Author Bio
PAUL WILLIAM BASS was born in Independence, Missouri. He graduated from William Chrisman High School, Southwest Baptist College, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He married Jan Smashey in 1969. He served in full-time church staff positions for nineteen years in Arkansas, Alabama, and Missouri. From 1990–2007, he served at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, as director of student activities and held various adjunct teaching positions. He became the intercollegiate debate coach, with OBU debaters winning three national championships. He took early retirement in 2007 and, in that year, received the Isocrates Distinguished Debate Coach Award from the International Public Debate Association. During that time in Arkansas, he served in several interim pastor positions and became a bivocational pastor at Anchor Baptist Church for twelve years.
He began his writing career in 2007. He has been awarded the 2019 and 2020 Writer of the Year Award by the Springfield Writer’s Guild.
Paul and his wife, Jan, are retired and living in Willard, Missouri. His email address is bassp@obu.edu.
Paul W. Bass receives the first annual Writer of the Year Award 2019 from the Springfield Writers Guild