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Servant leader, rabbi and dad were among the words used to describe John D. Minton Sr., who was laid to rest Tuesday.
Servant leader to all the lives he touched at his church, Broadway United Methodist Church, Western Kentucky University and elsewhere.
Rabbi to his pastor, the Rev. J. Rick Bard Jr., who thought of him as a wise teacher.
And “just my Dad” to one of his sons, Ernie.
It’s that putting his family above the myriad accomplishments that endeared Minton, 86, to many people, according to Bard, who spent numerous hours talking to Minton’s friends and family over the past few days.
Orphaned at an early age in Trigg County, Minton was raised by his grandparents and later an aunt and uncle. While later called a great educator, his formal schooling didn’t start off so well, Bard said.
Minton failed the first grade because his teachers discovered that instead of learning to read, he was memorizing his assignments. While Minton spent the next year learning to read, he continued developing his memory skills - reciting the prologue of the “Canterbury Tales” in Middle English and even recalling the poetry of Tennyson and others in his waning days.
Humble, Minton didn’t really label himself as a leader. He preferred to walk alongside people, rather than in front of them.
That was evidenced in his first year at Western Kentucky University as a history professor when he lived in the dormitory for the summer semester until his family moved to Bowling Green from Trigg County in the fall of 1958.
It was also that summer that he first came to Broadway United Methodist Church as a visitor and ended up teaching Sunday school that very day, something he did every week for the next 42 years.
“That’s why I believe you were brought to us,” Bard said.
“His life and faith were eternally woven together,” he said.
Tommy Holderfield lived a house down from the Mintons most of his life. But he really began to know them while he was a student at Western Kentucky University and joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon with Minton’s son, John Jr.
“There wasn’t any one thing, but everything that made him a great man,” Holderfield said after the funeral service. “He was just a true, gentle man.”
The two could spend a half hour or longer talking about life while at the mailbox. They also could strike up a conversation on campus, where Thompson held positions ranging from professor to vice president and eventually president of the university. But all the while Minton considered himself foremost a teacher, Bard said.
Students flocked to him, quickly filling his classes and seeking his advice, Bard said.
Now WKU President Gary Ransdell, also a WKU student with Holderfield, sought Minton’s advice in “all the important” decisions over a 15-year-period of his life, Bard told the congregation.
“He credits Minton as being a friend and mentor ... in all those significant decisions,” Bard said of Ransdell, who was among those sitting Tuesday in the packed church.
Bard said Minton’s influence was greater than he realized.
Warren County Deputy Sheriff Randy Hargis said he has been a member of Broadway United Methodist for just three years and didn’t know Minton personally.
But he knows of him through others in the congregation and Minton’s grandson, John D. Minton III, who is in his Sunday school class.
From what he has learned since joining the church, Hargis said he greatly respects Minton.
While Minton was orphaned, God didn’t leave him to his own, but surrounded him with love and opportunities, Bard said. Minton also won’t leave those around him “orphaned,” but rather his legacy will help sustain them, he said.
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