William Slater Banowsky (1936–2019)

Banowsky’s grandfathers were both ministers in the Church of Christ. His father, a public school teacher and administrator for 31 years in Fort Worth, was an elder in the Church. Banowsky graduated from Carter Riverside High School in Fort Worth in 1954. A natural athlete, Banowsky earned a baseball scholarship to David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he majored in history and minored in speech communications. Banowsky began his preaching career in 1958, ministering to a Church of Christ congregation in Weir, Kentucky while completing his undergraduate work in Nashville. Banowsky graduated from Lipscomb in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and history and earned his master’s degree in communications from the University of New Mexico in 1959. An Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Southern California. Completing his doctoral program at USC in 1963.