The Rev. C. Don Canon Baugh

The Rev. Canon C. Don Baugh, former director of the San Antonio Community of Churches and a long-time leader in San Antonio social reform, died in San Antonio on July 18.Baugh was a retired Episcopal priest and had served as Executive Director of the San Antonio Council of Churches from 1958 to 1991.Baugh was born in Burdett, Kansas, May 15, 1926. He grew up there and was active in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), later becoming an ordained minister of that denomination in 1948. Baugh was working for the national office of the Christian Church in Indiana when he was hired as Executive Director of the then San Antonio Council of Churches, now known as the San Antonio Community of Congregations.During his 34 years as director of the ecumenical organization, Baugh was highly instrumental in social reform in San Antonio. His first task was to deal with the group's financial difficulties. "They had bad debt all over town," said Baugh in a 1991 interview in the San Antonio Express-News, "so I had to try to put them back on a sound financial basis before anything else." He was able to do that by convincing churches there was a need for unified action. It was solvent within a year. Baugh was instrumental in helping to frame San Antonio's 1962 civil rights ordinances two years before the national 1964 Civil Rights Bill passed. Baugh had convened meetings of San Antonio religious leaders, businessmen, and the city's Black leadership in early 1960, and on March 16, five downtown stores agreed to open their lunch counters to Blacks. In the 1970s, Baugh founded the Battered Women's Shelter of Bexar County. Baugh also founded the Chaplaincy Services in the Juvenile and Adult Detention Centers in San Antonio and was a founder in Christian Assistance Ministries and the San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries.Baugh retired from his post at the Community of Churches in 1991 and became assistant rector at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in San Antonio. He had been ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1969. In 1992, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas bestowed the title of Canon on Baugh. He had also been given the Benemerenti Medal by Pope John Paul II. At the time, he was only the second recipient of the medal in the history of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.Baugh served a number of Episcopal churches in San Antonio, McAllen, Laredo, Wimberley, and Uvalde, most recently as an assistant rector at St. George Episcopal Church. He retired in 2006 following a stroke. Baugh is survived by his wife of 31 years Barbara; four children Pam Walsh (Jim), Rachel Sobieski (Marek), Ed Bateman (Pam), and Kristi Bradshaw (Kevin); six grandchildren Aja Reed (Jeremy), Hunter Satterfield (Carrie), Justin Boudreau, Donica Rangel (Steve), Laney Bateman, and Ty Bateman; and two great-grandchildren Ronnie Satterfield and Ethan Satterfield. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Donica, and a grandson, Christopher Boudreau.In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial gifts to the building fund at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, 5310 Stahl, San Antonio, TX 78247 or to the Scholarship Fund at Camp Capers, PO Box 6885, San Antonio, TX 78209.