HON-MELILLI AUDIOVISUAL COLLECTION
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
The Hon-Melilli Audiovisual Collection was graciously donated by David V. Melilli and his wife, Darrellyn Hon Melilli. The collection truly represents both the Melilli and Hon families. Mrs. Melilli’s parents, Mr. Darrell and Mrs. Dexter Hon were both active in the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, and they accumulated most of these recordings. In addition, Mr. Melilli’s mother, Mrs. Josephine Melilli, also collected some of the recordings.
Many of the messages in the total collection were delivered at local, regional, and international conventions of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. Mr. Darrell Hon held several key positions in the FGBMFI and served that organization until his death in 1975. Mrs. Dexter Hon was ordained as a Minister of the Gospel by the Arkansas District of the Assemblies of God in 1939.
This collection has recordings of messages by a broad spectrum of well-known Christian leaders, including Jim Bakker, Don Basham, Corrie Ten Boom, Harald Bredesen, Tony Campolo, Paul Yonggi Cho, Kenneth Copeland, John Nelson Gardner, John Hagee, Kenneth Hagin, Jack Hayford, Marilyn Hickey, E.V. Hill, Kathryn Kuhlman, Dick Mills, Bob Mumford, Joyce Myer, John Osteen, Earl Paulk, Derek Prince, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, James Robison, Demos Shakarian, Chuck Smith, Jimmy Swaggart, and David Wilkerson.
The inventory currently on our Special Collections LibGuide is for the first of several deposits only. This deposit consists of over 400 open reel audio tapes, dating as early as 1960, with recordings of prominent leaders in the charismatic movement such as David du Plessis and Dennis Bennett. Two additional deposits of material consisting of over 600 audiovisual recordings of renewal activity from the 1960s to the early twenty-first century are being processed.
We are grateful to Mr. Melilli for his service on the Regent University Board of Trustees and to the Melillis for donating this collection of rich resources that substantially add to the Library’s Pentecostal research materials.
Collection Description by Jabez Rapaka, Special Collections & Archives Assistant, University Library
Bibliography
“Darrell Hon: A Post-Convention Coronation.” Full Gospel Business Men’s Voice, November 1975, 26.
“General Council Fellowship.” The Pentecostal Evangel, February 18, 1939, 10.
Hon, Darrell. “In the ‘School of the Spirit,’ God taught me His . . . Design for Living.” Full Gospel Business Men’s Voice, June 1971, 4-7; 24-26; 29-30.