Lonnie William Mohundro, Jr. January 3, 1928 – April 11, 2009 by Tim Lewis, tlewis@northmac.org
Lon Mohundro was born near Ferris, Texas on January 3, 1928. He was raised in the Methodist church but was never very committed in his attendance or dedication to that denomination. He served in the Coast Guard from 1946 to 1948 and spent 18 months in the Philippines. After completing his military service, Lon attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, obtaining his B.A. in Business in 1952. While attending that university, he met and married Jeanne Peteet, who was a member of the church of Christ in Highland Park. Due in large part to Jeanne’s example and influence, Lon entered into a serious study of God’s word with Brother Mac Lefan and was baptized just a few months before he and Jeanne were married on June 11, 1949. After his graduation, Lon worked in the Property and Casualty area of several different insurance companies. The family eventually moved to Garland, Texas and became actively involved with the Saturn Road congregation, but when Lon became a partner in the Wilson– Welch Insurance agency, the family moved to Oak Cliff and attended the Wynnewood Hills congregation. That move dramatically altered the course of their lives. During the 1960’s churches of Christ were making a concerted effort to evangelize urban cities in the Northeast through The Exodus Movement – an outreach model that involved large groups of Christians in the South forming ready-made congregations in major cities in the Northeast. The Wynnewood congregation was the sponsor for a group that went to Burlington, Massachusetts. In 1967, at the age of 39, Lon sold his partnership, and moved his family half way across the country without any prospects for employment. He eventually took a job with the Curtin Agency, in Cambridge, but made it clear to his employers that while they could count on him to do his best, his vocation in New England was involvement with the Lord’s church. That “involvement” eventually included serving as one of six elders at the young age of 40.