by Frank Himmel
Synopsis: My father, Irvin Himmel, passed away on June 3, 2019. I appreciate Mark Mayberry asking me to write a few words about him.
Dad was born on a farm in the panhandle of West Texas just two months before the 1929 stock market crash. He said his family was poor in his early days, but so was everyone else.
My grandparents, Frank and Delma Himmel, had obeyed the gospel at Lorenzo, TX four years earlier. The church there provided Dad's first impressions of religion. He recalled that the building had no classrooms, just a couple of curtained-off corners at the front for children's classes—a less than ideal arrangement. Dad's first memory verse was John 11:35, "Jesus wept." From that smallest of beginnings, he went on to master hundreds more, all in the King James Version, which he used throughout his life. Dad liked the New American Standard Bible and New King James translations, but he said by the time they were published, he had memorized so much King James Scripture that he wasn't about to start over! To the end of his life, even when declining health often caused words to escape him, he still prayed beautifully in formal 17th-century English.
Dad was baptized in 1943 at Crosbyton, TX during a gospel meeting. Preachers moved a lot in those days, and Crosbyton was occasionally "in between" preachers. During one of those times, Dad was asked to fill in on a Sunday evening. His first sermon, "What Shall I Do with Jesus?" was preached on August 4, 1946. During his high school years, Dad preached here and there by appointment. That experience led him to decide that preaching, not farming, would be his life's work.
In the fall of 1947, he began college work at Freed-Hardeman College. The next summer, he preached at Dickens, TX. He contemplated returning to Dickens the following summer but learned of an opportunity to preach at Columbia, TN while Howard Parker, the regular preacher, held gospel meetings. That worked out well: he ended up marrying Brother Parker's daughter, Doris! They lovingly worked hand-in-hand for the next sixty-eight years.
Dad completed his education at what was in those days Florida Christian College, graduating in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In the following years, he preached at Deland, FL (1951-1952), Jacksonville, FL (1952-1955), Richmond, VA (1955-1959), St. Louis, MO (1960-1968), Temple Terrace, FL (1968-1986), and Decatur, AL (1986-1997). Dad retired from full-time preaching at the end of 1997, shortly after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but continued to serve as an elder. According to his meticulous records, he preached well over 5,000 sermons, plus nearly 1,500 lessons on radio and television.
In addition to preaching and teaching classes, Dad published a weekly bulletin everywhere he lived, doing much of the writing himself. That was quite a chore in the days of typewriters and mimeograph machines, devices which are largely unknown to modern readers. He also edited a monthly magazine called Apostolic Doctrine during the decade of the 1960s. It was a first-principles paper that included various articles exposing religious error. Dad was a staff writer for Truth Magazine for several years, and he also wrote the commentary on Jonah for the Truth Commentary series.
Dad loved books. In college, he would take the money his mother sent him to buy clothes and instead buy books. He made arrangements to sell religious books to subsidize Apostolic Doctrine. There was little profit in that, but long after he discontinued the paper, he kept up the book business, selling mostly to preacher students at Florida College at significant discounts. Dad left behind a considerable library. If you are interested in something from it, let me know! He would be pleased that others continued to benefit from that part of his legacy.
My father was a humble man, never calling attention to himself or his work. He did not hold in high regard preachers who do otherwise. He was an excellent Bible student, particularly in Old Testament history. He believed sermons should be biblical and straightforward. He seldom used personal illustrations; he preferred biblical ones, "killing two birds with one stone," by illustrating his point while getting in a little teaching about some other Bible character or event. His favorite preaching text was Acts 8, Philip and the eunuch.
Preparation was one of Dad's hallmarks. He thoroughly prepared for any presentation—even announcements! He was polished and articulate. He possessed a broad vocabulary, yet not the kind that required a dictionary to understand what he was saying. He smiled a lot. Moreover, he was not afraid to say, "I don't know."
Dad had practical wisdom when it came to preaching and churches. His calm, common sense manner served him and his brethren well. He was a steadying influence when congregations passed through troubled times. His wisdom was also valuable to our family. When I was in my early teens, Dad was offered an invitation to go work in a situation in which he would hold a number of meetings. He declined, in no small part, due to the effect that being gone too much might have on his teenage children.
Dad also had a keen wit about him. He was no "cut-up," but he interjected timely humor, sometimes with a biblical frame of reference. Often when the subject of preacher "tryouts" came up, He would chuckle and say, "It doesn't take Solomon to figure out what they didn't like about the last fellow!" That sense of humor helped him be a good patient, graciously living with Parkinson's for over twenty years.
I consider myself blessed to have grown up in the home of Irvin and Doris Himmel. So does my brother, Jeff, who preaches in Plant City, FL, and my sister, Sylvia, who has done much to care for Mom and Dad the last few years. A worthy woman's children rise up and bless her (Prov. 31:28). We, likewise, salute our godly parents and thank them for the spiritual heritage they provided.
Author-Bio: Frank has preached for the Viking Drive church in Bossier City, LA for the last eleven years. The church website is vikingdrivechurchofchrist.com. He can be reached at fhimmel@att.net.
