The 2006 Hal Brook Perry Award

Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

Benjamin H. Skyles

Compassionate servant leader and pioneer of Hispanic ministry, you have enhanced the life of the Church and been a forthright advocate for all people, as well as for God’s environment that we share.

Following graduation from the University of Texas in 1955 and the Seminary of the Southwest three years later, you began four decades of ministry in the Diocese of Texas. After service at St. Alban’s, Waco, St. Thomas’ in Rockdale and St. Mark’s, Beaumont, your thirty-five years of ministry began to unfold at St. Peter’s Church in Pasadena. As more Hispanic people moved into the neighborhood surrounding St. Peter’s about twenty years ago, you responded in exemplary fashion by teaching yourself Spanish and holding regular Spanish-language services. The church also launched an after-school program for children needing supervisory care. The vibrant St. Peter’s congregation – numbering three hundred parishioners – continues as a forerunner of Hispanic ministry following your retirement in 1999.

Named Pasadena Citizen of the Year in 1973, you also received the Religious Service Award from the Greater Houston area chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the early 1980s for your community work. You led a truly remarkable citizen effort to block an Exxon Oil company plan to build a road through the Harris County Armand Bayou wildlife preserve in the early 1970s. In very oil-friendly Houston – during the infancy of the environmental movement – you led the court battle that stymied hometown Exxon’s development and later chaired a local committee for the preservation of the Texas Gulf Coast bayou.

You also found time to write two books – Tell Us of the Morning and From theBelly of the Great Fish – and constantly encouraged your five children to fully become who they are.

The Seminary of the Southwest recognized your achievements in 1983 when you were awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. We honor you now for your unconditional love and acceptance for all people with the Hal Brook Perry Distinguished Alumni/ae Award.

Ben and family at Blandy Lectures

Ben Skyles by Houston refinery during his battle to keep Exxon from building a road through the Armand Bayou. copyright Houston Post