wfn.org | Death of Camping Director

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (37
notes).

Note 37 by UMNS on April 23, 1997 at 16:05 Eastern (3253 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                               225(10-71B){37}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            April 23, 1997

Accidental gunshot wound kills 
United Methodist camping leader

by Alice Smith*

     ATLANTA, (UMNS) -- A United Methodist camping leader, the
Rev. Robert G. Cagle, 56, died of an accidental gunshot wound
April 21 at his home on the campus of Camp Glisson at Dahlonega,
Ga.
     Cagle, director of Camp Glisson and an associate on the North
Georgia Conference Council on Ministries, had served from 1979 to
1985 on the camping staff of the churchwide Board of Discipleship
in Nashville, Tenn.  
     Cagle reportedly was alone in his house on the camp's
property making preparations for a wilderness camping trip when a
hunting rifle, enclosed in a sheath and stored in a closet, fell
and discharged, shooting him in the chest. His body was discovered
by his 17-year-old son Hoke. 
     "Investigators are pretty confident he died immediately,"
said the Rev. Med Roach, pastor of Dahlonega First United
Methodist Church where the Cagle family worshiped.
     "It was absolutely accidental, just a terrible tragedy, and
an unusual set of circumstances," said Bucky Highsmith, a
Gainesville attorney who is chairman of the Camp Glisson board of
directors.
     "We're just all sort of numb," said the Rev. Rudolph R.
Baker, director of the conference council on ministries. "It just
tears you apart."
     One of the most ironic things about the death, Baker said, is
that Cagle, a great outdoorsman, was safety-conscious. "He trained
everybody in safety. He was one of the most careful people at that
point."
     Highsmith was among a group of friends and camp staff members
who gathered at the Cagle home following news of the tragedy. The
Rev. James Thompson, superintendent of the Atlanta-Emory District
and  close friend, was enroute to the Cagle home when he was
involved in a car accident.
     Three students from North Georgia College, one of who was
killed in the accident, were driving at a high rate of speed and
struck Thompson's car. His right arm was severely mangled.  He is
recuperating from surgery at a Gainesville hospital.
     "Bob had a vision for the camp that was just incredible,"
Highsmith said. "One of the achievements we can chalk up to his
leadership was the camp's accreditation with the American Camping
Association. Glisson is one of the few church camps accredited (by
the organization)."
     In accordance with his love of Camp Glisson and the outdoors,
the Cagle family is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, gifts be
made to Friends of Glisson which is overseeing the camp's
restoration.
     A memorial service was scheduled April 24, in the chapel at
Camp Glisson.
     Cagle is survived by his wife Brenda, a son Hoke, 17, and two
brothers: Earl of Marietta, Ga., and Ron of Dunwoody, Ga.; and a
sister, Brenda Peterson of Commerce, Ga.
                               # # #
     *Alice Smith is the executive director of the Georgia United
Methodist Communications Council. 

     

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