Rudy Hernández, a past Southern Baptist Convention second vice president and former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, died Jan. 28 at his Grand Prairie, Texas, home after battling cancer. He was 77.

From 2001-2003, Hernández served as special assistant to the SBTC executive director and strategist for Hispanic Ministries while founding what became the SBTC's Hispanic Initiative.

He also served on the Baptist Faith & Message Study Committee that drafted changes to the confessional statement SBC messengers approved in 2000 and on the Implementation Task Force during the SBC's restructuring in the mid-1990s.

He held doctor of divinity degrees from Howard Payne University, where he earned his undergraduate degree, and from Criswell College.