A Service of Witness to the Resurrection, with Thanksgiving for the Life of Dr. Robert E. “Bob” Bicknell, 81, of Brownwood, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 27, 2024, at First Baptist Church, Brownwood. The Rev. Dr. Jerry Shields, senior pastor, will officiate. Burial will be in Jasper, Alabama.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Heartland Funeral Home.
He died Saturday, April 20, 2024, at an Abilene hospital.
Bob will be remembered fondly and greatly missed by all who knew him for his boundless friendship, his extensive musical talents, his support of Christian education, his generosity, and the fun he had sharing his eclectic interests with everyone he knew, but especially with his children and grandchildren.
As a career educator and university administrator, Dr. Bicknell held multiple positions at Enterprise (Alabama) State Junior College, Wayland Baptist University (Plainview, Texas), and Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, Missouri) before moving to Brownwood in 1989 as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Howard Payne University.
He retired in 2018 as Provost Emeritus after serving HPU as Special Assistant to the President for Accreditation and Adult Programs, Professor of Music, Dean of Extended Education, and Accreditation Liaison. In honoring him, university officials praised his dedication to the cause of Christian education by acknowledging that he approached his work as a calling more than a career.
As accreditation liaison to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), Dr. Bicknell successfully shepherded Howard Payne University through three decennial reaffirmations, numerous substantive change proposals, and countless period reports. He served on 24 SACSCOC visiting and off-site committees, many of these as committee chair. He was a sought-after speaker regarding the subject of regional, peer-reviewed accreditation, and was frequently enlisted as consultant to institutions beginning the reaffirmation process.
Dr. Bicknell also led the university in the innovation of distance learning, including the development of curriculum and the initiation of Howard Payne’s extension centers in El Paso and New Braunfels.
He was active in the community, having served as an officer of the Brownwood Rotary Club, the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation, the Brownwood Regional Medical Center Institutional Review Board, the Brownwood Technology Board, and the West Texas Telecommunications Consortium.
He was born May 11, 1942, in Richmond, Virginia, the son of E.E. and Lillie Leona Fulgham Bicknell. His wife of 61 years, Patricia Ann, retired from Howard Payne as Associate Professor of Psychology.
While they served in the music ministries of numerous Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations throughout their marriage in or near the cities where they lived, the Bicknells have been members of First Baptist Church, Brownwood, since arriving at Howard Payne. Bob was often music director and choral conductor at those churches, while Pat was organist and pianist. He served churches in Headland, Dothan, and Enterprise, Alabama; Clovis, New Mexico; Okemah, Oklahoma; Live Oak Springs, Florida; Denham Springs, Louisiana; and Lamesa, Midland, Amarillo, Canyon, and Brownwood, Texas. Brownwood congregations where they shared their musical talents most recently are Union Presbyterian and First Methodist.
After graduating from high school in Birmingham, Alabama, Bob received the Bachelor of Music degree with a major in Choral Directing from Oklahoma Baptist University; the Master of Music degree with a major in Music Theory and a minor in Higher Education from Florida State University; and the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in Music History and a minor in Higher Education from Louisiana State University.
He completed additional studies in various computer classes at Wayland Baptist University where he learned skills allowing him to advocate for the provision of technological services in the institutions where he worked; in fundraising with Gonser, Tinker, Gerber & Stuhr of Chicago to support institutions’ grant-writing and strategic planning; and Miller’s Flying Service in Plainview where he qualified as a private pilot with instrument rating.
His survivors include his wife Pat of Brownwood, Texas; daughter Sharon McKone, her husband Pete McKone, granddaughter Jessica McKone, and grandson Josh McKone, all of Fort Worth, Texas; son David Bicknell and his wife Veronica Bicknell, grandson Brandon Bicknell, granddaughter Kelsey Castillo and her husband Zac Castillo, all of Albuquerque, New Mexico; brother Barry Bicknell and his wife Judy of Huntsville, Alabama; sister-in-law Susan Smith and her husband Sonny of Muscle Shoals, Alabama; and numerous nephews and nieces, cousins, extended family, and friends.
The family expresses its thanks to the medical staff at Hendrick Medical Center, both in Brownwood and Abilene, and especially to the Critical Care Unit at Hendrick Medical Center North in Abilene for their professional, loving care.
Online condolences can be shared with the family online at www.heartlandfuneralhome.net