The Reverend Samuel Russell Estes, Jr., 101, pastor emeritus of Lubbock, Texas, First Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Presbytery del Cristo), died February 9, 2021, of complications of COVID-19. Sam was the father of the Reverend George Estes (Presbytery del Cristo).

Sam was born August 9, 1919, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to Sam R. Estes, Sr. and Mary Grace Barefoot Estes. He was baptized at the First Methodist Church in Bartlesville and, in June 1929, joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Rocky, Oklahoma. He was ordained as a deacon by the Wichita Falls, Texas, Cumberland Presbyterian Church in September 1938. Sam Estes and Edith Louise George married June 1, 1940. She died in 2009.

Sam came under the care of Gregory Presbytery in 1940, was licensed by the Presbytery of Louisiana in 1941, and ordained October 28, 1942, by the Presbytery of Louisiana. The Reverend Ada Mentora Caston Slaton Bonds preached his ordination sermon and the Reverend George Leslie Waddle delivered the charge.

Sam attended Bethel College (now university) in McKenzie, Tennessee, and North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. He held a degree in Religious Education and a Master of Ministry from Trinity Bible College and Seminary.

Sam served the Louisiana Parish of Danville, Greenwood, Cooks Chapel, and Pate Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Churches from 1941 to 1943. He also served Aurora and Mansfield in Missouri; Youngs Chapel, Bradford, and Greenfield in Tennessee; Denton in Texas; and Owensboro in Kentucky before being called to Lubbock, Texas, as senior pastor for First Cumberland Presbyterian Church May 1, 1962. After twenty-four years in that position, Sam entered semi-retirement, remaining with the church as “Minister of Outreach” and then ultimately as Pastor Emeritus until his death—a ministry of fifty-nine years with the church.

In the Lubbock community Pastor Sam served as a volunteer chaplain at UMC, Cardiac Care—Methodist Hospital, worked with Telephone Ministry, participated in the Presbyterian Council, and was secretary of the Ministers Association.