He was a pastor to some, a coach to others, and an encourager to many.
Those who knew longtime Columbus resident Tony McClendon paint a multi-faceted picture of a man of many hats and one overriding virtue: gentleness, especially to those facing frustration, struggle or apparent failure.
McClendon died Thursday afternoon at his home at age 66.
One of his most visible roles was as multicultural diversity director for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. But he also was active in Christian ministry for years, including a stint from 2014 to 2018 as pastor of Faith Ministries in Columbus. The former Dartmouth College football player served as a football and track coach through the years with area schools and with youth programs such as the Police Athletic League.
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“He was like a father figure to me,” said former Columbus resident Destrey Brown Jr., who played football under McClendon’s coaching at Central Middle School more than 20 years ago but remained in close contact with him. “What’s amazing is that I can never remember him raising his voice to us. He was the most gentle man I ever met.”
McClendon, an Atlanta native, echoed that same sense in interviews with The Republic through the years, including shortly after he began pastoring at Faith Ministries.
“Martin Luther King said that love is the greatest and only weapon that can make your enemy your friend,” he said in 2015. “We cannot beat people into salvation or scare them into salvation.”
John Quick, former superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., selected McClendon for the diversity post in January 2011.
“He was very good at de-escalating things amid a heated situation,” said Quick, adding that there were instances when parents became upset about issues with their children. “And he was a very good listener. He would look you in the eye and you’d get a sense that, in that moment, nothing else was more important to him.”
Quick also recalled that, in coaching, McClendon took special care to reach out to youngsters with more challenging upbringings and backgrounds.
“Nothing at all could rattle him,” Quick said. “And he learned to really use that.”
Quick mentioned that he always figured McClendon’s gentle nature sprang partly from his down-to-earth Southern roots — “the idea, you know, that you don’t have to get in a big rush and a big hurry.”
On Facebook, when someone posted a sad and depressing note of embarrassment about a slip, a mistake, or a lapse in judgment, McClendon often would be among the first to post a response urging the person to get up, look up, and move forward, reminding them that God still loved them and would use them to help others.
Jarvis Cooper, who founded Faith Ministries and led the church before McClendon, saw a sensitive heart in his ministry partner.
“He certainly was one to encourage others when they felt as if they were on the outside looking in,” said Cooper, who knew him for about 20 years. “And he was never about condemnation.”
Partly because of McClendon’s role in ministry, in the schools and being a long-time member of the Columbus Human Rights Commission, he regularly became a voice for racial unity. He last spoke publicly in that role with wife Pat McClendon in October at a national Lutheran conference at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Columbus. He and his spouse talked to a crowd of more than 300 people about facing racism through the years — and what Christians could do about it.
At that gathering, McClendon also displayed some of his ministry background as a worship leader, breaking into a beautiful a cappella song at one point of his presentation.
“He was a giant of a man,” Quick said. “And a giant of a personality.”
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Funeral arrangements for Tony McClendon are pending at Barkes, Weaver & Glick Funeral Home, Columbus.
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