Selected Biography: Dean C. Dutton, PhD. (1871- )

Dean C. Dutton came to Wesley in the late teens and led the church through a significant growing phase.

According to the U.S. Census for 1920 he was living at 1403 NW 25th Street.  It revealed he had been born in about 1871/72 in Virginia, he had married a woman named Katherine (b. 1875 in Iowa) and there were two daughters at home, Helen A. (b. 1899, IL) and Adena (b. 1901, IL). An article in a local newspaper indicated he had been born in Wisconsin and reared in Seattle. He had received his education from the Upper Iowa University and took his doctor of philosophy from Kansas City University.  He pastored at Animosa, IA; Webb City, MO, and at Oakley Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. While in Oklahoma City he served as president of the Ministerial Alliance and was director of the Oklahoma Epworth Institute (held at Shawnee). In 1923 he left Wesley in OKC  for the University of Oklahoma to become a "community lecturer and vocational counselor, a new department and take charge of the 'Hearthstone University', a home service department."  ["Dean C. Dutton Leaves Church." Oklahoman (Sept.16,1923):39]

Assorted records give clues as to the character and interests of Dr. Dutton.  He is mentioned as being a presenter-lecturer on the Redpath-Horner Chatauqua on the Pioneer (B) Circuit under supervision of C.M. Hirst. He was on the second day of a 1918 event. (Lyceum Magazine, Sept. 1918, p.38).

In 1929 he served as the president of the National Cigarette Law Enforcement League, Inc.  His name is on the letterhead of a letter from Alva B. Jones dated May 25, 1929.  (Dear President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives, ed. Dwight Young. p.42).

An undated publication, The Beautiful Ministry of Womanhood: A Survey of Opportunities for Ministties of Kindness for Christian Womanhood, Including Social Service Circle Programs shows him as author of "The Great Life" Library.  The booklet was published by The Great Life Publishing Company, 321 N. Chelsea, Kansas City, Missouri and sold for fifteen cents.  It may be a publication of the Methodist Episicopal Church for their women's ministries.

In about 1930 he published Quests and Conquests through  The Life Service Publishing Company (19230) or Oklahoma City (presumed). Description of the Quests include "A search for the Wealth of Life, Truth and Assurances of Reality. Conquests - Building this Wealth into Personality. TWO VOLUMES IN ONE. Part One - Gems of Literature arranged in One Hundred and Twenty-one Lessons in Life Building. Part Two - The Supreme Philosophy." The work apparently included all the material of the author's two editions of Heart Throbs of Truth for Life Building. His other written work include My America and the open road : a textbook directing "The National Awakening" ... / : Bridgeport, Ill. : Thought Wealth Press, 1948.  Fellowship / Cincinnati, Ohio : International Character Education Associations, 1933.

In 1922 he addressed the O.C. Baptist's Pastors Conference on "The Ministry of the Spirit"
(Baptist Messanger , April 5, 1922; pg. 13).

An exact date for his death is not known, however, there is a Dean C. Dutton  in the Bridgeport City Cemetery, Bridgeport, Lawrence Co., Ill, listed as born Dec. 15, 1871 and having died Oct. 16, 1954. He visited to speak at Wesley and it was noted he was living in Illinois.   He is buried with a Carrie L. born 1884 and who died 1959.  It is unclear if this is first or a second wife.

Rebuilt Wesley to hold nearly 800 people, structure dubbed "The Dutton Tabernacle" by congregation, 1920.