The boll is the roundish seed pod of the cotton plant. Hawpe said picking cotton involved reaching into the boll and pulling out the white fiber. Picking the boll involved reaching under the seed pod to pluck from the plant. The cotton gin then separated the boll and seed from the fiber.

“Sometimes they would let out school for a week during boll pulling season,” he said. “Now they call that fall break.”

Hawpe recalled growing up learning about the value of hard work and showing honor and respect.

“You respected people in authority,” he said. “If you were in trouble at school, you were in trouble at home.”

Finding his way to lead a flock

Even with such strong moral and ethical lessons, Hawpe said he doesn’t recall learning spiritual lessons until he grew up.

Those came later in his life, long after he came to Muskogee in 1974.

“I was going to come to Muskogee to do construction,” he said, recalling that he ended up doing maintenance for seven years at what is now the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center.

“A lot of people knew me as a Realtor,” he said.

“I got saved in 1985 and was called into the ministry at the same time,” he said, recalling that his decision to become a Christian was “kind of a long story.”

“I found the Lord through reading Proverbs in the Bible,” he said.

Hawpe said that after deciding to go into the ministry, “doors opened in my life.”

“I began teaching at the Gospel Rescue Mission and teaching at local churches while I was in real estate,” he said. “Then, this church called me full-time in 1993.”