James Harvey Lafon

On Sunday, August 30, 2026, at 8:30 pm Reverend Doctor James Harvey LaFon passed away at Texas Health Harris Medical Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. James was born in Virginia on August 25, 1929, to Dewey and Mabel Alice LaFon. He grew up in Jacksonville, Florida.

After graduating from Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, he went to the University of Florida in Gainesville and earned a B.A. in History (1949).

From 1951 to February 1953, he served with the special force in Germany; he enjoyed speaking German. In 1958, he earned the TH56 MDiv from Candler School of Divinity at Emery University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Following graduation, he became a member of the Florida Conference (still today). He served churches in Florida and in Virginia. From July 1960 to June 1962, he served as a chaplain on the John Paul Jones in the North Atlantic, which he enjoyed immensely. After his tour, he went back to Emory University and earned his doctoral degree in Philosophy in 1966. That fall, he became a Professor at Texas Wesleyan College (today called Wesleyan University), where he taught for 40 years. In the summer of 1985, the University honored him with a sabbatical to study German in Gretz.

For a number of years, he taught in the summer Pastor School at Candler at Emory and in the summer Pastor School at Perkins at S.M.U. Many summers he went to Oxford in England to pursue extra academic studies. In the fall of 1966, he met Donna Jean Relyea, who had just arrived to study at Wesleyan College. In June of 1967, they were married at First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He loved his church, his country, Wesleyan, his students, his family, his friends, and never met a person he did not like. He was a member of the church and the Companions class at Arlington Heights United Methodist Church on Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Texas.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Donna LaFon; daughter Paulett; granddaughter Stephanie; grandson Brian; and great-grandson Gabriel.