Billy Vick Bartlett, Phd

“A tree is best measured when it’s down – and so it is with people.” – Carl Sandburg In the year of our Lord 2020 on Tuesday, February 4, a crack and crackle was heard as one of the mightiest oaks among the spiritual forest of men fell. As we give thanks to God for the provision, shade, and protection this grand timber bestowed upon all those under the influence of his branches, it is only appropriate that we, as spiritual loggers, pause to sift through the foliage, measure the rings, and examine the fruit the bittersweet and abstruse task of encapsulating, in but scant few lines, the superlative mortal life of Dr. Billy Vick Bartlett. Psalm 90:9-12 “For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Measured chronologically, we first count the rings appearing atop the stump: Seventy-seven. Praise God, a man of full age, having been granted the lion share of man’s divinely decreed allotment of years. In respect to the assessment of his strength, it can be noted there is hardly a tree it’s like. Solomon once told his son, “Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.” (Proverbs 24: 3-5)   How strong this tree was!  What a house of precious and pleasant riches Billy provided for his own! He was strong in physical might, athletic prowess, intellectual acumen, erudition, scholastic achievement, moral character, masculine example, love, and biblical knowledge seventy-seven years of a life spent in the pursuit of wisdom, godliness, and instruction. Reckoned sociologically, the shadow of influence under the girth and reach of these branches was immense. Billy Vick Bartlett was born February 1, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan, to Billy Murray and Evelyn Rae (Vick) Bartlett. Billy and his wife, Gloria (Outland) were married on August 19, 1966 at Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan; and together they had two sons, Blake Vick and Brett Baker Bartlett. Billy graduated from Kimball High School in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1961, graduated with a B.A. from Bob Jones University in 1966, received his M.A. from Missouri State University in 1969, and earned his PhD from California Graduate School of Theology. Beginning in 1966, Dr. Bartlett was on the faculty at Baptist Bible College for 20 years, filling the positions of Chairman of the History Department and Dean of Students.  In 1986, he was called to the pastorate of Toledo Baptist Temple/Wyldewood Baptist Church where he has been honored to serve as Pastor and later Pastor Emeritus until the Lord took him home. He was a quiet, introspective man who loved his extended and church families.  However, the joy of his desire was his wife with whom he realized penultimate gratification in the lives and interactions of his sons and grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his grandparents; his parents; and his sister, Christie Turville. Billy is survived by his devoted wife, Gloria; and their sons, Blake (Alina) Bartlett of Tucumcari, New Mexico, and Brett (Kimberly) Bartlett of Lambertville, Michigan.  He was the loving grandfather of Baylea, Molly, Connor, and Cole Bartlett; and was the dear brother of Larry (Mary) Bartlett, Mike and Danny (Debbie) McNeilance, Mark Bartlett, Beth (Rick) Larabee, Carrie (Dave) Backman, and Ruth (Andrew) Morris. He leaves behind many loving nieces, nephews, family and friends. Having been a college professor and pastor, Billy was able to affect untold numbers of lives for the cause of Christ. The hallmark of his ascendancy being an impassioned defense of his deep conviction that the Authorized King James Bible is the actualization of God’s promise to preserve His words and that the only hope for the never-dying souls of Adam’s fallen race is the bold proclamation of eternal life as a free gift through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ plus NOTHING! He was motivated to cultivate the weakest and most timid saplings to grow stronger that the body of Christ could stand in unity as a forest of the mighty for God. The whole of Billy Bartlett’s life will be a “tale that is told” at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  With these present constraints, we are left only to say that he passed as he lived: with the power of Christ’s love and unshakeable faith in His promises, thinking of himself as nothing and his blessed Saviour as everything.  As the silver cord was breaking, he clung to the hand of his devoted wife and the hope of spiritual reward for his grandchildren. In his final moment as that menacing stalker, who hath all seasons to himself, came to fell his body, Billy was content and tranquil. Not a word of victory on his lips but manifesting the countenance of a saint kept in perfect peace owing to a life lived loving God’s law. This warrior of God who fought the good fight his entire life, entered into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.  Approaching the field of life’s final conflict, there was, alas, no enemy to be found; no foe with which to fight! The ultimate adversary, the great accuser of the brethren, the deceiver of the whole world, very Death, had been defeated for him two thousand years ago upon a blood-stained cross on a hill just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Have you claimed this victory? You can. John 14:1-6 “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”   Please join the family for a time of visitation on Monday, February 10, 2020, at Walker Funeral Home, 5155 West Sylvania Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43623 from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Homegoing Service will be held at Wyldewood Baptist Church, 7947 Douglas Road, Lambertville, Michigan 48144, on Tuesday, February 11, 2020, at 11:00 a.m.  Interment will be at Toledo Memorial Park, 6382 Monroe Street, Sylvania, OH 43560 following the service. If so desired, donations may be made to the Mission Fund of Wyldewood Baptist Church, P.O. Box 707, Lambertville, MI 48144, in honor of Dr. Bartlett’s life and testimony.