Robert Cooke Buckner, a Tennessee-born Baptist pastor, founded Buckner Orphans Home in 1879. At a Sunday school convention in Paris, Texas, Dr. Buckner initiated his first fund-raising effort, placing one dollar in his hat and passing it among those gathered under a large oak tree. He raised $27, which provided initial funds for the opening of Buckner Orphans Home.
After establishing the Buckner Orphans Home in 1879, Buckner looked beyond what he was doing and saw the needs of older adults, many of them former ministers or their widowed spouses. He brought in many to the Home, providing them a place to live while providing the orphan children with “grandparents.” Although Buckner provided residential care for children at the Home, we knew institutional care could not substitute for a home with parents. So we instituted adoption early in our history, placing children in loving homes. When Buckner sought creative ways to reach more people, we expanded our commitment to search out new opportunities, developing programs and services that reach deeply into every corner of our society.
When Dr. Buckner started his fledgling ministry, it provided care for three children in a small frame house in Dallas. Our commitment to creating new ways of serving others has led Buckner to become one of the largest and most diverse private social care agencies of our kind in the nation, serving about 130,000 people annually. Under the leadership of Kenneth L. Hall, our fifth president, Buckner is now a vastly diversified ministry dedicated to the restoration, care and healing of children, families and senior adults.
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