Remembering the Reverend Raymond Earl Judd Jr.

On many Sunday mornings at Trinity University, before the bells, before the organ, and before students fully admitted they were awake, the light in the Margarite B. Parker Chapel office was already on.

Inside, the Rev. Raymond Judd ’56 sat at his desk, typing a sermon on an old IBM typewriter, pecking out sentences with pastoral seriousness while Mozart played nearby. Students would drift in, sometimes with a question about God, sometimes about heartbreak, sometimes about nothing at all.

For more than three decades, the light in Parker Chapel became a beacon, and Judd its steady keeper: pastor, counselor, listener, friend. Alumni remembered not only grand sermons but conversations—late-night ones, especially—because he believed that was when students most needed someone awake with them.

Over the course of his tenure, Judd officiated the marriages of more than 2,000 couples, encouraged future ministers, and quietly counseled students, faculty, staff, and alumni through crises of faith, grief, and identity. He rarely judged. He always listened. As one faculty member later said, “He is first and foremost: a friend.”

And his theology matched his spirit. “The true God is bigger than all our individual religious conceptions,” Judd told the San Antonio Express-News in 1999. “God’s love is big enough to include all sorts and conditions of people and doesn't coerce a stereotyped religious life on any person.”

Henry Perkins, M.D., then of the Center for Ethics in the Humanities at the University of Texas Health Science Center and an attendee of Judd’s services for more than 15 years, said in the same article, “Raymond symbolizes the Christ of the open arms. Many people attend the chapel who wouldn’t fit in any place else.”

A Trinity University alumnus, Judd returned to San Antonio in 1967 at the invitation of Trinity President James W. Laurie, D.D., to serve as the first minister-in-charge of the newly built Margarite B. Parker Chapel. And while the title would later change to university chaplain, the work did not.

In his role, Judd helped create the shape of spiritual life on campus: Sunday morning worship, retreats, discussion groups, pastoral counseling, and an intentionally ecumenical ministry welcoming students of every faith and of none. He introduced Catholic Mass services to campus, convened conversations during the Vietnam era, was an anchor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and encouraged students to wrestle honestly with moral and social questions rather than avoid them.

Judd’s goal was never uniform belief, but authentic faith. He advised student organizations, mentored faculty, and helped students discover callings they did not yet know they had. Some entered ministry because of him. As adviser to the Chi Delta Tau fraternity, he became a trusted guide to generations of members and later helped alumni organize a foundation and scholarship that continues to support students today.

Christmas Vespers, now a cherished Trinity tradition, took its recognizable shape under Judd’s leadership. He and his wife, Mary Jane ’57, opened their home continually, hosting gatherings, meals, and conversations that blurred the line between campus and family. His office door was almost always open, the light on; the hour did not matter.

For Judd, the chaplaincy was simple to explain: “Love the Lord, love people, and try to bring them together.”

After more than 30 years of service, Judd retired in 1999 and was named by the Board of Trustees Trinity University’s first Chaplain Emeritus. That same year, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award, the University’s highest alumni honor. In the Spring 1999 Trinity magazine, a colleague summarized his legacy in a single sentence: He left the Chapel “in a state of grace.”

The Reverend Raymond Earl Judd Jr., known to generations simply as Rev. Judd, died in faith on February 21, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 91.

He was born August 27, 1934, in Sherman, Texas, to Glenna Robinson Judd and Raymond Earl Judd Sr.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and English from Trinity University in 1956 and a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1959. In 1985, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the former School of the Ozarks. His studies also included work at the University of Edinburgh, Oxford University, and as a fellow at the Salzburg Seminary.

He served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Clarksville, Texas, from 1959 to 1964, where he also chaired the Red River County Public Library and led the local historical society. He later pastored Hemphill Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth from 1965 to 1967, serving on civic and cultural boards including the Fort Worth Symphony and the Council of Churches.

Retirement from Trinity University did not end his ministry; it simply changed its geography. Judd continued preaching, mentoring, encouraging former students, and quietly supporting those in need. His and Mary Jane’s hospitality remained legendary. The Raymond Judd Student Emergency Fund, created in his honor, assists Trinity students facing urgent financial hardship, including food, medical expenses, and emergency travel.

The University later named what will become the Rev. Raymond and Mary Jane Judd Center for Spiritual Life and Formation in Parker Chapel in recognition of their lasting influence on campus spiritual life.

Outside of ministry, Judd loved music and served on the board of the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio. He collected beauty wherever he found it: Mexican folk art, religious art, and books, especially his renowned Christmas book collection, which seemed always to be outgrowing its shelves. Museums, meals, concerts, and travel delighted him.

Judd and Mary Jane, his Trinity sweetheart and beloved wife of 66 years, shared an active life in San Antonio, and together they traveled widely to hear and see even more. He cherished beauty and sought it everywhere—in food, art, music, conversation, and, above all, in people and family.

Judd was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Charles Judd. He is survived by his wife, Mary Jane Garfton Judd ’57; daughter, Jane Judd Deming; grandsons Reed Deming and Blake Deming; and granddaughter-in-law, Cecilet Deming.

A memorial service giving witness to Raymond’s new life in Christ will be held Saturday, March 14, at 11 a.m. at the Margarite B. Parker Chapel at Trinity University. The service will also be livestreamed.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Rev. Raymond Judd Student Emergency Fund or the Rev. Raymond & Mary Jane Judd Center for Spiritual Life and Formation at Trinity University.

Judd often said a university was a place where people searched for first-hand faith rather than inherited faith, and where questioning was not the enemy of belief but part of it. And for thousands of students, the Chapel door was open, the light was on, and Rev. Judd was there to listen.