User:Davidwr/Carroll Pickett

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Carroll L. Pickett
Born 1933
Nursery, Texas
Residence Huntsville, Texas
Nationality American
Other names Carroll L. "Bud" Pickett
Education Ordained minister
Alma mater Victoria College, Austin College
Occupation Minister
Employers retired
Home town Victoria, Texas
Title Reverend
Known for Prison ministry, opposition to capital punishment
Religious beliefs Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Spouse Jane Pickett

Reverend Carroll L. "Bud" Pickett (b. 1933, Nursery, Texas) is a Presbyterian minister in Huntsville, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Pickett served two churches in Texas.[1][2]. In 1980 he began serving as a chaplain in the Huntsville, Texas, prison, where he spent most of the next 15 yearsworking with prisoners facing imminent execution.[2] Since retiring from the prison, Rev. Picket writes and speaks against the death penalty. His 2002 book, Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain, won several awards.[3] The 2008 documentary At the Death House Door: No Man Should Die Alone chronicles his prison ministry.


Contents

[edit] Early life and ministry

Born in 1933 in Nursery, Texas and raised near Victoria, Texas with his 5 brothers and sisters, Carroll Pickett attended Patti Welder High School and Victoria College[1] before graduating from Austin College in 1954.[4] He graduated from seminary in about 1957 and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.[2][5]. He married Sonja Cambpell and they raised 4 children[1]. Divorced in the early 1980s, he married his second wife Jane in 1990.[2][6]

He served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Victoria, Texas from 1961-1967[1] and the First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Texas from 1967-1980.[1][2]

[edit] Ministry to the dying

??pre-prison ministry to a dying person ??details??{{[fact|date=May 2008]]}}

Dying with dignity.

Prison work in 1980-1982, including hospital ward, "our death house"[citation needed]

Death house minister 1982-1995.

Book.[2]

Documentary.[7]

[edit] Attitudes towards the death penalty

In 1974 the Carrasco Prison Siege of 1974 took the lives of two of Rev. Picketts parishioners.[8] After this, he was in favor of the death penalty.[citation needed]. This was in direct conflict with the Presbyterian Church's established opposition to the death penalty.[9]

During his tenure as a prison chaplain in the 1980s and 1990s, his views changed. In ??1989?? he sought psychiatric help to deal with work-related issues[citation needed]. He came to believe that one prisoner, ??name??, was wrongly executed.[citation needed]. He could not reveal his changed attitudes without jeopardizing his job[citation needed], and he felt a calling to continue to minister to prisoners on the last day of their lives.[citation needed] On the day of his retirement in 1995, he finally announced that he was against the death penalty.[citation needed]

[edit] Campaign against the death penalty

In addition to writing a book[2] and being the subject of a documentary[7] about his time as the Death House chaplain, Rev. Pickett speaks and writes against the death penalty.[citation needed] He has appeared ??list a few prominant appearances??[citation needed].

[edit] Recognition

  • list awards for book
  • mention "recognized as a distinguished alumn" from Austin college and cite each but don't list.

[edit] Publications

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Bio, Victoria Times March 08, 2008, retrieved 2008-05-19
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Stowers, Carlton, and Carroll Pickett, Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain, ISBN 978-0312287177, St. Martin's Press, 2002, Google Books
  3. ^ From out of Texas to Everywhere! The Presbyterian Sun, August 2006, retrieved 2008-05-19
  4. ^ Page, Oscar C., "A Decade of Leadership: Austin College President's Report 2003-2004", retrieved 2008-05-19
  5. ^ Frontline: The Execution: Readings: Interview With Reverend Carroll Pickett, retrieved 2008-05-19
  6. ^ Stowers, Carlton, Death Angel, Dallas Observer, September 14, 2000, retrieved 2008-05-19
  7. ^ a b At the Death House Door official web site, retrieved 2008-05-19
  8. ^ Harper, William T., Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege in Huntsville, Texas, ISBN 1574411802, 2004, University of North Texas Press, p. 202, 290-291, Google Books
  9. ^ PC(USA) - Presbyterian 101 - Capital Punishment, retrieved 2008-05-19


{{Persondata |NAME = Pickett, Carroll L. |ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Pickett, Carroll L. "Bud" |SHORT DESCRIPTION = Presbyterian prison chaplain and death-penalty opponent |DATE OF BIRTH = [[1933]] |PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Nursery, Texas]], [[United States of America]] }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pickett, Carroll L.}} [[Category:living people]] [[Category:1933 births]] [[Category:Presbyterian ministers]] [[Category:American chaplains]] [[Category:Texas writers]]

[edit] end

[edit] draft notes follow

[edit] Photos

Possible photos:

[edit] Awards and recognition

  • [1] - Austin College class of 1954, also member of the Century Club,

[edit] Early ministry

  • [2]: b. Nursery, 1993. Patti Welder High School, Victoria College, assoc. pastor 1st Pres. Victoria 1961-67, moved to Huntsville 1967, son of R. C. Pickett, 5 siblings, married Sonja Campbell, 4 children
  • [4] - nickname "(Bud)". Boyhood near Victoria. Presbyterian Church (Southern?) against capital punishment in 1977, married Jane in 1990 (claimed widowed, but actually divorced by '82 according to his book)
  • [5] attended seminary at young age - graduated by age 23

[edit] Prison ministry and the Death Penalty

- death house, not death row


[edit] At the Death House Door


[edit] Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain

  • [8] - Book p. 28: Resigned 1PC Huntsville on 1/8/80, in seminary as of 1957


[edit] other retirement

  • 'Executing people is not executing justice', TARA SPARKS, Victoria Advocate, January 25, 2003, ID: 0F8C8D7B5A43553D, Page: 2 - "Pickett and Popp have traveled around the country telling their stories and speaking out against the death penalty." "Pickett, 69, was born in Nursery and grew up in Victoria, where he was a minister at..."
  • Eye for an eye?, Jalicano: Words are our strength, retrieved 2008-05-19 - interview re: opposition to death penalty, dignity
  • [9] - book has numerous awards, he is traveling and speaking on TV programs, and is working on a documentary.