John Richard McDuffie, of Aiken, a retired Baptist minister who helped start an equestrian ministry in South Carolina, died Dec. 24, 2006. He was 73.
Born in Elizabethtown, N.C., McDuffie was called to the ministry at age 16. During his career, he pastored churches in both Carolinas.
He was a graduate of Southeastern Seminary and received a doctorate from Luther Rice Seminary. After his retirement from full-time pastoral ministry in 1995, he served as an interim pastor at several churches in South Carolina.
In 1996, he was a founding member of South Carolina Equestrian Ministries, which now has the largest equestrian ministry membership in the U.S. He continued to serve as an equestrian ministry consultant with the South Carolina Baptist Convention until his death.
He was a member of Cedar Creek Church, Aiken.
He is survived by his wife, Lynette Suggs McDuffie, three children and seven grandchildren.