Thom Hickling dies in crash

Thom Hickling, an offbeat evangelical who influenced the Christian community in Pittsburgh through his creation of Expression newspaper and the His Place television show, died in a car crash in Zambia.

Mr. Hickling, his daughter, and another worker from the refugee camp were on a two-lane highway when they were struck head-on by another vehicle. The first news his family heard of it was when his former wife, Cathy, received a phone call from a passer-by who said he had found "a dead white man in a car registered to Holly Hickling." The U.S. State Department helped them confirm that the dead man was Mr. Hickling, and to locate Holly in a hospital, Cathy Hickling said.

During their 20-year marriage, the Hicklings introduced Pittsburgh to contemporary Christian music through their singing and through his father's radio station. They ran Expression, a Christian newspaper that crossed many denominational and cultural lines, and they co-created His Place, a ground-breaking Christian talk show that was also part soap opera.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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