Dean Button, a pastor, died March 11. He was 95.
As a young family, the Buttons attended Iowa Regular Baptist Camp for a few years. At the camp in 1955, Dean (a farmer) and his wife, Waneta, dedicated their lives to serve the Lord in vocational ministry.
The next year, the family moved from Iowa to Nebraska, where Dean attended Omaha Baptist Bible Institute (now Faith Baptist Bible College) while working full-time.
Dean filled pulpits in Iowa and Nebraska, but often at Pocahontas (Iowa) Regular Baptist Church, a mission church planted in 1959. The church called him as pastor in 1963; he pastored the church until 1967.
Moving to Ankeny, Iowa, Dean then served in church-planting ministry with Hiawatha Baptist Missions (now Continental Baptist Missions). In the spring of 1973, the family moved backed to Pocahontas, where Dean pastored Pocahontas Regular Baptist Church for another 10 years.
In 1982, Dean switched roles and became a church builder, using his skills in electrical, plumbing, and HVAC to help construct churches in at least 15 locations in the United States. He retired in 2004 at age 76 but continued to build churches and fill pulpits. He never retired from a life of spreading God’s Word and glorifying the Lord.
Dean was “a godly, hardworking, and gracious servant of the Lord,” says Tim Capon, state representative of the Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches.
Dean is survived by his wife of 76 years, Waneta; their children, Richard (Kathy), Linda, Carol (Lanny), Dan (Mary), and Doug (Vicki); “bonus kids” Mike and Deb Culp; 14 grandchildren; 41 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
