Kay Yvonne Buzzard Priebe, wife of Amazing Facts evangelist, revivalist, and Adventist theologian Dennis E. Priebe, passed to her rest on November 21, 2022, in the company of her loving husband and family. She was 80 years old. She and Dennis had been married 58 years.

Life Sketch

Kay was born on April 13, 1942, in Sacramento, California, to Seventh-day Adventist parents. Her early years were spent in Sacramento and in Salt Lake City, Utah. She met her future husband in the fifth grade, and they remained classmates throughout their academy years. Kay was the salutatorian (second in academic achievement) in her eighth grade class.

They subsequently transferred to Lodi Academy, being blessed with the instruction and guidance of godly teachers in this phase of their spiritual journey. The first spark of romance appears to have been lit during their Senior Ditch Day in Yosemite National Park—a favorite spot for senior class excursions for more than one Adventist academy in California. Going on to Pacific Union College, their relationship had its mountains and valleys, but by their junior year they became certain that the Lord desired them to serve Him together. At the same time, they decided to delay getting married till Dennis’s graduation, which took place in 1964.

Following their marriage, from 1964 to 1966, the Priebes went to Andrews University to study at the SDA Theological Seminary. From there they exchanged the harsh winters of Berrien Springs for the mild warmth of southern California, pastoring churches successively in San Diego, Brawley, Indio, and again in San Diego. Following service in these venues they received a call to Pacific Union College to teach in the religion department, where they remained for eleven years.

In the mid-1980s Dennis received a call to become a full-time revivalist with Amazing Facts, which Dennis and Kay accepted. With their newly-purchased motor home and their young son Matthew, Dennis and Kay commenced a 36-year ministry that would touch thousands in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, conducting over a thousand seminars in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The issues of righteousness by faith, the nature of sin, the humanity of Christ, the perfecting of history’s final generation of Christians, and related topics have been—and continue to be—the focus of these seminars.

Without fail, through the trials and triumph of ministry, Kay stood resolutely as her husband’s ever-faithful companion, giving his career unwavering support at every step. Without question she was every godly pastor’s dream partner. For all eternity Dennis will treasure her contribution to his labors.

Legacy

A memorial service for Kay will be held on Sabbath, January 21, 2023, at the Fairmont Seventh-day Adventist Church, 730 S. Fairmont Ave, Lodi, California 95240, at 3 p.m. For those not able to attend in person, the service will be livestreamed at:

https://www.youtube.com/@fairmontsdachurch1595/streams

Our prayers and thoughts attend Brother Dennis, his son Matthew, and Matthew’s wife Delise in this moment of painful loss. May the inspired promise of the special resurrection give them, and to us all, comfort and peace in this trying hour:

Graves are opened, and “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth . . . awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2. All who have died in the faith of the third angel’s message come forth from the tomb glorified, to hear God’s covenant of peace with those who have kept His law [1].

REFERENCES

1. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 637.

Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan