Paul William Bass

Paul William Bass was born in Independence, Missouri.  He graduated from William Chrisman High School, Southwest Baptist College and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He began his writing career in 2007 with publication of No Little Dreams: Henry Garland Bennett, Educator and Statesman.  He received the Henry Bennett Distinguished Fellow Award from Oklahoma State University.  In 2008, his second book in the Bennett trilogy, Fellow Dreamers: Oklahoma, Education and the World was published.  The third book in the Bennett trilogy, Touching the Dream: Point Four, was published in 2009.  That year he was commissioned by Oklahoma State University to write a history of their School of International Studies, entitled Legacy, Leadership and Learning.  In 2011, he published two religious works from his pastoral experience, In Jesus’ Names and Minor Characters of the Bible.  In 2012, he published Robert S. Kerr: Oklahoma’s Pioneer King.  For the Kerr book, he received the 2013 Missouri Writer’s Guild First Place President’s Award and the 2013 Walter Williams Major Work Award.  In 2013, he published Grace through Tolerance.  In 2014, he completed the autobiographical work of Me and Church.

In 2015, a four-year project was published as The History of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  In May 2017, the Missouri Writers Guild awarded The History of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri the 2017 First Prize Walter Williams Major Work Award.  That same year his commissioned work from Oklahoma State University, Legacy, Leadership and Learning, was published.

Paul and his wife, Jan, are retired and living in Willard, Missouri.  His email address is bassp@obu.edu.​