Soapy Dollar

"Christmas 2006"

Nicknames were part of the Boys Ranch culture for many years. A boy could earn a nickname for obvious or odd reasons, and it was almost impossible to lose a nickname once it was assigned. There were names like Pee Wee, Bubba, Doorknob, Eeerz and California. There are hundreds more that could be added to this list, but this story is about one of those boys. His nickname was Soapy, and he earned it within hours of his arrival at the Ranch.

In 1955, the five-year-old Native American boy from New Mexico arrived at Boys Ranch. His name was Newman Dollar. His age required him to live in the Old Tascosa Courthouse with the other young boys. Even as an adult, the boy who was called Newman still remembers that first day.

“At about mid-morning, the staff told all of us that we had to go wash up for lunch,” he said. “I was nervous and a little scared. I washed thoroughly, but I didn’t rinse the soap off. Then we had to stand in front of the staff and show them our hands. They noticed that I’d left soap behind my ears and neck, so they called me Soapy. At the dining hall, they introduced me as Soapy Dollar. I never could change it. After a while, I just gave in to it.”

Now fifty years later, Soapy reflects upon his time at Boys Ranch with fondness, especially when he compares it with the first five years of his life. Soapy was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1949. His mother was an unwed Apache teenager from a nearby reservation. For reasons we can only guess, the young woman abandoned the newborn child. Princess Babe Hawk, a fortune teller and magician’s assistant, discovered the boy and took him home to raise as her own. After about six months, the woman and child moved to Texas where a physician-friend forged a birth certificate that gave the boy an official identity and name: Newman Dollar. During the five years that followed, Newman was passed around to various friends and family. He guesses that he stayed with at least 16 families during those early years. When he was five years old, his “mother” wrote to Cal Farley to ask for his help, which led to his arrival on campus in 1955.

Although he was a little nervous and scared those first few months, Soapy began to learn to love Boys Ranch. During the Christmas break, most of the boys, including Soapy, traveled home to spend the holiday with their respective families. He spent several Christmases with his mother. Unfortunately, his mother died when Soapy was eight years old.

As Soapy grew older, he moved into a dorm with 35 other boys. So at Christmas, Soapy stayed on the Ranch with the other boys who didn’t have a place to go to for the holidays.

For Soapy, his first Christmas staying at the Ranch was memorable. “I enjoyed staying in the dorm with my house parents and two or three other boys. It was more like a home. We were like a real family. We’d get in their car and go to the movies and I remember seeing My Fair Lady.”

But that Christmas, it wasn’t a Christmas present that Soapy remembers most. “It was having breakfast. My house mom fixed us quail with gravy and biscuits,” he said. “I remember sitting around the table, a man, a woman, and three of us boys. It was like a home - a family. It was what a family should be like. What made that moment so memorable was that it was just me with the dorm parent and not 36 other boys. It was a totally different experience.”

Soapy was exposed to the Bible Memory Association through the Boys Ranch Chapel program. Soapy and several other boys earned the right to attend BMA camp in Louisiana. Normally, participants had to be 13, but Soapy was the lone exception. During his time in BMA, Soapy completed five years of the youth plan and five years of the adult plan. “As a result, I came to know the Word and to love the Word,” he said.

Soapy was active in other areas of Boys Ranch life as well. He sang in the choir, played football and basketball, and ran track, although he admits he wasn’t very fast. “My track coach used to tell me that I ran in one place too long.” Soapy also participated in Rodeo, earning the Junior All-Around Cowboy title and the Senior All-Around Cowboy title twice.

Soapy excelled in many areas and he enjoyed the good fortune of traveling with Cal Farley to talk about the Ranch. “I remember being in his car with him, driving across West Texas to some Rotary Club and him telling me how to speak to them,” Soapy said. “Mr. Farley told me to be confident. ‘You have a story to tell. Your story could help boys for many years to come as these guys get a vision for what we are doing.’ His encouragement meant a lot. Soapy was a high school senior when Mr. Farley died in 1967. He was singing in the chapel choir on FFA Sunday.He was one of two Boys Ranch residents who served as a pallbearer at the funeral.

At his graduation ceremony a few months after the funeral, Soapy was named valedictorian of his senior class. As a result of his academic achievement and well-rounded experience, Soapy was awarded the first Cal Farley Memorial Scholarship. Soapy used the scholarship to earn a degree in mathematics from West Texas State University. In his spare time, he served in the ministry at his church. The ministry soon became a full-time vocation.

Soapy met Suzanne, the love of his life, at a revival in Amarillo. Suzanne and Soapy sang a duet for the congregation. She told Soapy that she was going on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and her first assignment was to serve at Michigan State University. One year after singing together for the first time, they were married. Soapy admits that he fell in love with Suzanne and the ministry of Campus Crusade at the same time. He joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and 35 years later the couple is still involved in the ministry. Their assignments have sent them across the world, including stops in New Mexico, Belgium, and Spain. Their final stop was in San Antonio, Texas, where they founded the Hispanic Ministry for Campus Crusade.

Only weeks after September 11, 2001, Soapy began a new ministry of reading the Bible on the radio five nights a week in San Antonio. The plan was to read the entire Bible in its entirety within one year. After five years, the broadcast is still going strong and its purpose remains the same.

“An entire generation of Americans is growing up without a lot of exposure to the actual Bible itself,” Soapy said.

In October 2006, the radio broadcast was made available to other radio stations via satellite.

According to Soapy, his life and ministry have come full circle. “I was raised at Boys Ranch memorizing scripture, I’ve been in the ministry for 35 years and I’ve taught and trained others in the scriptures. And now, this is the first time the entire Bible is being read to the nation by a Native American.”

Soapy credits Boys Ranch with giving him a chance to develop his potential and appreciates the support given him by the staff and the supporters of Cal Farley’s.

“One of my motivating factors in my life is to make Boys Ranch proud of me,” he said. “I’ve told the Lord a number of times – I’d rather He take me home than for me to ever do anything to dishonor His name, or Boys Ranch.”

Soapy and Suzanne have raised three children into adulthood in the kind of two-parent family he craved as a child. “I suppose a real home with a mother and father, living in a wholesome, healthy home is the best thing,” Soapy said. “That is God’s plan. But besides that, I can’t think of a better atmosphere to grow up in than what Boys Ranch provided. I really prospered in the Boys Ranch atmosphere.”

Learning and memorizing the scriptures at an early age turned into a lifelong love, a passion, and a vocation. The little boy who started life out unwanted and without a future continues to make a huge impact on thousands of lives thanks to the hope and second chance Boys Ranch provided 50 years ago. And the nickname he earned that day in 1955 did not appear to slow him down one bit.