Nicole’s e-Pistle “John Law”

April 29, 2026

Greetings, Friends!

If you are reading this on Wednesday, I have gone with Alice down to St. Simons to attend John Law’s funeral service. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know that he had an immense impact on this congregation. Today, I take a step back to allow those of you who knew him best to pay tribute to his memory…

 

Mary Ellen Gurley:

I first got to know John Law at church camp on Lake Allatoona. He was fun, kind, smart, and always smiling.

 

Peggy Rollins:

I knew John Law, but Roger and I were never in the church when he was the minister. We joined the church after he had already left and Hal Todd was here. He was a kind, wonderful man, and from everything I heard, one of the most beloved ministers First Pres. has ever had.

 

Bobbie Anderson:

John was a gentle-man with a big heart and a kind nature. We all loved him and enjoyed being with him. His sermons always ended on a positive note. I appreciated that so much! Knowing that the church members were busy, he did the church visitations. He would not ask for money. Others, mostly Deacons, were asked to speak on the subject of the budget.

 

Debbie Dennard:

He had a great laugh! He was such a wonderful person. So kind, giving and loving. I was playing in a tennis tournament once and it was terribly hot. I got TOO hot and had to come off the court. The first person to help was John. He had a cold, wet towel and some water for me. He helped me get under the shade of a tree to cool off. I still remember his last Sunday with us. It was Christmas Day in 1977. He made it through the entire service without breaking and when he put his hands up for the Benediction, he broke, but pulled it together quickly. Mind you, we were all crying.

 

Bob Hubbs:

John was the minister when Mary and I were married. He was our minister after we moved back to Dalton. He was always encouraging and his sermons were instructive and meaningful. His life was an example to me and I am sure to others. He was loved and will be missed.

 

Hilliard and Becky Jolly:

In 1967, we were one of the first couples John married and he and Ann were a huge influence for us for the eleven years they were in Dalton. He was a great encourager and mentor as I began service on the Diaconate and then the Session. One rarely saw him without a ready smile and a twinkle in his eye. I remember meetings where someone would launch into, “Well they say…” and John would quickly say, “There is no they,” and he would get to the essence of the discussion. He was a great pastor and friend.

 

Annelle Scott:

John, Ann and their children all excelled in their varied contributions to FPC and the community of Dalton! There was not a dry eye in a standing room only congregation on his last Sunday. He was warm, intelligent, and Godly in the best of ways.

 

Berrien Long:

One of my favorite memories of John Law was when he had our youth group sitting around a table late one night talking about the last supper. He then proceeded to serve pecan pie and Coke instead of bread and grape juice. It made the last supper very real, and memorable to an impressionable teen!

 

Mickey Long:

Rev. Law married Berrien and me in 1975. He had been so wonderfully involved with us in our teenage dating phase, and he regularly counseled with us on marriage months before our wedding day.

I had grown up and was baptized in the First Baptist Church in Dalton but frequently attended First Presbyterian with Berrien as her high school boyfriend and later as her fiancé. I quickly grew to be very fond of Rev. Law and remembered telling Berrien that I thought him to be the most sincere, real, and believable pastor I had ever met. There were so many accumulated experiences that I had during my years of attending his services that bolstered my deep admiration for him, but… the admiration took a quantum leap on our wedding day!!

My buddies and I had a particularly rambunctious bachelor’s party in my honor the night before our wedding. The next day, as Rev. Law, my father (who was my Best Man), and I gathered in the small room behind the alter in the old First Pres sanctuary just before the wedding was to begin, the reverend could tell that I was struggling. I came clean with him, admitting to being extremely fatigued and dehydrated. Very smoothly, Rev. Law walked over to a small refrigerator, opened it and fished out a rather large bottle of cold communion grape juice and handed it to me. I promptly guzzled the whole thing down and handed the empty bottle back to him. He had rescued me! A minute or two later, the three of us walked out into the packed sanctuary and the ceremony began.

God bless John Law. A beautiful human being.

 

Steve Farrow:

John Law was our minister from my early childhood into my college years. To me, he will always represent the personification of a church minister. He was amazing from the pulpit, with a dynamic delivery and spiritual message which resonated for days afterwards. He was attentive to all of the congregation in his pastoral care. He was a capable and focused administrator in leading the church with future goals and implementation of those goals, and he extended his presence out into the larger Dalton community as well. It is no surprise that his dynamic leadership resulted in an unprecedented era of growth for our church in membership, programming, service, and excitement.

 

Jean Lowrey:

The Rev. Dr. John Law, lean and handsome according to teenage girls in the church, was in his 30’s when he was called to a vibrant First Presbyterian Church of Dalton. Upon meeting him, it was hard to tell what was most magnetic: his good looks, his engaging smile, his contagious laugh or his unassuming humility.

Central casting could not have done a better job of landing this man in the right profession and at the right time for our church. He held his gaze on you and listened intently. He spread joy by simply entering a room which gave him a prelude for spreading the real Good News through sermons, devotionals, Sunday School lessons and conversations.

Genuine empathy was one of his gifts. He attended not just to the words of others, but also the emotions and the body language giving the speaker assurance that she/he had been heard, loved and enveloped. He did not forget others’ concerns as he continued to check on them, offering help, encouragement and prayers.

Laughter was another gift he spread, not by trying to be the most humorous person in the room, but by caring enough about other’s feelings to reward their light-heartedness with his own laughter. He saw the humor in situations that could have brought others down and lightened moods and outlooks with his generous and witty interpretations.

My husband and I had not been members of this church long when a stern-faced, older lady approached me after the service and demanded, “Why doesn’t your husband come to church with you?” I looked back at the choir loft and said, “He does. He sings in the choir.” When I told John about that, he responded by saying, “You should have told her,…”as he placed one hand over his heart, the other hand knotted at his mouth as if he were about to cry, “Oh!, he went that away,” swinging one hand in a long swoop upward and ending his gesture pointing to the choir loft.

His sermons were warm, to the point and usually about 10-to-12 minutes long. Some members teased him about his sermon structure: introduce three points, elaborate on those three points, and summarize the three points with Biblical references interwoven. His command of the English language mixed with his knowledge and continuing scholarship gave worshippers a message to carry out with them.

John Law was a “Love First, Love All” person long before we adopted the slogan. His love of God was real thus his love for all of God’s people was real.

I added him early on to my private assembly of role models where, along with the others, he has and will remain.

(s) One of many people blessed to have known John Law.

 

Alice Ensley: “A Man Named John”

When your best friend is a “preacher’s kid,” you find yourself growing up with a minister, a second dad, and a living example of Christianity all rolled into one. He stood in the pulpit each Sunday teaching us about loving our neighbor, but on “spend the night Friday,” he was just a dad, at my door with my friend, holding all of her dolls, ready for a play date.

And when I visited his house, I was just one of the family. I played on the bag swing, roller skated all over “Pill Hill,” and even took over the “Pastor’s Study” to reenact Amahl and the Night Visitors. I knew every word. He was like a father to me… the earthly one and the heavenly one.

But it wasn’t just me. He ministered to so many in our small town during a time of great change. He built a new modern sanctuary and elected women to church leadership positions. He took the youth to see Jesus Christ Superstar and encouraged us to dance in worship. Yet all the time he grounded us in the traditions and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Presbyterian Church, and love.

I am so grateful for the life of this man and feel truly blessed to have been nurtured in faith by him for so many years. He will be missed by so many here on earth, but even more are in heaven rejoicing.

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John and he was a witness to the light.” And he was my minister and my best friend’s dad. So many memories etched in my mind and a few photos to hold onto. One of my favorite pictures is from my wedding in that new modern sanctuary. There is a warm light shining down on John Law as he married Doug and me. That is not a coincidence. This man lived in the light and was favored by God, and we were all blessed in turn.

Blessings and Deep Peace, my Friends!