wfn.org | Ewing Wayland, church financial officer, journalist dead at 82

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 29, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally, Nashville, Tenn. (615)
742-5470(10-71B){682}

By United Methodist News Service

Former chief financial officer of the United Methodist Church, the Rev.
Ewing T. Wayland, died suddenly at his home in Wheaton, Ill., Dec. 24.  He
was 82.

Wayland, a retired clergy member of the North Arkansas Annual (regional)
Conference, retired in 1984 as General Secretary of the church's General
Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), with offices in Evanston, Ill.

Prior to joining the GCFA staff in 1971, Wayland had a distinguished
journalistic career in the church, serving as editor of the Arkansas
Methodist and editorial director of Christian Advocate and Together,
magazines of the former Methodist Church.  He was editor of the Daily
Christian Advocate, for five general conferences: 1964 and 1966 for the
Methodist Church and 1968, 1970 and 1972 for the United Methodist Church.
The Daily Christian Advocate includes proceedings of the church's top
international legislative body. 
 
Wayland was born Dec. 31, 1916, in Heber Springs, Ark. He received a
bachelor of arts degree from United Methodist-related Hendrix College,
Conway, Ark.,  and a master of divinity degree from Southern Methodist
University, Dallas.  Hendrix later awarded him an honorary doctor of
divinity degree.

Following a stint as a Navy chaplain during World War II, he began his
journalism career in 1946 as associate editor of the Arkansas Methodist,
serving under his father, the Rev. E.T. Wayland. He was named editor in
1948. For the next 12 years he supervised all aspects of the newspaper's
operation, took on expanded duties as editor of the Louisiana Methodist and
supervised the 
Methodist Information Program for Arkansas and Louisiana.

In 1960, he joined the denomination's general periodicals staff as editor of
the biweekly Christian Advocate. A few years later, he was named editorial
director of both the Christian Advocate and Together magazine. 

He was a former president of the Methodist Press Association, a member of
the board of directors of the Associated Church Press, and was inducted into
the United Methodist Association of Communicators Hall of Fame.

His wife of 57 years, Frances Stewart Wayland, preceded him in death in
1998.  He is survived by three sons:  E. Tatum Wayland Jr., Winfield, Ill.;
Fred S.  Wayland, Wheaton, Ill.; and George B. Wayland, Napervile, Ill.; one
brother, Sloan Wayland of Nyack, N.Y.; and four grandchildren. 

Memorial services will be held at 3 p.m. Jan. 6 at Gary Memorial United
Methodist Church, 224 N. Main St., Wheaton, and at 11 a.m. Jan. 8 at First
United Methodist Church, 723 Center St., Little Rock. 

Memorials may be sent to Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway, AR
72032. 

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NOTE:  Jane Dennis, editor of the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper,
provided information for  this story.  

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United Methodist News Service
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