Rev. Dr. Albert "Bud" Coe

Rev. Dr. Albert 'Bud' Ernest Coe
THE EARLY YEARS
I was Born at St. Joseph’s Hospital May 23, 1923, a son to Ernest & Matilda Coe and grew up at 475 St. John’s Road in the township of York now the city of Toronto. One of the big moments in my life as a sixteen year old was being taught to drive by my father and then buying a 1930 ford rumble seat car. At sixteen, I was an apprentice electrician working for my uncle Harry. By the time I was eighteen, I could be left on a job to do whatever at the time still required to be done until my uncle would return to finish the job. On my twentieth I had passed my exam to become a journeyman electrician.

YOUNG TEEN
St. John’s Road Baptist Church played a large part of my life. A high school teacher, John Barr, a member of the church, began to take an interest in a group of us teens. A very vital incident took place in my life through this dedicated servant of his while walking me home one night after a meeting at the church. He was talking to me about some portion of the scriptures. We paused on the sidewalk in front of our home under a street lamp. Then, as we say, ’out of the blue’ he asked me ’have you received Jesus Christ as your Saviour?’ I was taken aback by his question. I paused. Then I replied, ”Yes , John, I have received Jesus in my heart.” While I had responded properly in the baptismal tank to the questions of my pastor I had never given the matter another thought. In fact, that night under the light of that street light something very powerful happened to me. I felt deeply stirred and with a deep sense of conviction I confessed owning my Lord for the first time.

LOVE LIFE
St John’s Road Baptist Church not only played a part of my spiritual journey it also was involved in a most blessed and wonderful part of my whole life. One fall some of the young group decided to go for a hike...I came to know Enid Stratton, I was seventeen. Most of our courtship was spent in activities around the church and with the young people. We were deeply in love and couldn’t wait to be together. I was progressing toward my license as a journeyman electrician. As we entered our eighteenth and nineteenth years of age we fell very much in love. I was so in love with Enid that after returning home from a date I would lie awake dreaming about how wonderful it would be to be married. Enid and I were married on Nov. 21, 1942 in St. John’s Road Baptist Church by Dr. McDirmid. Enid and I had a daughter Lynn Diane who was born at Strathcona Private Hospital on Bloor Street.

ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE
It was sometime after I turned twenty that I began an attempt to enlist in the navy but I was not accepted. I applied to the Royal Canadian Air Force and eventually was accepted and later became their maintenance electrician at Command Headquarters on York Street. I was later assigned to Tuft’s Cove Nova Scotia. Our new home in Nova Scotia was quite primitive. We did have a little radio, two burner hot plate and an old fashioned wood burning stove and food was rationed. Later in 1945, it began to appear that the war in Europe would soon be over and with that we made plans for Enid and baby Lynn to return to Winfield Avenue in Toronto. The summer went quickly and in August the war with Japan was terminated when the U.S.A. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war with Germany and Japan was fought at great price. Thousands lost their lives and untold thousands came home wounded both in body and in spirit. The war made us all grow up in a hurry.

BUSINESS MAN
Uncle Harry offered to take me in as a business partner and decided to build a store on Dundas St. in Lambton mills, which became known as Lambton Kingsway Electric. Uncle Harry was in charge of the store and I was in charge of the contracting. Our son Rob later was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto. It was in the early fifties that I decided to buy two lots on Marquis Ave. in Lambton and arrange contractors to build us a lovely Cape Cod seven room home. We were able to have it carpeted and arranged to have special material bought for drapes that were professionally put together. Our home was equipped with the latest Electric appliances of those times. While there, we also acquired a Golden cocker Spaniel which was named Sam. We all enjoyed Sam and he became quite possessive of our property. He had a bad habit of chasing cars if he got away from us.

PRELUDE TO MINISTRY
I was very active at St. John’s Road and had been president of the young people, Sunday school superintendent and Chairman of the Deacon’s Board, had attended Toronto Bible College and had taken lectures on the Holy Spirit. This influenced our lives and made us much more dedicated to the Lord. The next thing I knew I was standing at the front of the church before the pulpit responding to the evangelist’s appeal. When we got home from church Enid and I talked about my response. I went to see Dr. Dixon Burns who advised me to go back to school which meant as a mature person I would be accepted into McMaster University. That year I went to Dominion Business College to take those subjects needed to enter University. Although keeping close touch with my business I enrolled early in 1955, if my memory is serving me correctly re that date, in Toronto Business College. My purpose was to ‘catch up’ on some grade thirteen high school subjects. I passed with very high marks and entered McMaster for some summer courses to again return in the fall to enter B.A. courses.

TWO POINT CHURCH
I sold my business to Mr. Hyde who had been managing the store for me. I enjoyed university life and met some nice new friends among them John Gladwyn. In spring I received a call to the Chesley and Keady Churches, sold our lovely home and left for Chesley. We did some work on the parsonage like putting in new hardwood floors out of our own money, redecorated the house and put in an oil burner as well as a radiator in the kitchen. We were no sooner finished with the Chesley morning service then we were on our way out to the Keady Church. We made some improvements in both churches while we were there. To handle my courses at McMaster University, I needed to leave Chesley very early every Tuesday and stay in Hamilton until Friday afternoon. Enid was very brave to stay with the two kids while I was in Hamilton.
While I had little time to socialize I did meet a number of evangelical students although most were about ten years younger than I. With steady plodding I managed to get each year to complete the credits I needed for my Bachelor of Arts degree. While not yet ordained, I was inducted as pastor on June 29th 1956. I pastured the Chesley and Keady Churches until March 1958. That same year in May, I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts Degree as a ‘prizeman’. While in the Chesley Keady field, there was the preaching at an early Sunday service at Chesley, then driving fifteen miles to the Keady church for their worship service returning to Chesley for an evening service. While there we were visited by a high school teacher. He was on the pulpit committee of Kipling Avenue Baptist Church.

THE MOVED TO KABC/ ORDINATION
I was asked if interested in going to Kipling Avenue Baptist Church as their new pastor. Enid and I talked it over and decided it was God’s will that we accept the call. I cannot find words strong enough for me to describe Enid’s trust in her Lord and, thus, her willingness to support me in my call to Christian ministry. I think I should say OUR call to Christian ministry because I could not, would not, have gone forward without her strong support. It was a cold and blustery day when we drove along the highway from Chesley to Rexdale (Amoro drive). When we arrived the driveway was a sea of mud, over which a board was placed to walk on.
On May 8th 1955, the Rexdale Baptist Church met in a portable building on Coppermill Drive where the first service was held on May 20. By 1956, there was a Sunday school of 35 but attendance was at a standstill thus precipitating the move to hold services in Rivercrest Public School. The next few months of 1958 were filled with activity toward development.
On April 13 a most impressive sod turning was held when the sod turning service was held on the new site of Kipling Avenue Baptist Church. On Nov. 8,1958 the first worship service was held in the new church. Immediately the Baptist witness began to bear fruit. The community was reached through evangelistic outreach. I was ordained on Oct.17,1962 and by that same year all groups were flourishing, the Sunday school had an enrolment that reached 237 with 45 teachers and officers. Classes were held in pews, the kitchen, choir room, narthex and church hall (basement auditorium). The congregation had over grown the sanctuary.

CANADIAN MISSIONS/ RETIREMENT
I went to Church House as Assistant Secretary of Canadian Missions and eventually moved up to Secretary of Missions when Rev. Archie Goldy resigned that position. I was later called to Bethel Baptist Church. I accepted the call and was inducted as pastor in 1974. I was president of the Baptists while ministering at Bethel. I pastured Bethel Baptist Church for the greater part of eight years. The congregation at Bethel was so gracious with me as to allow me to accept the invitation to become the Second Vice President of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec knowing that I would likely be asked to become President two years later.
It was late in 1980 that I was asked to take on the Department of Canadian Missions as the Executive Secretary in charge of the department’s three branches, Evangelism, urban and town and country churches. I went on to become the General Secretary of the Convention and stayed in that position until retiring in 1988. As is the case as we journey through our lives there are some difficult and sad times to deal with. The sadness I experienced was the passing of my mother on April 13, 1987.
Another early event(1989) in my retirement was the receiving of a Doctorate of Divinity from McMaster University. I had some interims since, at Ossington Baptist in Toronto, First Baptist in Calgary, Blythwood Road Baptist, Toronto and Murray St. Baptist Church in Peterborough. Enid was as supportive of my supply and interim ministries after retirement in 1998-90 as General Secretary of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec as she had been all through.

SUMMERHAVEN/ INTERIM MINISTRIES
Over the years Enid and I had always planned to build a place on the part of our property that overlooked a beautiful scene of the waters of the bay and islands. Our new home would allow us to face the most gorgeous sunsets. In spite of all my interim ministries over the years Enid and I had many happy summers at our place on the Island that we called Summerhaven. Many a pleasant time was spent out front of our house on a garden swing taking in the beautiful scenery and listening to the music from the stereo. I purchased a stern drive boat that comfortably seated four to six people. We kept the old Peterborough for short trips around our bone Island area. We also used a little aluminum boat we called the ‘tin’ boat for fishing and a canoe for a pleasant short trips.
One of the saddest moments in my life was when my father passed away in 1961, while I was pastor at Kipling Avenue Baptist Church. Because of our deep involvement with the Kipling congregation I continued to attend there when I was not involved in an interim ministry. I had interim ministries throughout the nineties and right up to 2008 following my interim in Calgary. There was Ossington, in Toronto, Milton, Blythwood Road Toronto, Hillsburg, Cheltenham, Humber Blvd. I cannot recall all the supply ministries I had during this period. My last supply preaching was at Ossington Baptist on Jan, 4 and again on January 11, 2009. I would accept no further appointments because Enid was becoming quite ill beyond the usual pain from her osteoporosis and arthritis. My dear wife died of cancer in 2008.

AUTHOR
In the mid nineteen nineties, I began to have the desire to write mystery stories as a hobby. I chose the name Mark Vaughn as a pseudonym, Mark, after my great grandfather and Vaughn as my paternal grandmother's maiden name. Enid encouraged me to keep on writing and edited all of my books prior to professional editing from my publisher. My first murder mystery, entitled Kenebec, was published by Essence a Christian publishing firm in 1998. Since Kenebec, I have written four other books: The Foundation, 1999; Pastor, 2000; Just Killing Time, 2003; Prophet for Profit, 2006.