A LIFE WELL LIVED - SEATOR (TED) RENDALL
1933 to 2026
On a smoky, humid evening in a hospital room in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, just 3 weeks shy of his 93rd birthday, Dad took his final breath, shook off his mortal coil and left this life for the next. His considerable intellect quiet, his worn-out body finally at peace.
Surrounded by family with Alan Jackson's "Precious Memories" playing in the background. (Some irony here: Dad was never a fan of country music but he told me, “Jackson has good enunciation and I can understand the words"). He absolutely loved this double album and specifically requested it many times in the last few months of his life.
As I sat holding his arthritic hands in mine - hands that had held mine as a child, hands that had typed thousands of pages over the years, hands that had written 10 books, thousands of articles and conducted thousands of services and classes, hands that had helped us boys thread blood suckers onto our fishing hooks, hands that had peeled potatoes and deep-fried fish and chips hundreds of times while preparing one of his favourite meals for our family's Sunday lunch - I reflected on what a remarkable life Dad had led.
Seator Rendall was born in Leith, Scotland, on August 18, 1933, the second child of James and Jane Rendall. He was named Seator after a family surname that went back many generations - no middle name, just Seator. It was no secret that Dad always strongly disliked his name. When his younger sister Margaret (Peggy) was born, she had a hard time pronouncing his name and called him Tatey, which evolved into Ted - a nickname that stuck with Dad for the rest of his life.
Dad faced many health challenges throughout his life starting at a very young age when he contracted tuberculosis at 10. He spent about a year in a sanatorium by the sea, staying in an open-faced hut that could be rotated 360 degrees to let in the fresh, salty sea air in the hopes that he would be cured. By the age of 11 he weighed in at a whopping 45 pounds. Scarlet fever followed along with pleurisy and appendicitis. Suffering later from a mastoid as a result of the tuberculosis, he underwent surgery to remove it which left a scar from his ear down to his chin. Many years later while teaching a module at Briercrest, Dad contracted E. coli, which nearly killed him. Ten years ago he underwent a quintuple heart bypass, which undoubtedly extended his life. In recent months Dad would often say that he wished the Doctors could just tell him what was wrong with him. My answer was always, "Let's start with 92!"
Dad was an academic. He loved books. He loved learning and considered himself a life-long learner. By the time he graduated from high school he had taken 5 years of Latin, 5 years of classical Greek and 5 years of French. Many years later he, along with Ruth Dearing, a faculty member at PBI, took Hebrew taught by Brian Bates while maintaining his busy schedules at the school and church.
In 1946, at the age of 12, Dad was invited to attend a series of meetings being held at the Carrubers Close Mission in Edinburgh, Scotland. To tell it in Dad's own words:
"In 1946 when a YFC (Youth For Christ) team was touring Britain just after the war - a team made up of Billy Graham, Torrey Johnson, Stratton Shufelt and Chuck Templeton. Chuck Templeton brought the gospel message and gave an altar call and a 12-year-old boy responded and was led to Christ by Mr. Shufelt on the night of March 31st.
About 20 years later Mr. Shufelt was travelling in Western Canada and visited the Prairie Bible Institute. There he met one of the staff members who asked him if he remembered leading a 12-year-old boy to the Lord in Edinburgh, Scotland? It happened that he didn't remember, but you should have seen the look on his face when the staff member told him, "Well, I was that boy." I know that story is true, because I was that 12-year-old (later to become a staff member at PBI). In 1946 Mr. Shufelt had no idea he was leading a future staff member to Christ."
Under Miss Daisy Murray's influence, Dad was invited to start attending the youth group at Carrubers Close Mission. Miss Murray started Dad off by having him present a short reading or scripture passage to the group at their weekly gatherings. One day, Miss Murray said, "Ted, I think you can write your own 'sermon' for next week," and the "Boy Preacher Of Edinburgh," as he became known, was off and running. In the years that followed Dad was heavily involved with the Open Air Mission and the Scottish Evangelistic Association, most often preaching in the open air or on the streets of Edinburgh.
Around this time Dad began buying theological books at many of the used book shops that dotted Princess Street in Edinburgh. He held onto most of those books for the rest of his life and his collection grew until the number of volumes in his personal library neared 120,000—many of them rare and unavailable in any digital form. In recent years, Dad arranged to gift the library to the Rio Grande Bible School in Edinburg, Texas where Dad had often been a conference speaker. All of the additions to our house were built to accommodate Dad's growing library - and there were several! Later, when Dad and Hester moved to Memphis, Hester was heard to say, "I don't live in a house, I live in a library."
During High School, Dad worked as a part-time salesman in a men's and boy's clothing store. On one occasion they were out of a specific size of socks and management told Dad to erase the size on another pair and sell them to the customer as if they were the size they wanted. Dad refused, and rather than firing him, he must have impressed the owners enough that they offered him a full time job if he would not return to school.
Dad was very musical. As a young boy, with no money for lessons he taught himself to play the keyboard starting with an old pump organ in their home. He learned the Solfege method, which used letter abbreviations instead of traditional notes. Later, his father bought him a piano accordion decorated with a ship motif. This became his pride and joy and he played it at many events as a young man. He was a competent piano, organ, accordion and harmonica player and his clear tenor voice rang out many times as he led the singing at church. He listened to music almost every night while I was growing up, often grading papers, visiting with Mom and listening to the CBC's Concert Hall - a true multi-tasker. Dad wrote quite a number of hymns, most notably, "To All The Nations," a missions hymn often sung at Prairie conferences. Sometimes he collaborated or as we call it today co-wrote with Gordon Head or Paul Rausch. One of Dad's regrets was never being able to take music lessons.
After graduating from High School Dad attended BTI (Bible Training Institute) in Glasgow, Scotland for one year before transferring to LBC (London Bible College) in London, England, where he often felt like an outsider. After one year and running low on funds he returned to Edinburgh to work for the summer. While there he attended Charlotte Chapel where a visiting Mother and daughter from Vancouver gave him a Prairie Overcomer. At this point he had already applied to Moody Bible Institute and been rejected due to a lack of funds. Reading the Overcomer, Dad was intrigued by the low tuition rates and the courses offered. He immediately wrote to the school and was told that if he arrived early, the school would give him work. Additionally, he could do student work during the school year and stay on for summer work, which would cover his room, board and tuition. Now this was an idea that appealed to his Scottish roots. Immediately plans began for him to attend school in faraway Canada.
Selling his beloved accordion to afford passage by ship from Southampton, England, to Montreal, Quebec, Canada with 35 dollars in his pocket, Dad took a massive leap of faith. He set sail for Canada early that summer, travelling with a couple he had come to know through Charlotte Chapel who were also planning on attending Prairie. George and Agnes Bethune were a great support to Dad and became like a second family for him in the new frontier. Landing in Montreal the group took the 5 day train trip to Three Hills, arriving early in the summer of 1953.
True to their word, Prairie handed Dad a shovel and assigned him to dig the foundations for the platform of the new tabernacle that was in the process of being built. In classic foreshadowing, this would be the same platform where Dad would preach later in his life. That fall, Dad was assigned kitchen duty in the Dining Hall and his job was tea boy, ensuring tea was available for every meal. In subsequent summers, Dad worked on the construction crew, one summer building windows for the new high school under the tutelage of Roy Bennett and one summer under Louis Hanna, building the spring cooler and boat house at Pine Lake which was the school's retreat centre some 40 minutes from town.
On October 26th, 1953 Dad received a devastating telegram from his brother Gavin that simply read: Father, lost at sea. "Mother" Cunningham, as she was known to staff and students, broke the news to Dad and played an important role in helping him grieve. With no money to return to Scotland for a memorial or to be with his family, Dad felt alone and isolated.
In 1955, at the age of 22 and still in school, Dad was asked to become the pastor of Bethel Fellowship Church, a small non-denominational church 5 miles east of Three Hills. Dad loved his 20 years at Bethel - he loved the people and the people loved him. These were formative years for Dad as he entered the life of the church. It was at Bethel that his preaching style really developed. He became known for 4 distinct qualities: his use of alliteration, his use of illustrations (many of which he wrote himself) the preaching of topical series and the brevity of his sermons which were often 20 minutes and very seldom over 30. Congregants appreciated this brevity, as many had lunch waiting at home.
In 1956 upon graduation, Dad was asked to join the staff of Prairie as a resource person for Principal L.E. Maxwell which meant that he read newspapers, magazines and books for Mr. Maxwell's editorial, teaching and preaching ministry. This was right down Dad's alley and he became Mr. Maxwell's right-hand man, who would often refer to him as his "Timothy," a biblical reference to the Apostle Paul's protege. Soon Dad began writing his own articles for the institute's publications and went on to become the editor of the children's magazine, Young Pilot, the ministry focused Prairie Overcomer and Servant magazine. In the ensuing years he wrote 10 books, thousands of articles, dozens of booklets and thousands of sermons in addition to teaching various courses at the school.
1958 was a big year for Dad as he married my mother, Norline Norbo, a former student and current staff member. In 1960, he was appointed to the newly created office of vice-principal and that same year, he was able to take Mom back to the "old country" to meet his family and see where he grew up. I came along in 1961 and my brother Dave in 1962. Many of our summers were spent at Pine Lake fishing, boating and playing on the dock and the beach. Dad always packed his manual typewriter and a stack of books and we could hear the clacking of the typewriter down on the beach as he sat out on the screened porch typing. A highlight for our family was an eight-week trip to Britain and Europe in the summer of 1970.
In 1957 Dad was asked to teach the Bible 2 class (Jeremiah to Malachi), something he did for 41 years. At his core, Dad was a teacher. With his Bible 2 class ending at 12 noon, it was common for Dad to come home for lunch around 1:00 as he often stayed after class to discuss that day's lessons with his students. Dad was hesitant to be too dogmatic on theological matters and often presented several common views without revealing his own position. "You can put TSR besides that" was a common phrase he used in the classroom when he wanted to drive home a passionate point which he himself held. Dad's memory for where a book was located right down to a specific passage, was the stuff of legends. Students often came to his office and he would give or lend them books from his own personal library. Mom and Dad hosted hundreds of students in our home, entertaining 10 students at a time every Friday night for one of Mom's delicious homemade desserts. This was a good opportunity for the students to see Dad outside of the classroom and the pulpit.
In 1964 Dad was ordained with the AGC (Associated Gospel Churches of Canada) This gave him the legal license to marry and bury and he did this hundreds of times in his role as pastor.
In 1975 Dad received a call to become the Senior Pastor of Preaching for the Prairie Tabernacle Congregation, a role he held for the next 23 years.
Dad continued his climb up the Prairie administrative ladder sitting on the board and various committees, moving on to Principal, then Vice-President and in 1985, he was elected President of the school. These were tough years for Dad. In addition to his responsibilities at the school and the church, he also played a role in caring for Mom. In the mid 1970s, Mom began to show signs of what was later diagnosed as a rare form of Multiple Sclerosis, which left her in constant pain. As her condition worsened the demands on Dad's time became even more urgent. In October of 1993, over Thanksgiving weekend, Mom passed away leaving a huge hole in all of our hearts and leaving Dad lost and lonely.
In 1993 Dad received a Governor General of Canada Medal given, "in recognition of significant contribution to compatriots, community and to Canada." His trip to Ottawa to receive this award was another highlight for him.
In 1995 Dad found love once again and married Hester Dougan, a fiery Irish woman who was serving with the Faith Mission when Dad met her. In 2006 Dad and Hester moved to Olive Branch, Mississippi where Dad served as Minister, Lecturer and Curator of the Ted S. Rendall Collection in the Stephen Olford Library in Memphis, Tennessee. These were good years for Dad, as he taught pastors, laymen, and students in addition to speaking at conferences and churches literally all over the globe. He travelled extensively having spoken or taught in over 30 countries in the span of his career. He travelled to Japan 18 times; he loved the Japanese people and they in turn loved him.
After retiring from Prairie in 1998 he was honoured to be named Chancellor Emeritus of Prairie Bible Institute and Pastor Emeritus of the Prairie Tabernacle Congregation.
Hester passed away in 2021 and once again Dad found himself alone, bravely facing the unknown. A year ago this October, Dad taught his last classes at Olford Ministries and began to make plans to return to Canada. On Christmas Eve, 2025, Dad had a major health crisis and was hospitalized in the Memphis area. We managed to get him back to Canada in January and he spent the next 7 months in and out of the hospital until his passing. One of his goals was to be able to live by himself in what he called his "cottage," which he managed to do for several weeks between hospital stays.
He leaves behind his sons, Stephen (Cathy) and David; three grandchildren-Christy (Orin), Rob, Jon (Kendra); and seven great-grandchildren: Jaxon, Aubree, Jason, Everlee, Caleb, Hannah and Ava, his brother Gavin, sister Margaret and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father, James, his mother, Jane, his first wife, Norline, and his second wife, Hester.
Rest well Dad . . . Your work on earth is done.
"Echoes of mercy, whispers of love."
