Lamont McLean, clearly a success
LAMONT D. MCLEAN had a serious speech impediment as a child and grew up with the crushing belief that no one expected him to amount to much.
LAMONT D. MCLEAN had a serious speech impediment as a child and grew up with the crushing belief that no one expected him to amount to much.
He fooled them.
He and his family would say he did it with the help of God. He said he got a message from God that told him to start a church, using money that he would make in business.
A tall order, perhaps, but not for someone with the faith with which Lamont grew up.
He came to embrace the biblical passage from Isaiah 32.4: "And the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly."
The Rev. Lamont D. McLean, founder of the Living Faith Christian Center, in Pennsauken, and of Universal Technical Resources, a computer consulting firm in Cherry Hill, a preacher with a compelling style and author of Christian-centered self-help books, died Saturday of complications of bone-marrow disease. He was 52 and lived in Burlington County.
With a meager nest egg of $100, Lamont and a partner started Universal in 1985 and built it into an international consulting firm with 150 employees.
The church also started small, with only 10 members, and expanded to a membership of more than 7,000.
Lamont was born in Pennsauken to Sara and Linwood D. McLean. He graduated from Paulsboro High School and took an associate degree in business from what is now the College of New Jersey.
His wife of 26 years, Constance, was co-pastor of the church. He also is survived by two daughters, Alexis and Erica, and his mother.
Services: 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Living Faith Christian Cenbter, 2323 Route 73, Pennsauken. He will lie in state from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. Friends may call at 9 a.m. tomorrow. *