Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jimmy G. Tharpe


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. –Juliancolton Tropical Cyclone  00:06, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Jimmy G. Tharpe

 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

Fails WP:BIO. Started an unaccredited school and was a local pastor. At first glance, it looks impressive, but the majority of footnotes are from his autobiography and one local obituary. I get "Jimmy G. Tharpe" 106 ghits, including wikipedia. I get 37 hits in google news archive for "Jimmy Tharpe" with maybe a dozen relevant and only five that are non-trival. Tgreach (talk) 03:57, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete, unfortunate because it seems a fair amount of effort has gone into the article. But there's a definite lack of broad coverage in multiple reliable sources independent of the subject. Only a handful of sources outside the subject's autobiography, and most of those are merely death notices. Notability is not established, and it seems uncertain that it can be. Don't fall asleep  zzzzzz 09:16, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep - biography published by actual publishing company (not a vanity press). Whether he wrote it or not is besides the point. Print biography by real publishing house = teh notable.  Hmm, I'm still not convinced this is quite "deletion territory".  The newspaper obit is much more like "obit for a notable person" than "obit paid for by family" (in fact, it claims to be written by the newspaper's staff, not the family).  Carried in two newspapers (that we know of).  Maybe not as clearcut a case, but it remains beneficial to our goal of writing an encyclopaedia.  Heaviness of reliance on autobiography is a little troubling, of course, but this isn't GAC.   Wily D  12:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe. Do you have any WP:RS to prove WP:BIO? I couldn't find any hence the afd.
 * The obituary, ran in two local newspapers, reads like one written by the family: 1/3 of it talks about his family, another 1/3 is about where the services w/ his fellow pastors and other arrangements. The only paragraph about his life starts "Jimmy was a giant for his family, church, and God." I fail to see how he is notable for wikipedia from any of these sources. Tgreach (talk) 23:01, 8 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment: I think you are mistaken. The book is by 21st Century Press. According to its website: "If you have a manuscript and want it published, feel free to call... " Their slogan is "We are a subsidy press that wants to partner with you." They explain: "Though we are a subsidy press, I prefer to call it a partnership. As a subsidy press, the author pays all up front costs for publishing the book." Plus they will "printed on demand" if the author wants. It's a Christian vanity press, the author pays to have it edited and printed. Tgreach (talk) 23:24, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions.   —David Eppstein (talk) 07:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep Presidents of colleges, even unaccredited ones, are notable. He founded several. See my further note on this at the AfD discussion of the college. Unaccredited does not always mean disreputable or unimportant. DGG (talk) 07:57, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep. Meets WP:PROF criterion #6 (highest-level elected or appointed academic post at an academic institution or major academic society). If this were a diploma mill that had only a web page, and operated out of someone’s garage, the criterion would not apply. LBU is certainly not in that category. Several of its alumni would meet notability criteria for inclusion in Wikipedia.--Eric Yurken (talk) 17:22, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep per meeting WP:PROF. Size of the school does not matter... and he should be given kudos for starting one himself.  Schmidt,  MICHAEL Q. 00:03, 12 January 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.