Rev. Bill Minson’s path from the Bronx to becoming one of the country’s most trusted spiritual responders is a journey shaped by faith, endurance, and a relentless desire to serve those in their hardest moments. Born and raised near Yankee Stadium, Minson grew up at the cultural center of New York City, surrounded by performers, workers, and families whose struggles and triumphs formed the backdrop of his earliest understanding of community.
Long before he was known as “Chaplain Bill,” Minson was immersed in the entertainment world. His career began on the road with Ringling Brothers, and later at the Apollo Theater, where he handled advertising and public relations for one of the most iconic stages in America. It was there that he met civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, a connection that evolved into national outreach and media work. Minson represented some of the era’s most influential performers—KC and the Sunshine Band, Al Green, the Ohio Players, Steve McQueen, Raquel Welch, and others—and he eventually made history as the first Black agent at the powerhouse talent agency ICM.
But even as he enjoyed success, national exposure, and appearances on programs such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Minson felt a deeper calling. The entertainment world, he says, “was exciting, but it wasn’t the end of what God intended for me.” Gradually and somewhat reluctantly, he turned toward ministry, focusing on mentoring young people in New York and Los Angeles and encouraging them to pursue education, discipline, and character.
That work placed him in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Just two days after the attacks, Minson was sworn in as a chaplain for the American Red Cross. What he saw in those first days—firefighters searching through toxic debris, families clinging to fading hope, responders realizing the toll the work would take on their bodies—cemented the rest of his life’s mission. “It felt like God placed me there for a reason,” he recalled. “The question wasn’t why, but what now?”
When the Red Cross eventually closed its recovery operations, Minson continued the mission with the Salvation Army. Many of the people he prayed with in 2001—ill responders, mourning families, dispatchers who handled the calls that changed lives—remain in touch with him decades later. Spiritual care, he believes, does not have an expiration date.
Over the years, Minson’s chaplaincy has taken him across the United States to places shaken by mass violence and overwhelming grief. He has responded after the Oklahoma City bombing, shootings at Columbine, Parkland, Thousand Oaks, Mandalay Bay, and other tragedies where communities struggled to find footing after unimaginable loss. His role is often quiet—praying in a hallway, listening at a kitchen table, sitting with first responders who have run out of words—but his presence is steady.
Today, Minson serves as chaplain for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue and for the U.S. Secret Service in both Las Vegas and Washington, offering spiritual support to agents, firefighters, and their families. He also works with members of Congress to advance mental-health and suicide-prevention efforts, including the nationwide Stop Whispering Campaign, which encourages openness about trauma and emotional struggles within the first responder community.
A former Islip Terrace resident, Minson maintains deep ties to Long Island. He returned to Suffolk County for a Veterans Day Parade and to attend the funeral of a fallen New York City firefighter—one more example of the countless moments when he quietly steps forward to serve.
Throughout his decades of ministry, Minson has upheld a personal rule: he has never asked for money. He does not pass collection plates, send fundraising letters, or solicit donations for TUDAY MINISTRIES, the outreach he leads. “God provides,” he says simply. “My job is to show up wherever I’m needed.”
His remarkable life story is chronicled in his memoir, Chaplain in Shades, a candid and deeply personal look at the work of a modern chaplain moving through America’s hardest hours. The book details moments at 9/11, the Mandalay Bay shooting, and scenes inside firehouses, police stations, dispatch centers, and hospital rooms—places where he has spent a lifetime offering prayer, comfort, and strength. It is as much a call to compassion as it is a record of service.
Through all of it—celebrity circles, 9/11, mass tragedies, military and law-enforcement chaplaincy—Minson’s message remains the same. “I never give up,” he said. “My intent is to do everything I can so our children have a better future. If God gives me one more assignment, I’m going.”