On Oral Roberts

I used to work for Oral Roberts. He passed away this week at the age of 91. When I knew him he was still engaged with his university and would occasionally pop in at his Evangelical Association that I worked at. He was always friendly - friendlier than his son Richard was.

I'm probably one of the few people that can say that they ran over Oral Roberts' mail box and got away with it (so far). I was just learning to drive the stick shift work van when I knocked over the mailbox in front of his house after delivering tomatoes to him. I propped the mailbox back up, at least well enough that it would stand until someone tried to open it to get the mail. I had dreams about Mr. Roberts stopping to get his mail and being a bit nonplussed when the whole thing fell over.

Before I went to work for Oral Roberts I had to sign an agreement to not write about my experiences there. But surely the statute of limitations has expired by now. Among my memories of my work there are going to the room everyday where all the incoming mail was processed by women who opened envelopes from around the world and seeing stacks of multicolored foreign paper money from all corners of Earth, taking the shredded letters and data to incinerators for disposal, and the huge warehouse full of Bibles and publications in many languages. And of course going to the airport to pickup Mr. Roberts' suits that had been flown in from California.

The most fun I had was spending a few minutes in the wall behind the one-way mirrored glass at the base of the Prayer Tower and watching visitors standing outside preen in front of the golden mirrors. As they got up close to the glass to inspect their makeup I would rap the mirror from my side and scare the poor person - who no doubt thought God was chastising him/her for their vanity.

The university that Oral Roberts started is doing well now. It is out of debt and has 3,000 students - the largest evangelical university in the world. My father wanted me to go there after high school but I objected after the admissions counselor told us I'd have to shave off my sideburns. I should have had those sideburns bronzed and preserved.

Yesterday I was across the street from his university again and noticed how quiet the campus was the day after his passing.