‘Mr. Pathfinder’ worked with church’s youth
Benjamin R. “Bennie” Tillman, known to Seventh- day Adventists across the country as “Mr. Pathfinder” for his work with the church’s youth groups, died Friday following a massive stroke. He was 77.
Tillman devoted much of his life to the Seventhday Adventist Church’s Pathfinder Club, a youth organization akin to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. He began with a local club in Apopka, became an area coordinator andthen state coordinator for Florida, and eventually traveled across the country to preach to other clubs.
For years, Tillman led summer missions to places such as Honduras, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Virgin Islands. He and his wife, EmmaLee, even bought an RV to drive a youth singing group across the country.
“They ended up taking their ministry across the nation,” said his daughter, Beverly Knapp of Dayton, Ohio.
It was a good fit for Tillman, who had an innately sunny disposition and was comfortable with people from every point on the social scale. He played “hillbilly” music and was particularly good on the washtub — a roundmetal tub that hehadpainted red. A string was tied across the tub, and it was played with a red, white and blue stick.
Hemay have been so at ease with the less fortunate because he understood poverty personally. Born in Alabama but raised in Plant City, Tillman and a twin brother had to take turns going to school and working in the fields to help the family get by. One would go to school in the morning while the other picked strawberries, bell peppers and squash; they would switch in the afternoon.
He dropped out of school after sixth grade to pick full time. When he turned 16, hewent to work at a Breyers factory, peeling and canning peaches for ice cream. That’s where he met EmmaLee.
The young couple settled in Altamonte Springs. Tillman founded a plumbing business that grew to have as many as 150 plumbers and had contracts for big condominium complexes in New Smyrna Beach. After selling the business, he became a building inspector for the city of Winter Park. He went back and got his high-school equivalency diploma whenhewas 45 — just in time to beat his high-school-age son.
But family members say it is Tillman’s work with the church and its Pathfinder Club that will be his legacy. “The man is going to be weighed down with a crown when he gets to heaven because of all the kids he helped,” Knapp said.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Tillman is survived by his son, B.L. Tillman of Altamonte Springs; brothers, Brazil Tillman of Cocoa and Emmitt Ray Tillman of Apopka; and four grandchildren.
Baldwin Fairchild Funeral Home, West Altamonte Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.