Lonnie York
In Memory of the Author of this Website
Auto-Biography
I was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1948. I lived most of my life there until I began my first attempt at College. After graduation from Ardmore High, I attended East Central State Teachers College in Ada, Oklahoma. This is now East Central University. My course work was in Teacher Education with a path towards math and science. After two years of school I went into full time preaching. My first year of traveling was with Jerry Cutter. This was a very rewarding experience and over the years I have looked back on that time as some of the most valuable time ever spent. To this day Jerry and I are very close.
My first work was with the congregation at Temple, Georgia. I worked with this congregation for three months. This was from January 1968 to March 1968. I conducted my first gospel meeting at the Flint, Michigan, Church of Christ that spring. From that time till I moved to Earlytown, Alabama in the Fall, I traveled and preached in various places. When my work was completed in Alabama I moved to Kansas City.
When I arrived in Kansas City I took full time employment with Merchants Produce Bank, which was located in the Old City Market area. I worked for them for two years. I began as a teller and then was promoted to the Trust Department. In June of 1970 Linda Lavon Sifford became my wife. To our union were born two sons: Aaron and Eric.
The first four years of my life in Kansas City saw me move from Merchants Produce Bank to Baltimore Bank and Trust. There I was over the operations of the Trust Department and became an Assistant Trust Officer. After two more years I took a position at Commerce Bank as their Trust Auditor. This last position lasted for over a year.
In 1976 I entered into full time preaching once again. I traveled for about a year. In this time I worked with a young congregation at Flagstaff, Arizona for six months. I moved back to Kansas City and then my family and I moved to work with the new congregation at Wichita, Kansas. I worked with Bob Loudermilk for about a year. During this time we trained several young men to be preachers. Some of them are now well established in the field of preaching. I also worked with a small congregation at Jetmore, Kansas. Jetmore was located about thirty miles north of Dodge City. For many months my family and I would travel the road from Wichita to Jetmore to work with these brethren.
In 1978 we moved to Manhattan, Kansas and worked with the Alta Vista congregation. Alta Vista was about thirty miles south of Manhattan. One of the coldest winters that I can remember was that year. It began to snow on New Years Eve and we had snow on the ground for over 45 days before we saw the ground. At times the wind child reached to 75 below zero.
In 1979 we moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma to work with that congregation under the oversight of the 36th and Everett congregation in Kansas City, Kansas. We worked with this congregation about two years. From there we moved to Springdale, Arkansas. While in Arkansas we worked with the Fayetteville congregation. During this time I worked with Delmer Lee at Rogers, Arkansas. We began publishing The Watchman while working in Arkansas.
From there we moved to Clymer, Pennsylvania in 1982. We worked with the Indiana and Love Joy congregations. We worked there till the summer of 1984. While working with these congregations I returned to school, attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania..
In July of 1984 we moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where we have lived ever since. While here I completed my Degree at Kansas University in May 1986. My degree was in secondary mathematics. I was unable to become certified due to the change in policies regarding the addition of an additional year of student teaching.
During this time I was driving a school bus to help with living expenses. After graduation I continued working with the school bus company - Mayflower Contract Services. I began as the new Driver Trainer in 1986 and did this job for two years. In 1987 I was able to work the Pam American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was one of the coordinators of drivers, with about 75 south Chicago drivers under my supervision. I worked this for four weeks. Mayflower permitted me to attend services while working there. The brethren were very good to come and pick me up and take me to services.
In 1988 I was promoted to Assistant Manager. I worked in this position until I moved into the Cooperate offices at Overland Park, Kansas in August of 1994. There I was a PC Specialist for the Mid-West division. Actually I traveled the whole of the United States installing our payroll program and other in house programs. During this time I learned to be a computer programmer. I had to learn RPG II and III to continue to support our in house programs.
Laidlaw bought Mayflower in March of 1995 and in September of that year I lost my job. For the next year I took course work for Novell CNE, although I did not obtain this certification. I did part time consulting work for various companies in the Kansas City area. In July of 1986 I began working for an insurance premium finance company called UPAC. I am a programmer for this company. Currently I am developing an online data lookup for our customers, and this will be live on the web in August 1998. We are also doing a complete rewrite of our finance programs. Here I am, at my age, learning new things, and gaining new knowledge - Ha!
I have written a windows based School Bus Management program. So far I have five school districts and one contractor using my program. The program is in its 3rd version, and there is anticipation that it will soon become a standard for the industry -- I am praying that this will be case.
I have been busy with the work of the Lord during this time as well. I have held meetings in various places, and have preached when and where ever I could. At present my greatest duty and responsibility is with the congregation at Lawrence. We are small in number, but large in spirit. The Lord has blessed us in many ways and we have hopes that in time, we shall grow in spirit and number. We currently have a young man who has been very close to me over the years working with the congregation. Tony Denton and his family moved to our area in June of 1997. Tony is doing a great job for this area and is an inspiration to all of us.
When I can, I still write articles, although The Watchman merged with The Christian Expositor in 1987. My goal is to commit to writing many of the subjects that I have studied over the years. With God's help, I know that my goal will be reached.
At this time I have two wonderful daughter-in-laws, which I call my girls. Both were converted by my sons before they were married. They have been a great inspiration to me over the years that I have known them. My eldest son, Aaron, has two children: Lakin and Tabor. My youngest son, Eric, now has a son, Hunter Dean. My grandchildren are the light of my life, and the joy of my day. I relish the time that I spend with them each time that I have an opportunity.
This is merely a brief history of my life and work. My wife is the foundation of my energy and without her continual support and encouragement I would not be able to do the things that I do. This past June 5th, 1998, we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. How time flies!
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