Alumni Obituaries – May 2013
Kenneth Harper, (1946, MDiv), 92, a lifelong teacher and student of life, died of natural causes on Friday, March 15th, in Phoenix, AZ at the age of 91. During the last week of his life he was surrounded and cared for by his children, their spouses, and grandchildren. Kenneth Harper was an original thinker for whom creative expression was as natural as breathing. He expressed himself through dance, carving, drawing, painting, and the way he lived his life. He was a published author and a minister who helped hundreds of people with his kind counsel and gift for deep listening. Throughout his life, Kenneth was passionate about the art of inquiry, education, and parenting. As a young man he traveled across the country as part of a musical quartet. Later, he became the youngest-ever head minister of Glide Memorial Methodist Church in San Francisco. Along with Mary Jane Harper, his wife and mother of all his children, he was a Methodist missionary in Zimbabwe, where he was influenced by the people of the Shona tribe. At the University of Kentucky, Kenneth was a Professor, the Director of Fraternities, the Director of Foreign Students, and the Dean of Men. From 1966-1968 he was the National Director of the training programs for the VISTA Volunteers/AmeriCorps. In 1969 he was the founding President of Pima College in Tucson, AZ. In the early 1970s he was the President of Riverside City College in Riverside, CA, and then later a professor. In San Diego, CA, he founded his own church, the Natural Renewal Guild, to provide and teach spiritual counseling skills. In 2006 he moved to Ventana Lakes in Phoenix, AZ, and spent the last 7 years of his life offering dance, Tai Chi, meditation, and poetry classes, and counseling to his community, where he is deeply beloved. Kenneth Harper, the second of three children, was born at home in 1921 in Pocahontas, IL, to Myra Harper and Thomas Edward Harper. He received a Bachelor’s degree from Asbury College, a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and his Ph.D from the University of Kentucky. He is survived by his brother, Paul Harper, and daughters Sandra Harper, Susan Harper, and Sara Harper, and his son, Steven Harper. His grandchildren are Kate Harper-Smith, Kelsey Harper-Smith, Kai Harper, Kes Harper, Taylor Posey, and Kendra Posey, and his extended family includes Dan Smith, Janna Fournier, Stan Posey, Andrew Schroeder, Carol Sue Ray, Bonnie Jennings and Wayne Kimbell, all of whom loved him dearly.”
Dr. William Ward Dean, (1952, MDiv), 88, of Bourbonnais, passed away April 4, 2013, in DeKalb. Dr. Dean was a retired professor of religion from Olivet Nazarene University. He was born Sept. 7, 1924, in Brown City, Mich., the son of Oscar and Frances Stanzel Dean. His wife, the former Doris Kimble, whom he married May 8, 1960, at Forestbrook United Missionary Church, South Bend, Ind., preceded him in death. He received a bachelor’s degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind., and from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. He received his Ph.D. in religion from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. He was a member of College Church of the Nazarene and First Church of the Nazarene. Surviving are two sons and one daughter-in-law, William and Gina Dean, of Bourbonnais, and Tom Dean, of Chicago; nine grandchildren; and two sisters and brothers-in-law, Joyce and Jerry Whitaker, of Portage, Mich., and Sherrie and Rob Larkins, of Sycamore. He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, Jack Dean.
The Rev’d Lester J. Wilcox, (1951, BD), 87, departed this life April 5, 2013, in Las Cruces, NM. He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Morgan Wilcox, of Alamogordo, his daughter and son-in-law Rebecca and Mark Bradley, of Germany, his brother and sister-in-law Richard and Sandy Wilcox, of Ohio. He was preceded in death by his parents Lester and Agnes Wilcox, his step-mother Josephine Wilcox, and his son Roger Wilcox. Rev’d Wilcox was born Jan. 11, 1926, near Carey, Ohio. He attended college at Marion College, now Indiana Wesleyan University, where he graduated in 1948 and attended seminary at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville, Ill., and later Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., where he graduated in 1951. He later served as pastor at the Wesleyan Church in Sheridan, Ind., and was ordained in 1953. He received clinical pastoral training from the University of Michigan and, upon completion of that training, served as a pastoral counselor. He served as a chaplain for a program for the mentally handicapped and as an outpatient drug and alcoholism counselor in New York State. He transferred his ordination to the Disciples of Christ. After his marriage to Morgan, he became an Episcopalian. After his retirement from New York State, having served 27 years as the Protestant Chaplain at Craig Developmental Center in Sonyea, N.Y., he and Morgan moved to Alamogordo. He was active as a lay Eucharistic minister, a lay reader and a Eucharistic visitor at St. John’s in Alamogordo, as well as a member of the University Singers, the ham radio club, and the Senior Citizens Center. He was a long-time Rotarian and served as district governor previously in New York state.