wfn.org | Notes about People

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

26-January-2000 
00039 
 
    Notes about People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    R. James Henderson, a consultant for not-for-profit organizations who 
recently completed a tenure as interim president of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) Foundation, has been named chair of the foundation's board of 
trustees.  Henderson, a resident of Montreat, N.C., who has served on the 
foundation's board since 1995, has also served as interim president of the 
Montreat Conference Center. 
    Retired Tennessee banker Ray U. Tanner will serve as vice-chair of the 
board and will chair the foundation's executive committee.  He has served 
on the board since 1996. 
    Three new members have also joined the foundation board: the Rev. Merle 
S. Arnold of Newville, Pa., executive director of Green Ridge Village, 
Presbyterian retirement community in Camp Hill, Pa.; Martha P. Farmer of 
Danville, Ky., head of a consulting firm which provides organizational and 
developmental assistance to nonprofit organizations; and Marjorie Anderson 
Pipkin of Raleigh, N.C., a graduate of Duke University with a major in 
economics who lends her expertise to several community organizations and to 
White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Ruth Sovik, former deputy general secretary of the World Council of 
Churches (WCC), died Jan. 12 at the age of 71. 
    In 1965 Sovik -- an American Lutheran -- joined the WCC as editorial 
assistant for the "International Review of Mission," a publication of the 
WCC's Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), whose deputy 
director she became in 1978.  Sovik left the WCC in 1980 to become 
associate general secretary of the World Young Women's Christian 
Association (YWCA) and later, in 1983, its general secretary. 
    In 1985 the WCC Central Committee meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 
appointed her as one of three deputy general secretaries.  She held this 
position until her retirement in 1991, when she returned to the United 
States. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    Gary Luhr, associate director for communication for the General 
Assembly Council, has announced the appointment of Dianna Ott of Louisville 
as web content developer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  She begins 
her new work Feb. 7. 
    Dianna Ott has worked for more than 15 years as the Director of 
Communication for the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants. 
    In her new position, Ott will work on redesigning the PC(USA) Web site. 
She will also work with the various programmatic offices at the 
Presbyterian Center to develop new content for the Web in response to user 
needs and requests and to coordinate existing content. 
 
                                  # # # 
 
    The Rev. Paul M. Edris, 87, moderator of the 1975 General Assembly of 
the former Presbyterian Church in the United States, died in mid-January in 
Daytona, Fla.  Funeral services were held Jan. 15 at First Presbyterian 
Church of Daytona. 
    Edris, a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, graduated from Maryville (Tenn.) 
College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  He served just 
three pastorates during his 40-year career - in Lexington and Georgetown, 
Ky., and an extraordinary 36 years at First Church, Daytona. 

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