Hobby Lobby's Miller to Deliver Minter Lecture Nov. 18

November 14, 2016

Les Miller, real estate analyst for Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., will deliver the 2016 Minter Lectureship in Business, Leadership and Christian Ministry at OBU. The lecture will take place Friday, Nov. 18, at 10 a.m., in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium of the Bailey Business Center on the OBU campus in Shawnee.

Miller was born and raised in Colorado Springs. Three weeks prior to the fall semester of 1977, he applied to OBU and headed to Bison Hill, having never been to Oklahoma. Miller met his wife Stephanie his third day on campus, and they were married in the summer of 1979. They have three children and four grandsons.

Graduating in the spring of 1981, Miller has been involved in commercial and industrial real estate for 35 years, either as an appraiser or investor, for numerous clients and employers. For the last 13 years, he has worked as real estate analyst for Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. His responsibilities have included management of multiple states for new store development, oversight of investment property analysis and the acquisition and donation of nearly $500 million in real estate to dozens of Christian ministries on behalf of the Green family. Ordained as the first “lay” elder at Henderson Hills Baptist Church 20 years ago, beyond his family, Miller’s greatest joy has been serving the body of Christ.

The Minter Lectureship in Business, Leadership and Christian Ministry is intended to add a sound understanding of the business world to the educational experience of church ministry majors to broaden their ability to minister effectively. The Minter Lectureship was underwritten by 1940 OBU graduate Lloyd G. Minter of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The annual series began in 1991.

Minter built a successful 35-year career with Phillips Petroleum Co., rising to the position of senior vice president and general counsel before retiring in 1978. His desire to help OBU religious vocation students broaden their understanding of the business community led to establishing the innovative lecture series.

OBU annually has the largest number of religion majors among Southern Baptist four-year colleges and universities. The Minter Lectureship is designed to provide orientation and training for those students in the history and nature of the American economic system and to help the students understand and appreciate the business and professional community. In addition to equipping the students with business knowledge for the institutions they will lead, the Minter Lectureship promotes proper management of personal finances.

Minter, who earned a law degree at the University of Oklahoma, served as counsel for Boone, Smith, Davis and Hurst of Tulsa. He served five terms as an OBU trustee and two terms as a trustee of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Minter died Jan. 4, 2013, at age 94.