Spring 2024 - Dr. Robert and Barbara Whitten both say they are grateful to be able to financially support Baylor University through planned giving, believing that their alma mater is expanding God's Kingdom by transforming students' lives and preparing them for leadership roles in the world.

"I feel fortunate that there is a Baylor that provides a solid institution whose values align with our values and that is making our world a better place," said Robert, who earned a B.A. in history from Baylor in 1955. "I feel blessed that we have a meaningful way to continue our support of true Christian values for years beyond our own."

Barbara met Robert at Baylor, where they married just before she graduated in 1956 with a B.A. in education. Together, they set off in life determined to make the most of the education they received in Waco and for Robert to finish his seminary education. Now, she said, they hope to help today's Baylor Bears enjoy a similarly powerful experience in and outside the classroom by creating, through a planned gift, an endowed chair in the Department of Religion.

"I want any funds left in our estate to help make this world a better place, and I can think of no better channel than teaching future Baylor students the values of a Christian worldview, she said. "I believe endowing a chair in the religion department at Baylor will enhance their lives and the lives they will touch in the years to come."

PRACTICING STEWARDSHIP

Barbara began her teaching career in Louisville, Kentucky, during the first year of integration for the local public school system.

"It was a very difficult year for all involved, much less for a newly minted teacher from

Houston," Barbara noted. "But as I learned at Baylor, one makes the best of any situation in which one finds oneself."

Two decades later, while raising two children, she earned a master's in social work from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., and served in the Fairfax County School System as a social worker for the following 21 years.

During that time, Robert helped found Westwood Baptist Church- located in Springfield, Virginia - in 1964 and led the church through four building campaigns as it grew to a membership of 1,000. He retired as the congregation's senior pastor in 1999. He said that, as a young minister, he had intended to occupy the lectern rather than the pulpit, but God has his own plans. After Baylor, he earned an M.Div. in theological studies and pastoral ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1958 and a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics in 1964.

Committed to lifelong learning, Robert continued post-doctoral studies and in 1978 joined the staff of Pastoral Counseling and Consultation Centers of Greater Washington as a part-time therapist. Later, he helped establish two other pastoral counseling centers. Robert became a behavioral therapist and

in 2016 retired from Pastoral Counseling of Northern Virginia as a senior therapist.

Today, the Whittens continue to live by the values instilled in them by their parents and sharpened by their Baylor experience and life's ups and downs.

"It was at my father's knee that I first learned stewardship, as he taught me to tithe my dime allowance, and it was at Baylor that I learned stewardship was a total life practice which is the only proper response to a loving God's beneficence," Robert said.

Robert and Barbara established the Robert D. and Barbara H. Whitten Endowed Lecture Series in 2018 to provide a lecture series focused on the expression of Christian faith intersecting the public square. Their estate gift will further strengthen this program while creating new academic opportunities for Baylor's religion department.

"I would suggest to those who have benefitted from a Baylor education to allow your estate to enhance Baylor's heritage and its contribution to the education and values of students yet to be born," Robert said.