Long-time Third Baptist Church pastor Lee dies

YOUNGSTOWN — The Rev. Morris W. Lee died today, according to a member of the Third Baptist Church.

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Rev. Morris Lee

The Rev. Mr. Lee was the longtime pastor of Third Baptist Church on the city’s South Side and was presented as the 2018 recipient of the Rev. Elizabeth Powell Heritage Award.

Mr. Lee was a native of Virginia attended Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va., receiving a bachelor’s degree in history and his master of divinity degree (cum laude).

Mr. Lee in 2010 described his call to the ministry as an “insatiable urge” he couldn’t, shouldn’t and wouldn’t ignore.

“I wanted to do something worthwhile,” said the Rev. Mr. Lee, then celebrating his 50th year as pastor of the 500-member Third Baptist Church, 1177 Park Hill Drive.

And he certainly has accomplished that goal. Lee has had positions of leadership in Baptist organizations and Mahoning Valley community groups and remains involved.

In a way, one might say his career choice was pre-ordained. “I grew up in the church,” he said. “My mother took me and saw to it I was involved in church.” At first, he was involved in music ministry, and once was an organist at a church. “I read the Bible often as a youngster,” he said, recalling his early years in Portsmouth, Va.

“My commitment gave me a life devoted to the church,” he said. As a child, he experienced sickness and his future was uncertain. But he fulfilled his calling by earning a master of divinity degree with cum laude honors from Virginia Union University, Richmond, Va.

Lee was called to Third Baptist because of a connection he had with the Rev. S.S. Booker, his predecessor. The Rev. Mr. Booker had attended Virginia Union. At the time, Mr. Lee was pastor of Jerusalem Baptist Church in Doswell, Va., where he served from 1957-60. “Dr. Booker was ill and getting older. He asked me to speak at the church,” Mr. Lee recalled. It was providence because the congregation also asked him to return to participate in a choir program in September 1960. The church offered him the pastorate, and Mr. Lee accepted.

Third Baptist, which had been on Oak Hill, bought two acres on Park Hill, where the current church is located. The congregation had services elsewhere and funerals at Tabernacle Baptist. Under his leadership, the church expanded, adding offices, baptismal area and Sunday School classrooms.

In the 1960s, he was president of Community Action Council, the forerunner to Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, a community-services agency.

He headed the effort in Mahoning County to sign up those who were eligible for the new program of Medicare. Mr. Lee addressed the violence that plagues the city. “It’s senseless,” he said. And though many look to the churches to be the impetus for change, Mr. Lee observed, “Here, you’re preaching to the choir.” He said the real challenge is how to reach those involved in violence. “I don’t like to be pessimistic,” the longtime minister said, admitting he does not have a solution.

He emphasized that change has to start in the nuclear family. “But we’ve seen the deterioration of the family and home.”