Student Housing

Honoring John (MDiv’63) and Sue McCoy

The photo was taken of members of the McCoy family the day McCoy House was dedicated in 2017.

“Then Jesus asked, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched on its branches.’” – Luke 13:18

By Paige McCoy Smith

It was called an “efficiency.” By efficiency—I mean this apartment was barely 500 square feet, where a single room served as the lead role in a one-act play: kitchen, dining room, living room, and study—all in one. The bedroom was large enough to force a double bed into an envelope-sized area only inches wider than the mattress. The bathroom housed the essentials including a half-bathtub. You heard that right. It was a standard-size bathtub that was literally cut in half, in which the bather had to squeeze into a space roughly the size allotted to a fan in the stands of a UT playoff football game. It was tight.

But we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves. My father, John McCoy, met my mother, Sue, in college on a blind date, and he continued the courtship by picking her up from the Scottish Rite Dormitory, in his ‘57 Convertible T-Bird, and taking her next door to …. The Seminary Library. What a romantic!

Still, it was a love story—one for the ages. It was the beginning of a union that joined them at the altar where a young bride and groom accepted their vows and identified their faith as a basis for their marriage: For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health—until death do they part. And death parted them, after 56 years of marriage, on August 30, 2015, with the untimely passing of my beloved father. Yet it started with a foundation inside the blueprint of a modest space—too small to hold a coffee table, but large enough to contain their love. It housed a union and planted a seed that began on the steps of Austin Seminary and continued into a lifelong pursuit of serving God.

Another seed from that union has now flourished into Austin Seminary’s newest student apartments, built on the same ground as my parents’ first home. When the Seminary decided to name the building The John and Sue McCoy House, friends near and far—who had themselves been touched by our parents’ lives and ministries— stepped forth, in love, to contribute to the fundraising.

My father did not survive to see the dedication of McCoy House. Yet, he would be so grateful to those who supported a ministry that began in a tiny apartment more than fifty years ago and expanded into a glorious building on the Holy Grounds of an institution committed to sharing the “Good News” and expanding the arms of God.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20

Paige McCoy Smith, writing on behalf of her family, is the youngest of the three children of John and Sue McCoy for whom the newest student housing was named.