John Franklin Anderson, Jr. (1920-2009) was born in Dallas, Texas on May 27, 1920. He graduated from Highland Park High School in 1937. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Austin College in 1941 and a Bachelor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia in 1944. After his ordination in 1944, he served as a Navy chaplain in the Pacific until 1946. Upon his return from World War II, he served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Tyler until 1951. He then became associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas and was selected as senior pastor in 1952. In 1953, he earned a Master of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. In 1958, Anderson relocated to Florida and became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando.
In 1965, Anderson shifted from acting as a pastor to a role within Presbyterian leadership. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia to act as executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Board of National Ministries. He returned to Texas in 1973 for a second stint as pastor of First Presbyterian in Dallas. In 1982, Anderson served as president of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches and as moderator for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. The next year, he played an important role in the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., which resulted in the current Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In 1984, Mr. Anderson became pastor emeritus of First Presbyterian Dallas. He died on January 31, 2009 in Dallas.
In addition to his work as pastor and church leader, Anderson produced weekly religious newspaper columns in the Dallas Morning News from 1954-1958 and 1974-1984 and the Orlando Sentinel from 1958-1965.
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary chose to honor Anderson and his wife, Nancy, by naming a new dormitory on campus after them. The John F. and Nancy Anderson House was completed in 2009.
From the guide to the John Franklin Anderson, Jr. collection 2009-005., 1988, 1995, 2005-2009, (Austin Seminary Archives, Stitt Library, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.)
