Obituaries : * C. Lloyd Button; Pastor, Professor

C. Lloyd Button, a Camarillo man who served as pastor of churches in Simi Valley and Oxnard, has died. He was 78.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his son, Stephen.

Button was pastor of Cochran Street Baptist Church in Simi Valley from 1972 to 1984. He presided over the expansion of the congregation’s elementary school and the addition of a second story to the school’s building, said Stephen, who is now the church’s pastor.

Later, Button was pastor of Garden City Acres Community Church in Oxnard, increasing the congregation from 20 members to 80, according to his son.

“There was a little church that needed help,” Stephen said. “He just could not stay out of the pulpit.”

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, the elder Button was a professor and administrator at Los Angeles Baptist College in Newhall. He also earned a Ph.D. in rhetoric at UCLA in order to help the liberal arts college achieve accreditation, his son said.

His doctoral dissertation, on frontier ministers in the Appalachian Mountains, included the tale of a church invaded by a bear. The preacher reportedly left the pulpit, shot the bear, then returned to continue his sermon, Stephen said.

Button leaves his wife of 52 years, Mary. Along with Stephen, he is survived by his son David Button of Santa Clarita.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Aug. 17 at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Camarillo.