The Reverend Dr. William L. Hogan, 89, of Memphis died peacefully on November 25, 2023.

Bill was born on March 31, 1934, the only child of Elizabeth and Marvin Hogan in Little Rock, AR.

At Rice University Bill majored in economics, but found his heart so changed after attending a Billy Grahm crusade that he sensed a call to full-time Christian ministry. So, after graduating from Rice, Bill earned degrees from Dallas and Columbia Seminaries, and later obtained his doctorate from Westminster Seminary.

Bill's pulpit ministry began as an assistant in Montgomery and Philadelphia. From there, Bill felt called to reach out to college students. He led the Cru Ministry team at the University of Minnesota and then took on new leadership as the North East regional director overseeing staff from Maine to Kentucky.

While located in the Philadelphia area, Bill taught a small Bible study when not traveling for Cru. This small study grew to become a full-time church with Bill installed as its senior pastor. Following sixteen years of church growth, Bill was called to launch a second church in a nearby suburb. One can almost still hear his ringing recitation of Hebrews 4:12 at the beginning of his many sermons there: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Bill's reputation for clear, Bible-centered preaching opened many unexpected opportunities. Among his ministry highlights, Bill counted preaching behind the Iron Curtain in the mountains of Poland and Yugoslavia to believers in hiding, traveling to China and sharing the joy of believers receiving Bibles for the first time, preaching and teaching in Vienna, Canne, Nairobi, and Wales. Hundreds of Englishmen filled the Nave at Salisbury Cathedral in March 1979, to hear Bill preach a week-long series entitled "A Faith for Realists." Many remained to express their profession of faith in Christ. Bill's time in England culminated with his preaching in Queen Elizabeth's Chapel in Sandringham, England.

After years as a senior pastor, Bill accepted a call to Reformed Seminary in Jackson to be a professor of preaching. During those ten years God continued to present opportunities for him to continue his first love, being in the pulpit. God's guiding hand led Bill to serve as interim senior pastor in several Mississippi churches, in Minneapolis, Schenectady, and Memphis, where he served at Independent Presbyterian Church until his retirement at age 85.

Bill marveled that none of the many turns in his life were due to his planning. He felt God's leading in each new situation. Bill declared, "God knows who I am. God knows where I am. God knows where He wants me to be."

Bill will be deeply missed by Jane, his wife and ministry partner of 64 years, and by his loving family: daughter Marion and her husband David Larson, son-in-law Ed Hartman and his wife Emily, six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and a host of friends, many who count Bill as their spiritual progenitor. Bill is overjoyed to be reunited in Heaven with his daughter Amy who went on before him.