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30-March-1999 
99129 
 
    Notes About People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    The Rev. Arthur M. Stevenson, 81, a stalwart in Presbyterian urban 
mission for many years, died Feb. 6 in Green Valley, Ariz.  He had suffered 
with Parkinson's Disease for more than 20 years. 
    A graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological 
Seminary, Stevenson served pastorates in Michigan and Pennsylvania.  During 
the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, he was at the 
forefront of church and civic leadership in Philadelphia.  He later served 
as executive presbyter for Elizabeth Presbytery. 
    Stevenson is survived by his wife, Dorothy. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. Philip N. Olson, a Presbyterian minister, has been named vice 
president for church relations and director of Network 9:35 for 
Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA). 
    Olson, most recently minister of mission at First Presbyterian Church 
in Mount Holly, N.J., will spearhead ESA's expanding partnership with 
congregations seeking to combine evangelism and social ministry to the poor 
and marginalized. 
    The name Network 9:35 comes from Matt. 9:35: "Jesus went through all 
the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good 
news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Deena M. Umbarger, 35, in international relief worker for the United 
Methodist Church, was shot and killed along the Kenya-Somalia border March 
20.  She had flown to the border area with a Somalian staff member of 
another nongovernmental organization to try and broker a cease-fire between 
warring villagers on both sides of the border.  Before the talks could 
begin, shooting broke out.  Umbarger was the only fatality. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Sonia C. Solomonson has been named managing editor of "The Lutheran," 
the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  She began 
April 1, succeeding Roger Kahle, who died Dec. 1, 1998. 
    Solomonson has been on the staff of "The Lutheran" since the ELCA's 
inception in 1988, most recently as senior editor.  A former missionary in 
Papua New Guinea, she holds a journalism degree from the University of 
Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The oldest Presbyterian in Cuba, Consuelo Oropesa, passed away in 
Havana March 20 at age 105. 
    Oropesa was born in Nueva Paz, in the province of Havana in 1893 when 
Cuba was a Spanish colony. She became a member of Presbyterian Church in 
1906 and remained a member for 93 years. 
    Her husband was one of the most prominent Cuban Presbyterian Pastors, 
Ricardo Jorge.  The couple had 4 children. Richard, Aida, a Presbyterian 
women's leader in Cuba, Daniel and Isaac. Isaac has been moderator of the 
National Synod of the Presbyterian Reform Church of Cuba for the past 6 
years and is considered one of the leading Cuban Protestant lay leaders. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. Robert L. Beech of Bovey, Minn., will be among those honored 
in June when the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg 
celebrates the 35th anniversary of "Mississippi Freedom Summer" with the 
opening of the "Faces of Freedom Summer" exhibit in the USM Museum of Art. 
    The exhibit features 102 photographs taken in Hattiesburg and Palmer's 
Crossing, Miss. during the summer of 1964.  From 1964-1966, Beech was 
director of the Hattiesburg Ministers Project, which played a key role in 
the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. 
    Beech will be present for the opening and for a three-day Freedom 
Summer Symposium, a public discussion among some of the people who led the 
Civil Rights Movement in Hattiesburg. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Grace V. Long, the daughter of Presbyterian minister Horace L. Villee 
and wife of Presbyterian minister Flynn V. Long, died Feb. 6 in Big Spring, 
Texas.  Long, 64, attended Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) and 
was influential in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  In addition to her 
husband, Long is survived by her daughter, Kathryn. 

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