Dawson Trotman (born March 25, 1906, died June 18, 1956) was the founder of the Navigators, a Christian ministry that is famous for Scripture memorization and one-on-one discipleship. Both of those emphases seem to have flowed directly from the personal charisma of Daws, as his friends called him and as his biography is entitled. Trotman attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles in 1929.

Trotman grew up in Lomita, Califronia, in Los Angeles county. His father was not religious, and his mother was a follower of Aimee Semple MacPherson. The parents eventually divorced, with the father blaming the split on his wife's flamboyant Pentecostalism: "Aimee Semple MacPherson came between us." (Daws, p. 23) Trotman joined the Lomita Presbyterian Church, influenced especially by his ninth grade science teacher, Irene Mills, and a Miss Thomas. Mills also taught him public speaking and personal work, as a key organizer of the town's Christian Endeavor chapter, and supported Trotman financially when he studied at Biola. Trotman also joined the Fishermen's Club of Long Beach, at which about 50 young men, including Eugene Nida, gathered under the leadership of Vernon Morgan.

Trotman studied for one year at the Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary in 1928, taking Bible classes from Charles Fuller, and studying New Testament Greek.

After this he enrolled at Biola in September 1929. His classmate Grant Whipple (later director of The Firs conference center in Washington) recalls that they would leap together from the roof of the Bible Institute building to the adjacent Mayflower Hotel. Dick Hillis remembers being challenged by Trotman with the question, "What verse are you workin' on today, pal?" when he wasn't working on any verses. (Daws, p. 53) In later years, Hillis and Trotman would meet for Bible memorization. During his time at Biola, Trotman spoke in local churches (usually on his famous "Wheel" diagram of the Christian in action), led teams for shop work and prison ministry. "You had the feeling that all his spare time he was down on skid row working with bums," said a classmate (Daws p. 54). He also worked at The Green Frog miniature golf course, and witnessed there. Trotman was president of the Student Missionary Union during his year at Biola. He pastored a small church in Manhattan Beach and ran boys'clubs in various towns.

After one full year at Biola, Trotman decided to focus his time on ministry. He continued to audit some classes at Biola during the next year.

Concerned about modernist tendencies and worldliness in the Presbyterian Church, Trotman was responsible for a church split that removed his boys groups from the congregation, and caused Miss Mills and Miss Thomas to be removed.

After Trotman married Lila, they started to minister to Navy men in Long Beach, and before long the basic shape of the Navigators developed out of that personal work he was doing. The Navigators ministry remains Trotman's major institutional legacy, though he was also influential in numerous other ministries, including Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham asked Trotman to organize the personal follow-up for converts at his rallies and crusades. Graham later called Trotman "a man of great vision, courage, faith, and, above all, personal discipline... How many lives he touched no one will ever know." (Daws, p. 13)

Resources

Betty Lee Skinner, Daws: The Story of Dawson Trotman, Founder of the Navigators (Zondervan, 1974)