R.G. “Gene” Puckett, 80, longtime Biblical Recorder editor, died May 12 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
“He has a variety of outstanding talents,” said BR editor Marse Grant of Puckett when it was announced he was coming to the Recorder in 1982. “He can write, he can speak, and he is a person of courage.”
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Puckett was 49 when he was elected by the BR Board of Directors to succeed Grant who was editor for nearly 23 years.
Puckett, who was BR editor from May 1982 until December 1998, was a native of Kentucky.
He graduated from Western Kentucky University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
He was editor for the Ohio Baptist Messenger and the Maryland Baptist and associate editor of the Western Recorder (Kentucky) before coming to the Recorder. Between 1979 and 1982, Puckett was the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It is a nonprofit, educational organization based in Washington, D.C.
He was part of the founding faculty at Campbell University Divinity in 1996-97, was a visiting professor at Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity, and advocated for the development of Wake Forest University’s Divinity School. He was a trustee and chairman of the Board at the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C., and served several offices for the Southern Baptist Press Association.
Survivors include Puckett’s wife of 58 years, Robbie, daughters Janet Wade of Charlotte and Jeanne Fishwick of Roanoke, Va., and four grandchildren.
Memorials: Thomas Meredith Scholarship Fund at Wake Forest University Divinity School, 1834 Wake Forest Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27106, or Associated Baptist Press, P.O. Box 23769, Jacksonville, FL 32241-3769.
There will be a memorial service at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, at First Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C. The family will receive friends following the service. Brown-Wynne Funeral Home of Raleigh is in charge of the arrangements.