From a pugnacious teenage boxer to a 45-year Baptist minister, the Rev. Marvin Iliff lived an interesting life.
"He definitely walked the walk and talked the talk," Ed Iliff, 61, of Cedar Hill said of his father, who died Oct. 4 at age 80.
The Rev. Iliff had a rough start in life, his son said.
"My father, he came from an abusive home. He was raised up pretty hard," Ed said.
The Rev. Iliff took up boxing as a teenager, and did well enough to turn pro.
"He made Golden Gloves out of a boxing club on South Broadway," Ed said.
But there was always something else calling to him.
"He had a grandmother who took him to church a lot, stuck with him," Ed said. "He had some rough times - he even broke into a church one time. Only, he didn't take the collection; he stole the Bible. They ended up letting him keep it."
After his marriage and the arrival of two children, the Rev. Iliff got a job at Missouri Portland Cement.
"He was a maintenance welder for them for right at 30 years," his son said. "During the Korean War 50s, he quit his job for a while and enlisted in the Marines. But he had had rheumatic fever as a child, and he had problems with his knees swelling. He ended up getting a medical discharge after 11 months.
"He came back here and got his job back with Portland."
The Rev. Iliff went back to his old boxing haunts as well.
"He fought one pro fight as a middleweight against Jack McCracken, a pro who fought a lot around this area at the time," Ed said. "He won that fight, but then he said, 'That's no way to make a living,' and he never went back to it."
A family crisis pushed him in the direction his life would take from that point.
"My sister, Charolette, died not long after that at the age of 7," Ed said. "Around that time, about 1960 or somewhere around there, he became a minister."
The Rev. Iliff spent three years in seminary, was ordained and took to the pulpit of several local churches.
"He became one of the old-time circuit pastors," his son said. "He went around to different churches to preach. He went all the way down to a place called Sweetwater - we lived in House Springs, and it was 125 miles. Sometimes the whole family went, but most times it was just him and me.
"I remember going down there one winter, driving 125 miles with snow on the ground, and nobody else showed up. We went to the deacon's house and asked what was the problem - he said 'we called it off because of the snow.'
"We said, 'Well, gee thanks!'"
By 1968, the Iliffs had three more children, the last of whom is severely developmentally handicapped. The Rev. Iliff and his wife, Rosalie, helped work toward the establishment of the Pony Bird Home.
"Back then, there was no place in Jefferson County for people like my brother," Ed said. "My folks helped start up Pony Bird, and Stacy lives there now at the Baptist Park Home in Mapaville."
Also around 1968, the Rev. Iliff started the First United Baptist Mission.
"After that got established - it took about three years or so - they bought some property in a place called Hillview Acres in House Springs," Ed said. "That became Hillview Acres Church, and he was pastor there for 45-plus years. He resigned about 2006 or 2007.
"My brother, Dan, is the pastor there now."
About 20 years ago, the Rev. Iliff suffered a heart attack and retired from his job with Portland to become a full-time minister. He also decided to make some other changes in his life.
"He didn't like the way he was turning out physically, so he went to the Y and got a trainer and started body building at age 59," his son said. "At age 70, he was bench-pressing 250 pounds"
He was a man of many talents, but the Rev. Iliff had only two main loves, his son said: his wife and his ministry.
"He liked to hunt and fish, but most of his joy was from preaching," Ed said. "He was faithful, and he really enjoyed his faith."
Now nearing retirement age himself, Ed said he definitely views his father's life as a good example.
"He was only 19 years older than me," Ed said. "The way I see it, he lived the life you're supposed to.
"My goal is to live as well as he did."
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