Clive Doyle

1941 - 2022

Clive Doyle

Feb. 24, 1941 - June 8, 2022

Clive Doyle, 81, died peacefully on June 8, 2022 in Waco, Texas due to pancreatic cancer. He was born on February 24, 1941 in Melbourne, Australia.

He was baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist Church at age 10. He and his mother, Edna Doyle, became Davidian Seventh-day Adventists in 1956 by reading publications written by Victor Houteff, whose community was located near Waco, Texas from 1935 through 1959. Subsequently, Clive and his mother became Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists in 1964 by reading the publications of the founder, Ben Roden, whose Branch Davidian community was on property called Mount Carmel Center located northeast of Waco.

In 1966, at age 25, Clive and three other young Australians traveled to the Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel Center, with the expectation that they would then move to Israel. Clive never relocated to Israel, but stayed at Mount Carmel Center. During this period, he married, had two daughters with his wife, became an American citizen, and divorced.

When Ben Roden died in 1978, Clive accepted Ben's wife, Lois Roden, as the next prophet of the Branch Davidians. Clive was the associate editor who printed Lois Roden's pamphlets and issues of a journal titled SHEkinah (1981-82). After listening to the Bible studies given by a young man named Vernon Howell (later known as David Koresh) in 1984 at Mount Carmel Center, Clive and other long-time Branch Davidians shifted their faith to him as the next prophet in the Davidian and Branch Davidian lineage of prophets.

Clive Doyle undertook work to serve the Branch Davidian community and many others. He was with David Koresh's group when they left Mount Carmel Center and created a camp in the woods near Palestine, Texas. Clive then traveled to work at various jobs in Texas, California, and Hawaii. Koresh's followers moved back to Mount Carmel Center in 1988. At Mount Carmel Center, Koresh's Bible students tore down the little houses already there and used the lumber to build the large residence that became famous in 1993 during the conflict with federal agents.

Clive Doyle was present in the large residence at Mount Carmel Center on February 28, 1993, during the attempted "dynamic entry" by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the subsequent shootout. He was present in the residence during the 51-day siege by FBI agents. He was present when the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team carried out a tank and CS gas assault on April 19, 1993. Clive was one of nine Branch Davidians who escaped the fire that was the culmination of the tank and gas assault. His eighteen-year-old daughter, Shari Doyle, died by gunshot in the midst of the fire. When the fire started, Shari was on the second floor of the building, while Clive managed to escape the fire from the first floor. Because of the fire, it was impossible for him to reach Shari and attempt to rescue her.

After the fire, Clive Doyle was held in prison before and during the criminal trial in 1994. He was among three Branch Davidian survivors who were acquitted of all charges and released.

He lived at Mount Carmel Center from 1999 to 2006, where he was available to speak with visitors. In 2006 he moved to live in Waco.

During the years after 1993, he accepted requests for interviews with journalists and documentary filmmakers in order to articulate his perspective as a Branch Davidian survivor. In 1995 he was one of the Branch Davidian survivors who testified in congressional committee hearings on the activities of federal law enforcement agencies toward the Branch Davidians. Clive Doyle was the moderator at annual April 19 memorials that remembered all those who died in the 1993 Branch Davidian-federal agent conflict, in which 82 Branch Davidians of all ages and four ATF agents died.

Clive Doyle was a repository of memories about individual Branch Davidians, the history of the Branch Davidians going back to Ben Roden, and the conflict with federal agents from February 28, 1993 to April 19, 1993, as experienced by the Branch Davidians. His book, A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian (2012), provides a written record of his memories of his experiences, as told to historian of religions Catherine Wessinger in 2003-04.

Clive Doyle is preceded in death by his younger daughter, Shari Elayna Doyle, his mother Edna Doyle, and his older daughter, Karen Elizabeth Graham. Clive Doyle's last words to his friends, as posted to Facebook, were: "He wishes to see you again in the Kingdom. Love each other with all your heart."

There will be a private memorial service.