Rodwell N. Morgan
March 18, 1927 - November 22, 2018

Rodwell Nathaniel Morgan was born on a tiny Nicaraguan Island in the Caribbean by the name of Corn Island. His secular education began in Corn Island at a school run by his grandfather William B. Morgan, a school teacher who had migrated from Jamaica and made Corn Island his home. When Rodwell was 11 years old, his grandfather passed away, and Rodwell was sent to the nearby Nicaraguan city of Bluefields, where he continued his studies.

As a child, Rodwell sensed that God was calling him to the ministry. He and his childhood companions loved to play "church", and he was always the preacher. He was baptized at the age of 11, before he went to Bluefields. In Bluefields, as he grew up to be a young man, he went off on the wrong track, beginning to take strong drinks and to indulge in many of the other sinful pleasures of youth. At the age of 18, he met a young Spanish minister by the name of Benjamin Urizar, who led him back on the right track. This was his real conversion experience. With this encounter with the Lord, that inner calling of God to the ministry became so overpowering that he could not resist. At that young age of 18, he applied to and was accepted as a student at the Seminario Teologico de Centro America (Central American Theological Seminary).

Rodwell graduated from the Central American Theological Seminary in 1948. He was 21 years old at graduation. His graduating class numbered 25, and he was one of the three that graduated with distinction. With the help of his uncle, the Rev. D. A. Morgan, a pastor in Jamaica, he entered Calabar Theological College of Jamaica to further his studies. Because of his previous studies, he only had to do two years. During his two years of studies, he served as student-pastor of the Four Path and Toll Gate Baptist Churches in Clarendon. In 1950, at the age of 23, he was ordained to the ministry at the Springfield Baptist Church in St. James, which was pastored by his uncle and where he held membership.

The ministry of Rev. Morgan began in Jamaica and has covered a period of more than 60 years, as pastor, evangelist, missionary, Bible Institute professor and author (he wrote 4 books). He pastored churches in Jamaica, Belize, Nicaragua, Colombia, and the United States. He also ministered in Panama, where he was an appointed missionary of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, serving as professor at the Panama Baptist Seminary. During his years as pastor in the United States (since 1969) he used his yearly vacation to conduct evangelistic services in churches in the Caribbean and Central America.

Rev. Morgan retired from active pastoral duties in Los Angeles, California, in 1992, then went on to Corn Island, Nicaragua, to serve as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church for 2 years, without accepting a salary.He went back to Nicaragua in 2003 to minister to the many English speaking people living in Managua for one year. The little group he worked with grew rapidly to the place where they were organized as the First English Baptist Church of Managua.

Upon his return to the United States, Rev. Morgan became the Associate Pastor of the Sierra Norwood Calvary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Florida, through the instrumentality of its pastor, Dr. Richard Ledgister. He has stated, over and over, that his six years of service at this wonderful church, where he received so much love and was showered with generous gifts, was like the best wine left for the last marriage at the Cana in Galilee.

Rev. Morgan is survived by his loving wife, Emma Isabel, to whom he had been happily married for 55 years. With God at the helm, she was the ideal helpmate that fired whatever accomplishment he had. He is also survived by five children: Paul, Halden, Martha, Norma, and Ruth:13 grand-children, 8 great grand-children, sisters and brothers.

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