Dr. F. Dean Hackett recently resigned from Hermiston’s Faith-Based Advisory Committee for health reasons, but he plans to continue his Christian ministry in other ways.

Hackett served as chairman of the committee since its inception three years ago. The 66-year-old from Spokane, Washington, traveled a long road before returning to the Northwest and settling in Hermiston as pastor of Living Faith Church almost nine years ago.

“I didn’t have the privilege of growing up in a Christian home,” he said. “It was a very broken home. By the time I was 13, I was very angry and bitter and violent. I had failed every grade up to that time. All my family and teachers that knew me figured I would be in prison, and I probably would have, but a teacher made a huge difference in my life, and then I came to faith through a wonderful person, and those two things revolutionized my life.”

After high school, in 1967, he received a draft notice to serve in the Vietnam War, so he enlisted for four years in the Air Force to receive additional training. During his last two years, Hackett began an internship in ministry and spent most weekends speaking at church services and youth events. His career blossomed from there.

“In October 1971, when I got my honorable discharge from the Air Force, my wife (Wanda) and I — we had married by that time — we immediately started full-time Christian ministry, and we’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

The couple traveled around the United States and Canada — starting four new churches and helping start others — before ending up in Hermiston.

“In 2007, the church here asked us to come interview,” he said. “We did some research on Hermiston and said, ‘Boy, that sounds like a really progressive community that wants to go forward,’ and we were excited to come.”

Hackett began meeting regularly with a group of other religious leaders, and when former Mayor Bob Severson attended one of the meetings several years ago, he asked if the group would serve as an official city committee.

“None of us have ever heard of anything like that in a city,” Hackett said. “I don’t know of any other city that has something like that. My first response was, ‘That’s an amazing idea, Bob. Let me give some thought to that.’ It came together wonderfully, and I think it’s just been significant.”

Hackett said the committee serves as a point of contact between community and faith leaders and has established several programs to help the community.

Local churches have adopted all of the Hermiston schools, not to proselytize, but to provide treats for the staff and help as requested. The committee also works with the police department, he said, and assists with the Community Accountability Board for juveniles with criminal offenses and a mentoring offshoot, It’s Just Dinner.

“It’s been consistent that well over 90 percent of the students that go to the accountability board never re-offend, and that’s huge,” Hackett said. “In fact, one of the problems in the last few months is they’ve gone, ‘You know, we haven’t had enough customers.’ What a great problem.”

The Faith-Based Advisory Committee is currently developing a program to train mentors to help parents develop skills to reduce the number of at-risk families in the community.

Hackett said he will miss working on the committee with the “great group of people” with whom he has had the privilege to work.

Although he is narrowing his focus, he will continue as pastor at Living Faith Church and plans to attend City Council meetings occasionally.

Hackett said he has focused on writing in recent years — publishing five books — and plans to continue ministering in print as well.

“I love doing the writing, and I’m hoping — I’m not thinking about retirement, it’s not on my radar, maybe it should be at 66, but it’s not — but, if I retire, I hope that I can do that, just continue writing and making a difference that way,” he said.

Councilman Rod Hardin, one of the council members on the Faith-Based Advisory Committee who is also the principal at Hermiston Christian School, said Hackett is an outstanding leader who was always willing to give of himself to make a difference in the community.

“He’s done a fantastic job, and we’re going to miss him, but we want him to be able to do what he needs to do, and I’m sure he won’t disappear into the sunset, because that’s not his nature,” Hardin said. “He’s one of those guys that’s a problem solver, and, if he thinks there’s something that needs to be changed, he’ll be right there.”