investing primarily
in fixed income assets. Board of Trustees meeting
minutes that same year (1988) also reflect a
“short investment discussion” and request for
recommendations “relative to mutual funds or
money managers that might have the same objective
as the Foundation — security of principal
and reasonable growth and income.” 4
On the real estate front the 1968 divestiture
of Oldham’s 1,713-acre Garwood, Texas,
ranch in Lavaca and Colorado counties netted
$350,000, but more importantly retained the
oil and mineral rights to the property. “Oldham
loved that ranch,” recalled Carloss Morris. “He’d
just paid about $15 or $20 an acre for it, and
we sold it to some people from Galveston for a
good deal more but retained all the minerals.
The Lord really provided when we hit oil and gas
because we retained all those minerals. And that
was a great thing [for the Foundation].” 5
3 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
March 22, 1982.
4 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
May 19, 1988.
5 Transcript of oral interview of Carloss Morris, Jr. by Peggy Norton;
July 19, 1995.
A major gas well (Hinze #1) was completed on the previously
sold Garwood property in 1996 that would net $100,000
per year for the Foundation for a number of years.
In 1957, attorney Searcy Bracewell, Jr., representing the interests of Morris Oldham
and the Oldham Little Church Foundation, successfully appealed to the Texas State
Legislature to amend earlier statutes relating to inheritance tax on bequests to charitable
organizations. This effort enabled the remainder of Oldham’s estate after his death to be
transferred, by his wishes, to the Oldham Little Church Foundation with no inheritance
taxes levied by the State before transfer. (Source: Legislative Reference Library of Texas,
SB 415, 55th Regular Session, accessed at https://www.lrl.texas.gov)
1 Transcript of oral interview of Carloss Morris, Jr. by Peggy Norton;
July 19, 1995.
2 Ibid.
40 41

Another fortuitous real estate transaction
was completed in 1972, selling a 347.6-acre
tract that had been purchased at $300 an acre
for more than $16,000 an acre. “At one time
we got an offer of $4,000 an acre,” said Carloss
Morris. “At the time, that was above anything
else around there. I thought it was a good idea
to take it…but Raymond [Hankamer] said,
‘Let’s sit a while longer.’ Then Mr. [Jerold]
Katz came along and bought it for four times
that, so it’s a good thing that Raymond had
the foresight to say, ‘wait on it.’”
Through continued, careful management,
the total value of the Foundation surpassed $5
million by 1971; $10 million by 1984; $15 million
by 1988; $20 million by 1993; $25 million
by 1998 and $40 million by 2018.
IMPROVING INTERNAL PROCESSES
Board trustees have continually examined the
Foundation’s internal processes to increase operating
efficiency and maximize value. By 1964
its single bank account had been separated into
two accounts — one for the principal, and one
for income. 6 Operating overhead was minimal;
early employees included only a chief executive,
a secretary, and occasionally a financial secretary.
In December of 1979 the Board agreed
that all subsequent grants to churches be made
on a completion basis only. Two years later
the accounting year close was adjusted from
September to December. 7
Retiring the Typewriters. In 1988 a note regarding
office equipment observed that the Foundation was
currently using two typewriters, both of which were
over 20 years old. The Board instructed chief executive
Ed Finlay to “research the type of equipment (such as
personal computers) that would be needed for office
functions and to report back to the Trustees as to costs
and specifics involved.” Not long after, the typewriters
were retired and modern office equipment purchased.
1950’s directions to the Garwood Ranch with combination to gate lock.
By its fourth decade the Foundation had
begun to draw on outside investment advisors
for additional expertise while continuing to
rely on the significant strengths of its trustees
in the oil and gas, banking and real estate
sectors. Markets were becoming more complex
and the range of potential investment vehicles
more sophisticated. In response, trustees
sought during this period of change to codify
and streamline the Foundation’s expenditure
and granting policies.
Periodically the Board voted on adjustments
to granting amount maximums and other
granting parameters. In 1988 it was decided
that grants to churches outside the United States
be limited to no more than 7½% of yearly
granting totals.
In 1989, after a spirited discussion by
trustees on appropriate granting levels above IRS
requirements (some directors wanted to grant
a minimum above those requirements; others
much more) Stewart Morris, Sr. moved that a
policy setting a goal of increasing the Foundation
assets by 1.1 above the rate of inflation be established,
calculated on the basis of the total stocks,
bonds, notes and other securities (excluding real
estate). The precedent-setting motion passed. 8
By the early 1990s, the Board had begun
to explore “the potential strategy of having two
grant programs — one which would be a continuation
of existing policy/practice and one
smaller which would be for special conditions
which might [require] grants exceeding the
average current grant.” 9 No immediate action
was taken, but the conversation would continue,
eventually spurring the initiation of a Directors’
Grants Program begun in 2005 by which each
trustee could bring annually before the board
a proposed grant lying outside the scope — but
not the spirit — of the Oldham Little Church
Foundation’s granting parameters. Over the
next 14 years Oldham directors would grant 175
additional grants totaling more than $1.4 million
to small churches, Christian camps and study
centers, Bible translators, evangelism initiatives,
missionary endeavors, campus and prison
ministries — always with Morris Oldham’s
desire for “soul winning” in mind.
6 Oldham Little Church Foundation, 50 Year Anniversary Report, page 4.
7 Ibid, page 6.
8 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
May 24, 1989.
9 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
February 27, 1991.
“THERE’S A LOT OF RESPONSIBILITY
HERE. NO ONE WANTS TO DROP THE
BALL…WE’RE LOOKING AT THE
LONG GAME.”
Paul H. Sanders, CEO and President,
Oldham Little Church Foundation
Paul H. Sanders became the ninth chief
executive of the Oldham Little Church
Foundation in February of 2011. Like
Morris Oldham and each subsequent
Foundation executive before him, Paul is a
committed Southern Baptist, active as a lay
leader in the local church. An architect by
training with a Master and Doctor of Public
Health, his experience in complex project
development and planning has included key
roles with Rice University, the Texas Medical
Center, Inc. and Texas A&M University. As
president and CEO of the Oldham Foundation,
Paul’s tenure has spanned years of
significant change and challenge, but under
his leadership the Foundation has continued
to provide trustworthy stewardship of Oldham’s
original personal investment through
sound management and investing principles.
Q: What did you know about the Oldham Little
Church Foundation before you came on board
in 2011?
A: I had known Ed Finlay (the previous CEO)
for some 20 years; I knew he traveled for
the Foundation and provided grants to small
churches across the U.S. I was aware of the
Foundation’s endowment, but not how it was
invested. As Ed was preparing to step down
from leadership he arranged an interview
lunch for me with him and Stewart Morris Sr.
I learned a lot that day and continued to learn
when I came on board. I had assumed Ed spent
more time on grants than on investments — but
42 43

you can’t stoke the fire unless there’s wood in
the stove! It took nearly a year to get my hands
around it all. I was surprised by a few things:
operations processes were somewhat siloed, and
while the Foundation had a number of financial
advisors there was no quarterback. A short time
later one advisor customized for us a software
that aggregated all the different accounts. But
there was no doubt the mission — and the
people —were solid.
Q: What are the Foundation’s key investment
goals? How have they changed?
A: The IRS requires that private foundations
spend or distribute a specified amount
annually for charitable purposes (currently
5% of fair market value over five years), so
obviously that is a standard we meet or exceed
through granting. To be able to do that year in
and year out, we balance investing policies and
spending policies, aiming to cover spending
plus grow the aggregate investment portolio
value by an amount equal to the inflation rate
times a factor of 1.1 annually (over a five year
rolling average). That metric has been in place
since 1989. So, our investment goals don’t
change a great deal over time, but the vehicles
we employ and the percentages of the total
endowment they represent vary somewhat with
market trends.
On a monthly basis each member of
our board receives a one-page snapshot or
dashboard showing year-to-date financials,
grants funded and investment performance
against benchmarks (S&P 500 Index,
Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ,
Russell 2000, Barclays Index, MSCI-ACI
and International Equities), reviewed and
reconciled by our CPA. This allows all of our
directors (not just the investment committee)
to note any significant variances. It’s a very
transparent process. All investment decisions
are driven by that committee comprised of
2/3 or our directors and reviewed by the
entire board.
Q: What decisions were made through the years
that positioned the Foundation to continue
providing for small churches and supporting
local evangelistic outreach?
A: In the earliest days, everything was in
bonds and (Morris Oldham’s personal) real
estate holdings. Eventually, during Ed Finlay’s
tenure, all of that original real estate was
sold. Ed got the Foundation into equities;
more bonds were purchased. An investment
committee was formed in 1985 with Stewart
Morris, Sr. as chair. After a lengthy discussion
at our board planning retreat in 2013 the
investment committee was empowered to
invest up to $2.5 million in real estate, and
we’ve continued to carry 14-15 short-term,
3- to 5-year real estate investments in the years
since. We don’t get greedy, and the returns
(typically 15-19%) are rolled into subsequent
investments.
Paul H. Sanders
St. John Church, downtown Houston,
August 6, 2019
Consolidating our investment advisors
from five to three in 2016 was another very
necessary and positive step. We kept two
previous advisors and added a new one. Based
on their performance and expertise, we reallocated
funds between those three, giving
one fiduciary responsibility. The result has
been a much more streamlined process in
terms of reconciliation and reporting, and
very good performance.
Q: What role, if any, does the Biblical concept
of stewardship play in Foundation investing
and granting?
A: It’s huge. We are cognizant that we are not
simply stewarding a financial endowment;
we are stewarding a real person’s vision and
legacy. Leaving his assets in a narrowlyfocused
trust that he believed would outlive
him was a huge act of faith by Morris Oldham.
He had the vision and confidence to believe
that his “five talents” could grow in perpetuity
and help small churches into the next century
and beyond. We don’t take that lightly. We’ve
not simply guarded that original investment.
We’re growing it, so it can do great, lasting
good. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have
a lot of wisdom and competence on the board,
enabling us to get a dollar and nickel out of
every dollar. The expertise and foresight of
our directors has served us well. And yes,
we still ask ourselves, “What would Morris
Oldham do?” We’re mindful of how he made
and invested his own money. We risk, but risk
conservatively, and we give away as much as we
can each year. We’re looking at the long game
and looking at history. And 70 years later, I
think he would be pleased.
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PEOPLE MATTER
New York Times bestselling author Keith
Ferrazzi, whose popular books Never Eat Alone
and Who’s Got Your Back champion the power
of networking, asserts that “by giving your time
and expertise and sharing them freely, the
pie gets bigger for everyone.” Morris Oldham
may have preceded the networking tsunami
by several decades, but he clearly understood
the value of cultivating relationships.
After arriving in Houston alone as a young,
midwestern transplant, Oldham began to make
local connections — among his fellow church
members, business colleagues, customers and
others. Several of the men he met in his early
years of enterprise would become valued advisors,
and eventually, co-laborers in his mission
to aid small churches through the work of the
Oldham Little Church Foundation. W. Carloss
Morris, Sr., the Reverend Kyle Yates, W.
Carloss Morris, Jr., Dr. Ross Dillon and Dr.
T. C. Gardner were integral in the establishment
of the Oldham Little Church Foundation, and
Morris Oldham considered them his friends.
Beyond these primary relationships, Oldham
would come to know bankers, attorneys,
civil servants and churchmen in the smaller
communities beyond Houston in which he did
business. Minus the counsel of any how-to bestseller,
his network of relationships grew. Those
he knew, knew one another, as well — and were
willing to extend their friendship to include still
more for the good of their common interests.
After Morris Oldham’s death the Trustees
elected his widow Florence to the Board, and
soon after added Raymond Hankamer, a Baylor
University graduate, independent oil and gas
operator and founding member of River Oaks
Baptist Church to their number. Harry A.
Kinney, known to Florence Oldham and Carloss
Morris, became the Foundation’s 10th trustee
in 1969, followed by Dr. James S. Riley, Florence’s
pastor at Second Baptist Church. Houston
— already a regional power — was becoming
a national city, but in many ways retained the
interconnected, personal networks of a much
smaller place. People knew people — and those
with similar interests worked together to
advance them.
By the 1950s Oldham’s spiritual connections
included ties to several national Christian
ministries as well as local ones. Dawson Trotman,
founder of The Navigators, was well known
to him, as were individuals in the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association. The Foundation assisted
both ministries in big and small ways. Oldham
aided Trotman’s Navigators in securing the
Colorado property, Glen Eyrie, as their national
headquarters, and Trotman’s daughter Ruth
became the first paid employee of the Oldham
Foundation in 1955, the year before her father’s
death. Morris Oldham’s Foundation supported
Billy Graham’s city-wide crusades in Houston in
Morris Oldham aided
Navigators founder
Dawson Trotman in
securing the note for
that ministry’s national
headquarters,
Glen Eyrie Castle,
built in 1871 by
General William
Jackson Palmer,
founder of Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
1952 and 1965 and provided a substantial sum
for a film library of Graham’s New York crusades
to be made available to small churches in 1958.
Trotman, Graham and Oldham shared a
single, overriding passion: to win souls to Christ.
Although the Foundation began as mustard-seed
small and was not nationally-known, a common
purpose drew these single-minded men into
fellowship with one another.
As the Foundation grew, its original directors
gathered into their number men — and
women — known to them who shared their
vision. People always mattered. People still do.
MAKING GRANTS, MEETING NEEDS
From the beginning, the grant-making process
of the Foundation was uniquely personal. Early
grants made in the State of New Mexico no doubt
reflect the fact that Oldham operated a ranch
there. Small churches in the area — and their
needs — would have been known to him, and he
to them. While criteria for grantmaking were established
at the Foundation’s inception, a formal
Florence Oldham represented the Oldham Little Church Foundation at the
funeral of Navigators’ founder Dawson Trotman, who died in a drowning
accident in New York State in 1956.
process for executing them was not. Grants were
simply made as needs were made known, usually
through a network of personal relationships
among Trustees and word of mouth. (Founding
directors Ross Dillon, Missons Director of the
Union Baptist Association, and T.C. Gardner,
head of the Baptist General Convention of
Texas, had significant connections among the
State’s Southern Baptist churches.)
As the Foundation grew the grantmaking
process became structured but retained its
personal touch. Communication with churches
through the application stage was common, and
follow up was, too. Board meetings regularly
included progress reports and letters of thanks
from churches and organizations receiving
grants. At a 1972 Board meeting, “Raymond
Hankamer read a thank you letter in connection
with one of Billy Hanks’ crusades in Colorado
City. John McIntyre also read a letter from Brazil.
Mrs. [Florence] Weaver read another letter.”
1 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
May 18, 1972.
48 49

The minutes of this meeting reflected the impact
of such responses on the Trustees: “These letters
never cease to give us inspiration and satisfaction
at being in this work.” 1
Today Oldham Little Church Foundation
grant requests are submitted electronically, but
the personal touch remains. Churches learn of
the Foundation’s support from other churches,
Foundation personnel are available to assist and
answer questions about the granting process, and
in some instances, a grant check may arrive delivered
in person. Regular follow up is done to ensure
that grants are properly applied (a practice
first modeled by Morris Oldham) and positive
results — especially in terms of changed lives and
“souls won” — are reported and celebrated.
LEVERAGING RELATIONSHIPS FOR
ADDED IMPACT
In 1991, discussion began among Board members
regarding “the potential strategy of having
two grant programs — one which would be a
continuation of existing policy/practice and one
smaller which would be for special conditions
which might have grants exceeding the average
current grant.” 2 No action was taken at that
time, but the seed was planted for a program of
“directors’ grants” that began in 2005. Since the
program’s inception, Oldham trustees have made
175 directors’ grants for a total of $1,414,800 3 to
churches and organizations selected personally
by them.
The directors’ grants allowed Oldham
Trustees to initiate the granting process based on
their own interests, relationships and knowledge
of particular needs. “I had a burning passion
for missions,” remembers former director Sadie
Hodo, “and all of what the Oldham Foundation
does is missions. I requested, and the Board
granted, funds for Uganda Tree of Life
Ministries to build a church in Bugiri, Uganda,
and we made grants to several churches around
the San Antonio area where I live. One Hispanic
church, Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Boerne,
needed building materials and sound equipment.
We were able to do that. After visiting an
orphanage in Russia and seeing their needs, we
provided bunk beds and other improvements
for the children there. Directors’ grants also
assisted several small churches from my home
state, Mississippi, with reconstruction after
terrible storms in 2004 and 2005.”
Directors’ grants reflected the ministry interests
of Oldham trustees, missions work done
through their respective churches, and their own
personal relationships forged over decades. From
scholarships and research facilities for American
Friends of Tyndale House in Cambridge,
England, to dormitories for formerly trafficked
women in India; from support of Albanian
refugee work in Greece to Bible study materials
for a Texas prison unit; the reach and diversity
of directors’ grants has multiplied the impact of
Oldham Foundation support quite literally from
Houston to the far reaches of the world.
2 Oldham Little Church Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Minutes,
February 27, 1991.
3 As of April 10, 2019.
“LITTLE CHURCHES STRUGGLING
WOULD BREAK MY HEART. I WANTED
TO HELP THEM ANY WAY I COULD.”
Sadie Hodo, Oldham Little Church
Foundation Director, 2001 to 2014
Sadie Hodo became only the second woman
elected as a trustee of the Oldham Little
Church Foundation 46 years after Florence
Oldham assumed the role following
her husband’s death. Sadie served the
Foundation faithfully from June 2001, to
December 2014, adding her already-rich
network of relationships to its healthy assets.
A Mississippi native and former school
teacher, Sadie also served as “first lady” of
Houston Baptist University alongside her
husband Doug Hodo, HBU President
from 1987 to 2006.
Q: You and Doug arrived in Houston in 1987,
at the height of the 1980’s oil bust. What was
that like?
A: Well, we hit it at the wrong time that’s for
sure — 1987 was a terrible year for Houston
with oil prices and the recession. HBU had
hired Doug as President of the University, but
we had a hard time even finding a place to live.
We wanted to lease a house until we could move
onto campus — but everybody wanted to sell,
not lease. And we were leaving a place — San
Antonio — that we’d both come to love. Doug
had solidified the community in support of the
University of Texas at San Antonio, and he was
well-respected. I had a ball teaching school and
he taught a huge Sunday School class at Castle
Hills Baptist Church. I mean, San Antonio was
home. When he told me he’d been offered the
job at HBU I said, “Doug, I’m not moving.”
We’d already moved from Louisiana to
Tennessee to San Antonio — and I only knew
Houston as the place we drove through on the
way to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Every time we
did I’d say, “This is one place I would never
live.” But God moved us to Houston. Doug
thought he’d have to tie me to the top of the car
to get me there, but after I prayed and prayed
— God did surgery on my heart. I finally told
Doug, “This is where we need to go.” And as
soon as we arrived, Houston welcomed us with
open arms. Martha Turner gave us a dinner
party and found us a house to lease. Johnny
Baker--another Mississippi boy--introduced
us to so many people. The HBU Guild, and
Laurie Kearn, the Guild president and wife
of Sherriff Buster Kearn, did too. Our son
Patrick was in high school at the time, and he
was invited to go on Beach Retreat with Second
Baptist Church that first summer. He loved
it. He came home and said, “You all can go to
church anywhere, but I’m going here!” He and
Ted Cruz became fast friends, and still are to
this day. We could not have been more taken
in, included, loved and nurtured. Houston felt
very open to us.
Paying It Forward. At a November, 1973 Board meeting, a letter was read from Cedar
Shores Baptist Church in Morgan, Texas, thanking the Foundation for “the money you
sent several years ago,” and repaying the original $800 grant “so that another church
may be helped, thus furthering the Lord’s work.” The minutes of that meeting note: “It
is the first time, to the knowledge of the Trustees, that a church has returned a grant with
the thought that it might be used to help some other church as indicated in their letter.”
50 51

Q: Did you find a lot of overlap in your various
networks, or were things more silo-ed between
church, business, academia and social settings?
A: You know in San Antonio it seemed like
there were 35 or so key players you needed to
know…but in Houston there were hundreds!
Doug knew John Bisagno, the pastor at First
Baptist, then we met the Youngs — who
were both from Mississippi — at Second
Baptist. Edwin and JoBeth came to visit us
at home. There was a lot of overlap between
First Baptist, Second Baptist, HBU, and
the Oldham Foundation. We knew Carloss
[Morris, Jr.] from the Star of Hope, and
Stewart [Morris, Sr.] from HBU. Dr. Riley
was an HBU founder, too — as well as a trustee
of the Oldham Foundation. So, when I served
on the Board I had two HBU colleagues —
Dr. Riley and Stewart — serving with me.
Q: You served together with your husband
through much of his career. Florence and
Morris Oldham seemed to be a strong team in
service of others, too. How would you describe
that kind of experience?
Sadie Hodo
at her home, February 28, 2019
A: If you’re not both trying to be the
powerhouse — both fighting for prominence
— you can complement each other really well.
Even though I was never employed by HBU,
Doug always made me a part of things. He
called me a “wise owl.” One evening we had a
group of men, including [Memorial Hermann
Hospital CEO] Dan Wilford over for dinner.
They were doing the “Peter Principle” thing
— talking about getting people in right spot
for their skill set — and after dinner one of
the guys said, “Sadie, we’re meeting with all
of Doug’s staff tomorrow and we want you to
come.” I thought I had to, so I did. We met all
morning then stopped for lunch and I almost
didn’t go back. Then after lunch we divided up
and numbered off to answer questions. Dan
was facilitating the responses, and he finally
said, “I want to know who number three is.”
It was me. Later that day he called me from
the airport and said, “Sadie, you have a special
gift. You pegged it. If you ever want a job,
come talk to me.”
Q: What did you enjoy most about your time
as a director of the Foundation?
A: That’s easy. Giving money away. I never
grew up with any. And the people. I loved the
people. When Ed [Finlay] asked me to be on
the Board I knew I would love giving money
away to little churches. What an opportunity!
(They didn’t tell me I’d have to sit in on
finance committee meetings, too.) It’s hard for
me to see someone suffer or be in need doing
the Lord’s work. I want to help them all. So,
while of course, we always looked at the bottom
line, I was also looking at [granting] from a
different angle. I wanted to know about the
people…their communities, their families…
and sometimes that brought a different insight
to things. A “heart perspective” that might go
missing otherwise. I still keep up with some of
the nearby churches we’ve helped — several in
Boerne, one in Floresville. I had a missionary
from India stay with me once and she told
me about a need back home that I was able
to help meet with a Director’s Grant the year
I resigned. The Board matched that, and
the group was able to build two churches in
India with it, ministering to lepers. I feel like
God used me for that time — and I still make
a referral or two to the Foundation. What a
blessing it’s been to be a part of something
like the Oldham Little Church Foundation
for the good of God’s Kingdom!
52 53

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Left: Christ Church, Brenham, TX -
A $9,000 grant was awarded in May,
2011 for renovations to the pre-school
and children’s areas.
C H
7
A
P T E R
54 55

Morris Oldham’s home and center of operation
was Houston, Texas, but the driving interest
of his life encompassed the world and its people--specifically
he desired that as many men,
women and children as possible would hear the
gospel and be drawn to allegiance to Jesus Christ
through his Church. It was said of him that “the
qualities which made him a good businessman
also made him one of the greatest fighters for
the spiritual in man on earth.” 1
In 1952, Oldham effectively retired from
business, merging his Phenix Dairy with
Foremost Dairies. In Foremost, Morris Oldham
found a buyer who seemingly shared his business
principles and his strong faith. Department store
chain founder James Cash (J. C.) Penney was
a Midwesterner like Oldham, and the son of
a preacher. An avid cattle breeder and herd
developer, Penney purchased a small creamery
in Jacksonsville, Florida in 1931, and named
the company after his prize Guernsey bull,
Langwater Foremost. 2 Initially Foremost Dairies
served the Southeastern United States but
its market soon expanded considerably. By
the 1950s Foremost was the third-largest dairy
operation in the world. As his personal fortune
in agriculture and retail businesses grew, Penney
began donating significant amounts of money to
his favorite charities, which included the Christian
Herald and a home for retired clergymen. 3
He, like Oldham, included his employees in the
ownership of his businesses, offering a profit-sharing
plan to his managers and eventually
providing public stock options to all employees. 4
Foremost Dairies began with the purchase of a small
Jacksonville, Florida, creamery in 1931, and was the third
largest dairy company in the world two decades later.
At the time of the Foremost merger,
Oldham was 66 years old and had steered the
success of Phenix for 38 years. He had already
begun to focus his considerable energies on
the then three-year-old Oldham Little Church
Foundation, gradually relinquishing numerous
other civic responsibilities and directorships in
order to more closely steward its course. (Morris
Oldham served at various times as a director of
the City National Bank of Houston, the Palacios
Baptist Encampment, the Star of Hope Mission,
Houston Boy and Girl Builders, the Boy Scout
Council Board for the Sam Houston Area and
the Rotary Club of Downtown Houston.) 5
The attention he placed upon the Foundation
for its first six years produced significant
fruit, even by earliest accounts. Upon his death
from a heart attack at the age of 69, The Houston
Post opined of Oldham, “It was not necessarily
cynicism but a sad commentary on life that led
Shakespeare to put into the mouth of Marc Anthony
these words: ‘The evil men do lives after
them, the good is oft interred with their bones.’
This fate, however, will not be reserved for
Morris C. Oldham.” 6
History has proved this early assessment true
many times over. Oldham’s original trust has
outlived him by more than six decades and continues
to support and sustain “little churches” for
the purpose of winning souls to Christ, just as he
intended. By leveraging his considerable business
assets for lasting good, his investment in people
and in the Church has had exponential impact.
The Oldham Little Church Foundation has
1 Encyclopedia of Biography, New Series; A Publication of the American
Historical Company, Inc., p. 79; New York, 1957.
2 http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1987-09-04/news/0140310023_1_
reinhold-ice-cream-cream-and-dairy
3 http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/june00/past.htm
4 https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-C-Penney
5 Encyclopedia of Biography, New Series; A Publication of the American
Department store founder James Cash
(J.C.) Penney was the owner of
Foremost Dairies, which acquired
Morris Oldham’s Phenix Dairy by
merger in 1952.
provided over $44 million in grants to small
churches throughout the world and is solidly established
to continue that good work in perpetuity.
Stewart Morris, Jr., chairman of the board
of trustees for the Foundation, echoes the intent
of Oldham 70 years after its founding: “We’re
trying to support the most effective vehicles to
introduce Christ to others…what Morris Oldham
called ‘soul winning.’ In Oldham’s day, in
the 1940s and 1950s, that vehicle was the small
church. Small churches are still effective, and
they still need help, but they are not the only
available means to spread the gospel. We try to
imagine what those tools and vehicles would
be today.”
Through a complementary program of
Directors’ grants, Morris and other trustees are
able to proactively designate grant recipients
operating in the evangelistic spirit that animated
Oldham. Since their inception in 2005,
Directors’ grants have funded scholarships at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Fort Worth, Texas, and at Tyndale House in
Cambridge England; an ophthalmology center
in the Republic of the Congo; churches in India;
hurricane recovery work in Haiti; production and
airing of The Jesus Film for indigenous audiences
by CRU (formerly Campus Crusade); equipped
Southwestern Baptist Seminary field offices and
classrooms in several Texas Department of
Corrections prison facilities; assisted a start-up
“cowboy church” in West Texas; supported Youth
With a Mission (YWAM) missionaries in Hawaii
and New Zealand and provided bunkbeds for
residents of an orphanage in Siberia.
“It was a challenge for Morris Oldham to see
how much he could accumulate, but he didn’t care
much about owning anything.”
“I think he’d be pleased with the diversity of
the Foundation’s grants, and I only hope he’d be
pleased with the directors’ grants that still follow
his principles but broaden the delivery that would
win souls to the Lord.”
“We’ve done a good job of bringing technology
online. As the ways to reach people evolve, we
need to keep evolving. Our granting application
process is now entirely digital, and we’re tracking
investment performance online as well. All
that is in place. Now technology is helping us to
tell the backstory of the Foundation, too, and
we’re hopeful that Morris Oldham’s story will
inspire others.”
A letter from a grant recipient in 2019
says it all: “Oldham Little Church Foundation.
Love that name. There are not too many
organizations that would use the world ‘little’ in
their title. Everyone wants to look big. But we
believe we are a mighty force in our Community
and surrounding areas. In mid-July we had
26 young children commit their lives to Jesus
during a week of Vacation Bible School. Just last
week two young adults were baptized as a testimony
of their commitment to Jesus. We firmly
believe that little is much when it its placed in
the Master’s hands. Our parking lot looks so
wonderful. The application process worked well
for us. The project is paid in full without any
dept and Oldham Little Church Foundation
helped us reach that goal. God bless your board
and your organization. We thank God for you
and your organization that is willing to help the
little churches. May God bless the work of your
hands and hearts.” Larry Hale, Glenvale Church of
God, Marysville, Pennsylvania
Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, a recipient of OLCF
Directors’ Grants, is an independent biblical studies library
founded in 1944, providing special resources in support of
research into the Old Testament, New Testament and relevant
historical backgrounds.
56 Historical Company, Inc., p. 79; New York, 1957.
57
6 Ibid.

“BUSINESS LEADERS MUST SERVE
THE COMMUNITY, MUST GIVE BACK…
FAITHFUL SERVICE IS THE
COMMON GOLDEN THREAD THAT
RUNS THROUGH INSTITUTIONS
THAT LAST.”
Stewart Morris, Jr.
Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Oldham Little Church Foundation
A member of the Morris family has served on
the Board of Directors of the Oldham Little
Church Foundation since its inception in
1949. Stewart Morris, Jr. is the third Morris
director of the Foundation, appointed in
2003. He follows in the footsteps of his uncle
and founding trustee, W. Carloss Morris, Jr.,
and his father, Stewart Morris, Sr., whose
tenure of service began in 1955, just two days
after the death of Morris Oldham. Stewart Jr.
is the President and Managing Member of
Stewart Security Capital, a private,
family-owned investment company, and is
Vice Chairman of the Board of Stewart
Information Services Company (SISCO).
Q: Your family’s involvement in the Oldham
Little Church Foundation dates back to the
very beginning. When did you first become
aware of the Foundation’s work?
A: I knew of it from the time I was cognizant.
In our home we were always talking about
things that my father and uncle were involved
in, and a number of people in our lives were
helped by the Foundation, supportive of it, and
serving on its board. Mr. Oldham had a ranch
west of Garwood on the Big Sandy, and when
I was a boy we would go out to the Oldham
Ranch every Thanksgiving: my cousins, my
Uncle Carloss, Malcolm, Bill, me, our fathers.
The ranch house sat at the end of a rough unpaved
road, and we would climb into the back
of the car or truck and hold on for dear life
until we got there. The house had no electric
Stewart Morris, Jr.
in his office, December 18, 2018
service — but there was a generator. We’d go
deer and duck hunting back in the woods. Dad
was involved in the Foundation’s work for as
long as I can remember, and it’s an honor for
me to be serving it with him now.
Q: How has the Foundation been able to continue
its work so successfully when Morris
Oldham left no heirs to carry out his directives?
A: The initial Trust created by Mr. Oldham
was a very well-considered, well-drawn document;
its intent was clearly stated from the
outset. And there’s been a strong continuity
of succession within the Board of Directors.
The founding directors were colleagues and
friends; they knew one another well and
brought a healthy mix of gifts and vocational
experience to their work. Mr. Oldham set
the parameters for giving and modeled his
priorities for six years before his death. Then
Mrs. Oldham joined the Board and remained
involved for another two decades, so those
priorities became solidly established. But at
the same time, a degree of flexibility was built
in. Morris Oldham viewed the small church as
the prime vehicle for winning souls to Christ
in his day, but subsequent directors are not restricted
in their granting powers from considering
requests that may be somewhat broader
in scope, while still in the spirit of the kind of
localized soul-winning he championed. For
example, through directors’ grants we’ve supported
the production and distribution of the
Jesus film created by CRU. It takes the gospel
story to indigenous communities throughout
the world in their native languages — something
I absolutely think Morris Oldham would
have approved of.
Q: How important was it to grant investment
powers for the Foundation to its trustees?
A: It was fundamentally important to the
future growth of the Foundation. While Morris
Oldham was alive he invested the Foundation’s
assets himself, but he ensured that subsequent
directors would assume that responsibility
after his death. This practice gives leverage
and takes pressure off of trustees to constantly
raise funds, allowing them to focus more fully
on granting and grant recipients. It also helps
us to attract good-hearted trustees who don’t
want to raise money so much as give it away.
Mr. Oldham demonstrated the importance of
investing wisely. His example allows trustees to
use their ingenuity to become business investors
in a sense. By their acumen, they’re able to
grow the Foundation with an entrepreneurial
spirit much like his. Collectively, we make a lot
of our investing decisions. We have three active
investment advisors to the Board — not playing
them against each other but utilizing their
unique strengths.
Q: What does it mean for an individual or an
organization to build a legacy of lasting good?
A: For the believer, leaving a legacy means
leaving an example of how to be effective for
Lord in your worldly realm of influence. I
believe the teachings of the Bible are so helpful
to those of us in business. Your beliefs shape
your soul, your soul shapes your principles,
and your principles shape your decision-making
process. Without those biblical principles
you have no sure foundation — and while they
don’t guarantee worldly success, they do impact
influence. Morris Oldham left a strong legacy
of influence based on biblical principles and
focused on giving back. He used his wealth to
share his faith. Business leaders must serve our
communities, give back, or why are we doing
this? Faithful service is the common golden
thread that runs through institutions that last.
In our board meetings, we read passages
about giving back, serving others. And often,
we read letters from those small churches or
organizations the Foundation has helped,
hearing first-hand the good that a specific
grant has made possible. Those reports from
the field inspire us to ask, “How could we do
this better?” and “How could we grow this
thing to reach even more?” Mr. Oldham knew
how to conserve capital and not waste resources.
He was very energetic and put his heart and
soul into everything he did. He had a vision of
what he could do for the Lord — not just while
he was here, but beyond his lifetime. He had
no heirs, but he put this Foundation together
and gave it legs and through its efforts, his
influence lives on. The challenge for us to
consider in extending his legacy is “What are
we doing with what we’ve been given?” We’ve
followed his example in tightening expenses,
growing the corpus of the endowment and
increasing grants. We continue to try and bring
in the next generation, and by telling his story
we hope to inspire others — particularly young
entrepreneurs and business leaders of faith —
to “go and do likewise.”
58 59

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Left: Cornerstone Baptist Church,
Shelbyville, Tennessee — 2011
Electrical wiring, $ 7,500.
60 61

BOARD OF DIRECTORS — 2019 FOUNDATION STAFF — 1949-2019
Top Row: Ralph Hull, Garry Blackmon, Lee Hsia, Kris Peters, Paul Sanders, David Stutts
Front Row: David Taylor, Kay Parker, Stewart Morris, Jr., Stewart Morris, Sr.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS — 1949-2019
President / CEO, Dr. Paul Sanders
Chairman of the Board,
Mr. Stewart Morris, Jr.
Secretary,
Mr. Stewart Morris, Sr.
Assistant Secretary,
Mr. Garry Blackmon
Treasurer, Dr. Paul Sanders
Director, Mr. Lee Hsia
Director, Mr. Ralph Hull
Director, Mrs. Kay Parker
Director, Mr. David Stutts
Director, Mr. David Taylor
Director, Advisory, Mrs. Kris Peters
Director, Emeritus, Mr. Ed Finlay
Date Elected Name Term of Service Yrs. of Service
(as of 12/1/19)
1. February 23, 1949 Morris. C. Oldham ** 1949 - 1955 6+
2. February 23, 1949 Dr. Ross E. Dillon ** 1949 - 1975 27+
3. February 23, 1949 Dr. T.C. Gardner ** 1949 - 1968 18+
4. February 23, 1949 W. Carloss Morris, Jr. ** 1949 - 2005 56+
5. February 23, 1949 Dr. Kyle M. Yates ** 1949 - 1956 7+
6. March 12, 1954 John F. McIntyre ** 1954 - 1990 36+
7. July 21, 1955 Stewart Morris, Sr. 1955 - present 64+
8. September 13, 1955 Florence Oldham Weaver ** 1955 - 1977 22+
9. May 26, 1956 Raymond E. Hankamer ** 1956 - 2005 49+
10. October 29, 1969 Harry A. Kinney ** 1969 - 1991 22+
11. October 6, 1975 Dr. James S. Riley ** 1975 - 2005 30+
12. September 27, 1989 Louis E. (Ed) Finlay*** 1989 – present 30+
13. September 30, 1998 David Chavanne** 1998 - 2010 12
14. June 6, 2001 Linda Dunham**** 2001 - 2011 10+
15. June 6, 2001 Sadie Hodo**** 2001 - 2014 13+
16. November 17, 2003 Stewart Morris, Jr. 2003 - present 16+
17. November 2, 2005 David Taylor 2005 - present 14+
18. February 22, 2006 David Stutts 2006 - present 13+
19. February 9, 2011 Ralph Hull 2011 - present 8+
20. December 5, 2012 Kay Parker 2012 – present 7
21. May 19, 2013 Paul H. Sanders 2013 – present 6+
22. February 12, 2014 Garry Blackmon 2014 – present 5+
23. February 14, 2018 Lee Hsia 2018 – present 1+
24. May 15, 2019 Kris Peters 2019 – present 6 mos.
* Operated as Board of Trustees prior to February 1995.
** Deceased
*** Emeritus
**** Retired from Board of Trustees
Executive of Foundation Term of Service Years and Months
Name Beginning Ending of Service
1. Morris Calvin Oldham * February 23, 1949 July 19, 1955 6 / 5
2. Florence Oldham Weaver * September 13, 1955 June 1, 1963 7/ 10
3. Ross Dillon * July 1, 1963 July 1, 1964 1 / 0
4. Harry Chavanne* July 1, 1964 June 15, 1968 4 / 0
5. Florence Oldham Weaver * June 15, 1968 October 1, 1968 0 / 4
6. Ross Dillon * October 1, 1968 July 1, 1970 1 / 9
7. Harry Kinney * July 1, 1970 December 31, 1986 16 / 6
8. Louis E. (Ed) Finlay January 1, 1987 January 31, 2011 25 / 1
9. Paul H. Sanders, Jr. February 1, 2011 Present 8+
Foundation Support Staff Term of Service Years and Months
Name Beginning Ending of Service
1. Ruth Trotman * July 1955 April 1, 1956 0 / 9
2. Jewel Butz * April 16, 1956 April 1, 1972 16 / 0
3. Jane Elder * February 1, 1972 April 1, 1981 10 / 2
4. Mary Chrisman * September 1, 1977 June 1, 1994 16 / 9
5. Irona Seal * February 1, 1981 July 1, 1981 0 / 5
6. Cleo (Pat) Herring * June 1, 1982 October 15, 1989 7 / 5
7. Darlene Neeley September 25, 1989 December 31, 2008 21 / 11
8. Peggy Norton May 1, 1994 December 31, 2004 10 / 4
9. Lisa Diehl December 1, 2004 Present 15
*Deceased
1920’s parade in downtown Houston in front
of the Phenix Dairy building.
62 63

ENDOWMENT BOOK VALUE WITH GRANTS FUNDED
$3M FUNDED IN 1949
The Foundation started
with $3 million in 1949
and today has grown
to $28.1 million after
providing $46 million in
grants over 70 years.
$4.7M VALUE IN 1970
$18.2M VALUE IN 1990
$25.5M IN GRANTS
SINCE 1949
$46 MILLION IN GRANTS SINCE 1949
$24.8M VALUE IN 2010
$28.1M IN 2019
Grant Summary by Decade:
1949 - 1959 $622,234
1960 - 1969 $1,442,163
1970 - 1979 $5,437,126
1980 - 1989 $7,869,291
1990 - 1999 $11,039,557
2000 - 2009 $11,018,090
2010 - 2019 $7,911,763
$988,970 Average per year
The Foundation has made grants in every state of the US as well as in these
foreign countries.
Africa
Alberta, Canada
Argentina
Australia
Australia (Western)
Bahamas
Bahia
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
British Columbia
British Guiana
Cambodia
Canada
Canary Islands
Cayman Islands
China
Colombia
Congo
Costa Rica
50 States
89 Countries
Cuba
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
England
France
Germany
Ghana
Guam
Guatemala
Haiti
Haiti, West Indies
Honduras
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Italy
Jamaica, West Indies
Japan
Jordan
Kenya
Korea
Latvia
Lebanon
Lithuania
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Northern Ireland
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Republic of South
Africa
Republic of the
Congo
Romania
Russia
San Blas Islands
Saskatchewan,
Canada
Siberia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
The Netherlands
TOGO
Trinidad, West Indies
Turk Isle
Uganda
Ukraine
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
West Africa
West Germany
West Indies
Yugoslavia
Zimbabwe
$2,000 GRANT FUNDED IN 1949
GRANTS FUNDED
ENDOWMENT BOOK VALUE
Above: 1930’s Trolley Car advertisement sign
Left: 1940’s Phenix Dairy Ice Cream parlor in
downtown Houston
General Ledger – first journal entry is May 2, 1949.
64 65

TIMELINE - OLDHAM LITTLE CHURCH FOUNDATION
1949 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1960
Foundation
established with
$3 million and
Morris Oldham,
Dr. Ross Dillon,
Dr. T.C.
Gardner, W.
Carloss Morris,
Jr. and Dr.
Kyle M. Yates
appointed as
Trustees
First Board
meeting of the
new Foundation
held
First grant made
for $2,000
1972 1973 1975 1976 1977 1979 1980
347.6 acres
near I-45 sold
for $5 million
Cumulative
grants since
inception reach
$173,598
Suniland
Furniture
Building owned
by Foundation
granted to
Home Mission
Board of
Southern
Baptist
Convention;
proceeds after
sale aid 500
small churches
John F.
McIntyre
elected as
Trustee
Dr. James
Riley elected
as Trustee
following the
death of Dr.
Kyle Yates
Morris Oldham
dies at age 69
Ruth Trotman
hired as first
Foundation
employee
Stewart Morris,
Sr. elected as
Trustee
Florence
Oldham, widow
of Morris
Oldham, elected
as Trustee
Cumulative
grants exceed
$5 million
First formal
granting guidelines,
screening
committee
established
First Foundation
office opened at
2217 Milam
Raymond
Hankamer
elected as
Trustee
Florence
Oldham Weaver,
widow of Morris
Oldham, dies
595-acre ranch
in Lubbock
County sold
Board rules all
future grants
to be made on
completion
basis (no funding
of debt)
Remainder of
Oldham estate
awarded to
Foundation
Maximum
grant amount
established at
$6,000 per
church
1962 1963 1964 1966 1968 1969 1970
Cumulative
grants exceed
$1 million
1982 1984 1987 1988 1991 1994 1995
Cumulative
grants exceed
$10 million
Dr. Ross Dillon
elected as
Executive Vice
President
Foundation
office moves
to 5177
Richmond Ave.,
Houston
Harry J.
Chavanne elected
as Executive
Secretary
Ed Finlay hired
as Executive
Director upon
retirement of
Harry Kinney
First real
estate property
purchased for
development/
investment
The Foundation’s
first
computer is put
into service
Foundation
approves its
first equity
investments for
$1.25 million
1,713-acre
Lavaca/Colorado
County ranch
sold; mineral
rights retained
Ross Dillon
elected as
Executive
Director
Glass bottles for orange
juice, chocolate milk and
cottage cheese.
Pension plan
adopted for
Foundation
employees
Harry Kinney
elected as
Trustee
The Oldham
Chapel is
relocated from
Oldham Ranch
and gifted to
Star of Hope
Mission Farm
Cumulative
grants exceed
$20 million
Cookbook promoting receipts using
Phenix Dairy products.
Harry Kinney
elected Executive
Director
upon resignation
of Ross
Dillon
Foundation
is formally
incorporated
after operating
as a Trust for
46 years
1930’s church hand fan.
66 67

TIMELINE - OLDHAM LITTLE CHURCH FOUNDATION
1998 1999 2001 2003 2005 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2016
David Chavanne
elected as
Director
Foundation
celebrates 50
years of
operation
Linda Dunham
and Sadie Hodo
elected as first
female Directors
Milk bottles
from 1939, 1950
and 1948.
Cumulative
grants exceed
$30 million
Stewart Morris,
Jr. elected as
Director
Directors’ Grant
Program established
allotting
each Director
$20,000
discretionary
granting authority
annually
Foundation
office moves to
14090 Southwest
Freeway
in Sugar Land,
Texas
David Taylor
elected as
Director
David Stutts
elected as
Director
Lavaca/Colorado
County mineral
rights produce
$1.4 million
in oil & gas
revenues in
one year
Cumulative
grants exceed
$35 million
Foundation
sees greatest
one-year asset
increase in
history at
21.4%
Ed Finlay
announces
retirement;
Paul Sanders
elected
President &
CEO
Ralph Hull
elected as
Director
Foundation
offices relocate
to Houston from
Sugar Land,
Texas
First website
launched
Kay Parker
elected as
Director
Online grant
application
system is
established
Cumulative
grants exceed
$40 million
Paul Sanders
elected as
Director
16,000th grant
is made
Garry
Blackmon elected
as Director
Lee Hsia
elected as
Director
2018 2019
Cumulative
grants exceed
$45 million
Emeritus
Director and
former
President &
CEO Ed Finlay
turns 90
Kris Peters
elected as
Advisory
Director
Stewart Morris,
Sr., Director
since 1955,
turns 100
Oldham
Little Church
Foundation
celebrates
70 years of
operation
Ed Finlay served the Oldham Little Church Foundation as President
and Chief Executive for 25 years (1987 - 2011) — longer than any other
Foundation executive. He was elected a Trustee in September, 1989.
During Ed’s tenure as Chief Executive the Foundation was incorporated
(1995), having formerly operated as a Trust. He oversaw the awarding
of $25.5 million in grants to more than 6,500 small, evangelical churches
and supporting organizations, with grants conferred in every state in
the United States and in 49 foreign countries.
In 2009, under Ed’s leadership the Foundation’s assets increased by
21.4% — the largest single-year increase in assets in Oldham Little
Church Foundation history. The total value of the Foundation increased
by $9,000,000 under his guidance and seven new Directors, including
two women, were elected to service.
1940’s school
textbook cover.
1950’s Phenix
68
Phil, the mascot for
the Phenix Dairy.
69

INDEX
American Barge 36
American Friends of Tyndale
House, Cambridge, UK 52
Anderson, Monroe Dunaway
(M.D.) 11
Apollo 15 35
Baptist General
Convention of Texas
(BGCT) 37, 43, 51
Bethel Independent
Presbyterian Church 20
Billy Graham Crusade 19
Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association 28, 50
Bisagno, Rev. John 53
Blackmon, Garry 64
Boy and Girl Builders of
Houston 19, 58
Boy Scouts of America,
Sam Houston Area
Council 58
Bracewell, Searcy Jr. 43
Brannon, Cliff 28
Breakaway Ministries
22, 23
Butz, Jewel 65
Campus Crusade for Christ
(CRU) 28, 35, 36, 61
Cedar Shores Baptist
Church, Morgan TX 52
Chavanne, David 64, 65
Chrisman, Mary 65
Christ Church,
Brenham TX 57
Christian Herald, The 58
City National Bank,
Houston TX 58
Consolidated General
Products 36
Continental Fidelity
Investment, Inc. 36
Cornell University 10, 12
Cruz, Sen. Ted 53
Dallas Railway and
Terminal 36
Diehl, Lisa 65
Dillon, Ross E. 13, 14, 50,
51, 64, 65
Duke Divinity School 28
Dunham, Linda 64
Elder, Jane 13, 18, 65
Empire Petroleum 36
Episcopal Diocese of
Houston 29
Explo ‘72 35
Ferrazzii, Keith 50
Finlay, Ed 27, 45, 46, 55,
64, 65
First Baptist Church,
Dallas TX 37
Ferrazzi, Keith 49
First International Congress
on World Evangelization,
Lausanne, Switzerland 37
First Methodist Church,
Houston TX 29
First Presbyterian Church,
Houston TX 29
Foremost Dairies 14, 36,
58
Forum Bible Class 18
Gardner, T. C. 13, 14, 50,
51, 64
Glen Eyrie 36, 50
Glenvale Church of God,
Marysville PA 59
Goodwill Industries 19
Graham, Billy 29, 50, 51
Grauman, Allene K. 12
Greater Mt. Pilgrim Baptist
Church, Houston TX 35
Greenville Baptist Church,
Burton TX 17
Ham, Mordecai 29
Gulf Federated Feed
Association 36
Hankamer, Raymond 34,
44, 51, 64
Hanks, Billy 34, 51
Herring, Cleo (Pat) 65
High Flight Foundation 35
Hodo, Douglas 52 - 54
Hodo, Sadie 52 - 55, 64
Houston Baptist College 37
Houston Baptist University
39, 53, 54
Houston Endowment 11
Houston Press, The 18
Houston Ship Channel 10
Houston’s First Baptist
Church 12, 20, 22, 23,
26, 29, 53
Hsia, Rev. Lee 64
Hull, Ralph T. 64
Hurricane Camille 35
Inglesia Bautista Emanuel,
Boerne TX 52
Irwin, Jim 35
Jack & Heintz Inc. 36
Japan New Life Crusade 37
Jesus Film, The 59, 61
Jesus Movement, The 34
Jones, Jesse H. 11
Katz, Jerold 44
Kearn, Laurie 53
Kearn, Sherriff Buster 53
Kinney, Harry A. 50, 64, 65
Lily Endowment 28
Madings Drug 36
Maize Road Baptist Church,
Columbus, OH 34
Mao Tse Tung 35
Matte, Gregg 22, 23
McIntyre, John 34, 51, 64
McNair Center for
Entrepreneurship and
Freedom 39
MD Anderson Foundation
11
Memorial Hermann
Hospital 54
Monroe Dunaway (MD)
Anderson 11
Morris, Stewart Jr. 6, 46,
59 - 61, 64
Morris, Stewart Sr. 6, 38,
39, 45, 54, 64
Morris, William Carloss Jr.
6, 12 - 14, 29, 30,
42 - 44, 50, 53, 60, 64
Morris, William Carloss Sr.
6, 19, 20, 29, 30, 50
Mt. Rose Church,
Brenham, TX 41
Nassau Bay Baptist Church
35
National Tank 36
Navigators, The 36, 50
Neeley, Darlene 65
Norton, Peggy 65
Oiltown, USA 20
Oldham Memorial Chapel 9
Oldham, Morris Calvin 4, 6,
10 - 15, 18 - 23, 26 - 31,
34, 36, 37, 39, 42, 43,
46, 47, 50 - 52, 54, 58 -
61, 64 - 66
Pageville Missionary Baptist
Church, Richmond, TX 25
Palacios Baptist
Encampment 58
Pan American Sulphur 36
Parker, Kay 64
Peach Creek Encampment
28
Peden Iron & Steel 36
Penney, James Cash (J.C.)
58
Peveto, Rev. Dennis 29 - 31
Phenix Dairy 10, 13, 14,
18, 27, 35, 58
Phenix Phil 13
Port of Houston 10
Providence Baptist Church,
Houston TX 35
Punta Alegre Sugar 36
Rice Stadium 19
Rice University 47
Riley, Rev. James S. 50,
53, 64
Rittenhouse, Bill 35
River Brand Rice 36
River Oaks Baptist Church,
Houston TX 50
Rotary Club of Downtown
Houston 58
Rush, Hank 29 - 31
Sagemont Baptist Church
20
Sanders, Paul H. 42,
45- 47, 64, 65
Seal, Irona 65
Second Baptist Church,
Houston TX 12, 13, 18,
20, 23, 26, 53
Sloan, Robert B. 37 - 39
South Main Baptist Church
20
Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary 59
Spindletop 10
Star of Hope Mission 9, 19,
29- 31, 53, 58
Stewart Information
Services Company 60
Stewart Security Capital 60
Stutts, David 64
Sugar Creek Baptist
Church 20
Taylor, David 64
Texas A&M University 22
Texas Baptist Encampment
19
Texas Department of
Corrections 59
Texas Medical Center
21, 47
Textiles Incorporated 36
Thorn, Rev. F. B. 18
TIME Magazine 37
Trinity Petroleum Trust 36
Trotman, Dawson 37, 50,
51
Trotman, Ruth 37, 50, 65
Truman, Harry 35
Tyndale House, Cambridge,
UK 59
Uganda Tree of Life
Ministries 52
Unicoi Chapel Baptist
Church 27
Union Baptist Association
51
Victory Baptist Church,
Paris, TX 35
Weaver, Florence Cummings
Oldham 12, 18, 34, 39,
50, 51, 54, 64, 65
West Indies Sugar 36
Wilford, Dan 54
Wittenburg College 12
World Wide Pictures 20
Yates, Rev. Kyle M. 13, 14,
20, 50, 64
Young Life 36
Young, JoBeth 53
Young, Rev. Ed 53
Youth for Christ Greater
Houston 28
Youth With a Mission
(YWAM) 59
THE OLDHAM LITTLE CHURCH FOUNDATION
E S T . 1 9 4 9
70 71

72

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
This book would not be possible without the guidance, support and help
from several people so I’d like to offer a big Thank You to each one.
The Oldham Little Church Foundation Directors for their vision to tell the
Morris Oldham story and preserve his legacy.
The Oldham Foundation staff of Lisa Diehl, Grant Coordinator, for collecting
historical data and updating grants reports; and Kathy Weaver, Accountant,
who helped validate investment and financial information.
Steven Murray, for his introduction to Leigh McLeroy, and providing
historical documentation from Houston’s First Baptist Church.
Leigh McLeroy for her creative approach to writing this book plus
Bill Carson who is responsible for photography and book design.
Larry Sigka for his introduction to William Loocke, who shared his collection
of historic photographs and memorabilia from the Phenix Dairy.
Bebe Parker, for providing family photographs of Morris and Florence
Oldham.
Darren Shearer for his counsel and expertise on publishing this book.
Sadie Hodo, former Director at the Oldham Foundation, for telling the
rest of the story.
Gregg Matte for his insightful observations regarding Morris Oldham
as a Difference Maker.
Hank Rush for connecting the histories of The Oldham Foundation and
Star of Hope Mission.
Robert Sloan for highlighting the common thread of entrepreneurship
in Morris Oldham and HBU.
The Oldham Directors, staff and family members who proofed this book
and made insightful revisions.
Paul Sanders
Oldham Little Church Foundation
December, 2019

M o r r i s C a lv i n O l d h a m
1 8 8 6 - 1 9 5 5
$15.00
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920465
ISBN: 978-1-946615-46-6
©2019 The Oldham Little Church Foundation
All rights reserved
Available on our web site: www.oldhamlcf.org