Obituary of Rev. Richard (Dick) A. Bland

Rev. Richard (Dick) Allen Bland was born in McAlister, Oklahoma on July 8, 1939, to parents Carmel and Aurelia (Aston) Bland. He passed from this life to his eternal rest on Thursday, October 17, 2024, at Saint Francis Hospital at the age of eighty-five.

Dick graduated high school in Granite, OK in 1957 and moved to Oklahoma City to attend Oklahoma City University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961. Obeying a call to pastoral ministry, Dick then moved to Kansas City to attend Saint Paul School of Theology, earning his MDiv degree in 1964. Rev. Dick Bland was an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, serving the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church for more than sixty years.

Dick spent his entire life in the service of others, working bi-vocationally for the Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services and as a pastor in the UMC. He spent many years as the assistant director of Loyd E. Rader Juvenile Detention Center. After retiring from the State of Oklahoma, he served as the director of Sac and Fox Nation Juvenile Detention Center for several years. As a pastor, Rev. Bland served churches in Tuttle, Durant, Sand Springs, and Tulsa. The bulk of his pastoral ministry was spent at Centenary United Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK, where he served for nearly thirty years. Dick was a son, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather, but most importantly, he was a child of God in Jesus Christ.

Dick was preceded in death by his parents Carmel and Aurelia Bland, his brother Philip Bland, and the love of his life Mary Glenda (Morris) Bland. He is survived by his sons Philip Bland and wife Julie of Harlingen, TX, Keith Bland and wife Angela of Broken Arrow, OK, Daniel Bland of Tulsa, OK, his daughter Kristi Bland of Tulsa, OK, grandchildren, Randall, Ryan, Kayleigh, Benjamin, Dariel, Darrin, Stephen, Brandi, Logan, and Mary Sage, and numerous great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held 2:00 p.m. Friday, October 25, 2024, in the Memorial Park Cemetery Chapel.

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