The Reverend Dr. Mouzon Biggs, Jr. of Tulsa’s Boston Avenue United Methodist Church will present the 10th annual Maurice Meyer Distinguished Endowed Lecture on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at Rogers State University.
The lecture will be held at 11 a.m. in the Will Rogers Auditorium on RSU’s Claremore Campus, 1701 W. Will Rogers Blvd. It is free and open to the public.
Biggs’s lecture is entitled “Outside My Christian Comfort Zone.”
The Rev. Dr. Mouzon Biggs, Jr. is in his 32nd year as pastor of the Boston Avenue Church. Since his arrival, the church has received more than 8,300 new members and ranks as one of Methodism’s largest.
Under Biggs’s leadership, endowments at Boston Avenue Church have grown from $200,000 to more than $26 million. For the past 31 years, the 11:00 a.m. worship service has been broadcast live on Tulsa’s Channel 8 and is Tulsa’s most highly-watched program in its time slot.
A native of the Carthage, Texas oilfields, Biggs earned his bachelor of arts degree at Centenary College of Louisiana and his master of theology degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He also holds a doctor of divinity degree from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and a doctor of humane letters degree from Oklahoma City University.
He has addressed churches, colleges, conventions, and chambers of commerce across a 30-state area. He has traveled in 41 countries. He is the author of “Moments to Hold Close,” and co-authored the best-selling book “When you Graduate” with Dr. Charles Allen of Houston.
In addition to his responsibilities at the Boston Avenue Church, his interfaith and interracial work have resulted in his being named Tulsa Interfaith Award Winner, National Conference of Community and Justice Award recipient, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Keeping the Dream Alive Award” recipient, the Tulsa Jewish Community’s “Righteous Gentile” Award, and Tulsa Rotary’s “Spirit of Will Rogers Award.” He is past president of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice and past president of the Downtown Rotary Club.
He and his wife, Gayle, have two sons, Trey and Jason, and six young grandchildren.
The Maurice Meyer Endowed Lectureship was established at RSU by Mr. Irvin Frank in honor of his uncle, Sergeant Maurice Meyer.
Maurice Meyer was a member of Company A, 357 Regiment. He served with distinction as an officer of the 90th Division during the St. Mihiel campaign in France during World War I. He was wounded by German shrapnel on Sept. 23, 1918. He died the following day and was accorded a hero’s funeral in Tulsa on May 3, 1922.
In 1920, the first barracks were built on the campus of the Oklahoma Military Academy (RSU’s predecessor institution). The building was named the Maurice Meyer Barracks in honor of Oklahoma’s fallen war hero. Today, the same building, now Meyer Hall, houses the RSU president’s offices and the Oklahoma Military Academy Museum.
The Maurice Meyer Distinguished Endowed Lectureship is held annually to honor the legacy of the Meyer family and the life of an American who died defending freedom and democracy. The goal of the lectureship is to foster an appreciation for diversity and humanity and to promote tolerance and understanding of other cultures, people and ideas.
For more information, call the RSU Office of Development at (918) 343-7768.