January 15, 2020
Local man turns passion for theater into religious experience
Mike Malone is a man of many talents. The 66-year-old Poplar Bluffian stresses one needs to be open when God nudges, and not afraid to try new things. His job as an information technologist for the Veterans Administration “lets me buy yarn and puts food on the table,” Malone said...
Mike Malone is a man of many talents. The 66-year-old Poplar Bluffian stresses one needs to be open when God nudges, and not afraid to try new things.
His job as an information technologist for the Veterans Administration “lets me buy yarn and puts food on the table,” Malone said.
But while he works from home eight hours a day for the VA, he is also a professor at Three Rivers College, an active member of Holy Cross Episcopal Church, volunteers with Center Stage, is a weaver and is a novice in the Anglican Order of Preachers.
Malone’s involvement in diverse activities has come about for different reasons.
“I got involved in theater because somebody said I should audition for a show; I got a part and I found out I enjoyed it,” he said. “The weaving I had been interested in for a long time and just decided one day to give it a try. Some of my church work came about because … well, there were things that just needed to be done. The preaching and being a Dominican brother came about because I felt a call to that ministry.”
Some of these interests have been almost lifelong, while others are more recent, spurred by friends or new opportunities.
Malone first began working with technology in high school, on a computer main from the University of Rhode Island.
“It was a teletype terminal and they would let some of us seniors use it,” he said.
He spent 10 years doing other things before he started working with computers. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Rhode Island, worked in his dad’s auto parts store and at General Dynamics.
As time progressed, Malone and his wife, Kim, a registered nurse, decided to leave the eastern coast of the United States.
“We wanted a slower pace and moved to Oregon County, Missouri,” said Malone, adding his family was from the region.
Malone and a friend, Bill Montgomery, who worked with computers in the Navy, started writing software scheduling systems for schools and accounting software for the Libla family, whose company, Libla Industries, was located in Poplar Bluff.
When Malone decided to work fulltime for the Liblas, the family moved to Poplar Bluff.
Here they became involved in Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Poplar Bluff, where the choir director needed to take a break. Malone stepped in to assist, became a lay worship leader, taught adult Sunday school numerous times and is finishing his second time on the vestry.
The Rev. Annette Joseph, pastor of the Episcopal churches in Poplar Bluff and Sikeston, asked Malone to learn to preach and she “has been guiding me along,” he said.
It was through another interest Malone discovered after coming to Poplar Bluff, performing in theatrical plays, that would lead him to becoming a novice in the Anglican Order of Preachers.
With a big grin, Malone said, “It is a funny story. Initially, I made contact through a guy who played piano while I did a strip tease.”
Malone has been involved in local theater for more than 15 years. When someone suggested he try out for a Stage Company production, he got the lead in “The Nerd.”
During Malone’s first play, Andee Book was the pianist in the scene where Malone’s character had to do a strip tease.
Book later became the organist at Holy Cross. He now teaches voice at a university and is a novice in the Anglican Order of Preachers.
It was Book who put Malone in touch with a man in St. Louis who handles the inquiries.
“(That man) submits your name to the master of the order. I was accepted as a novice this past August. I have two years of being a novice,” Malone said. “In August 2021, I will be allowed to make life vows and say I will do this for the rest of my life.”
The Brothers and Sisters of the Anglican order of Preachers take vows that include simplicity, not running after material gain, purity, being true to whatever relationship you are in and obedience. They pray and study daily, preach and teach.
There is a lot of reading, prayer and a lot of discussion, said Malone, explaining, “I tell people going through this is kind of like graduate school, but with more praying. Absolutely praying, preaching and teaching every day are just a way of life.”
Malone praises his wife for her support. “I literally could not do these things without her support,” he said.
Be open when God nudges you, said Malone, admitting “I finally got it through my thick head what He was getting at.”
Today, Malone is still involved in the theater and is connected with Center Stage at TRC.
Teaching “restricts what I can do with the theater,” but he does spend time with the group when there’s time.
He has many other activities that also fill his free time.
A diagnoses of type 2 diabetes made him proactive not only in controlling his diet, but spurred an interest in walking and running.
When the school semester is over, Malone dedicates more time to weaving, an interest that came from a television program about IT connections. The Jacquard Loom is important to the history of computers because it is the first machine to use interchangeable punch cards to instruct a machine to perform automated tasks.
Malone decided to start weaving in recent years, saving to buy a 24-inch-wide loom. He’s taught himself from research on the internet, as well as videos and other sources.
Malone also has been known to brew his own beer, make counted cross stitch projects and is a second degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.
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