Carl Dean Buchanan

Carl Dean Buchanan passed quietly surrounded by family on January 14, 2023. Dean was born on January 26, 1934 in Bakersfield, NC. He was the youngest of five children. His family moved to Oak Ridge at beginning of World War II. Dean graduated from Oak Ridge High School being the first high school graduate in his family. He continued his education earning a Bachelor of Arts from Carson-Newman University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dean married the love of his life, Jean Smith in 1956. He and Jean raised four children. Having accepted the call to ministry in his early teens he spent his life ministering in the local church. Dean served as pastor of First Baptist Lake City, New Hopewell Baptist, Northside Baptist in Liverpool, New York and Glenwood Baptist in Kingsport. He also served as Director of Missions in Huntington, WV completing his years of formal ministry at First Baptist Hazard, KY. After retirement, Dean and Jean returned to Knoxville where they joined Central Baptist Bearden and became active volunteers. Dean served as a deacon and on the missions committee. He and Jean were volunteers for mission work in various parts of the US, making memories and lifelong friends on those trips. Dean loved his family and relished time spent with them. As the family grew, he found great joy in his six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Dean was man who never met a stranger. In his later years at Sherrill Hill and Morning Pointe, he always had cadre of friends. He always tried to find ways to minister from leading a Bible study to taking a fellow resident to visit his wife in the hospital. Dean was a man who loved life and those with whom he shared it. He found great joy telling and retelling funny family stories and life events and was always quick with a joke or amusing comment. He is preceded in death by his wife Jean, his parents and his four siblings. Dean is survived by his four children, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Receiving will be at Central Baptist Bearden Thursday January 19, 2023, with receiving of friends at 11 am followed by a Celebration of Life at noon. Dr. Wade Bibb will officiate. In lieu of flowers please make gifts to the Central Baptist missions fund. Online condolences may be extended at www.rosefuneraltn.com.