wfn.org | Notes about People

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

28-January-1998 
98035 
 
                       Notes about People 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    The Rev. L. Newton Thurber, 75, hailed by General Assembly stated clerk 
the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick as "one of the great saints of the church," 
died Jan. 20 at the Pennswood Village retirement community near 
Philadelphia. 
    In the 1940s, Thurber and his wife, Constance, worked with Cherokee 
Indians in Oklahoma.  In 1947, the Thurbers were sent by the Presbyterian 
Church as missionaries to Japan, where they stayed for 16 years.  Upon 
their return to the United States, Thurber served as the denomination's 
area secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, and later as area secretary 
for South Asia.  At the time of his retirement in 1987, he was the church's 
associate for planning for global mission.  He later served the National 
Council of Churches as associate general secretary and director of its 
Division of Overseas Ministries. 
    A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Thurber graduated from Yale College and 
the Yale Divinity School.  He also studied at the Yale Institute of Far 
Eastern Studies and Union Theological Seminary in New York.  He was a 
member of Newark Presbytery.  He is survived by Constance, three sons - 
David, John and Mark - and four grandchildren. 
    A memorial service was held Jan. 24 at Pennswood Village and another is 
scheduled Feb. 28 at Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, N.J., where 
the Thurbers lived for 32 years before moving to the retirement community 
in 1995. 
 
                                 # # # 
 
    The Rev. Robert E. Turner, campus minister at Indiana University in 
Bloomington, Ind., has been named associate for higher education ministries 
and students' ministries in the Higher Education Program Area of the 
National Ministries Division in Louisville.  He begins his new work March 
16. 
    Turner succeeds the Rev. Clyde O. Robinson, who retired last year.  A 
graduate of the University of Illinois and Princeton Theological Seminary, 
Turner served as a campus minister at Southeastern Louisiana University 
prior to his service at Indiana University. 
 
                                 # # # 
 
    The Women's Ministries Program Area of the National Ministries Division 
has announced the hiring of the Rev. Jean Kim, founder and pastor of the 
Church of Mary Magdalene, a congregation of homeless women in Seattle, as 
an associate. 
    Kim will serve on the staff of Women's Ministries in a term position 
running from February 1998 through June 1999, educating Presbyterians 
throughout the church on issues related to the homelessness of women.  She 
will also work with the Urban Ministry office, the Presbyterian Hunger 
Program and coalitions addressing issues of homelessness, economic justice, 
violence against women, immigration and racism. 
    Kim will continue to be based in Seattle. 
 
                                 # # # 
 
    Kay Snodgrass, a writer and editor from Reston, Va., has been named the 
new editor of the devotional magazine "These Days."  She succeeds Vic 
Jameson, who had served as editor since 1993 and who retired in December. 
    Snodgrass, a Presbyterian, is owner and director of About Words, a 
commercial editing firm.  She has written for such publications as "The 
Christian Herald," "Family Life Today" and the Celebrate! series of 
Presbyterian church school curriculum. 
    "These Days" has a circulation of 190,000 and is published 
cooperatively by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian 
Church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of 
Canada and the United Church of Christ. 
 
                                 # # # 
 
    The Rev. Staccato Powell of St. Louis, a minister in the African 
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), has been named deputy general 
secretary for national ministries of the National Council of Churches 
(NCC).  He succeeds the Rev. Mac Charles Jones, who died last March after 
just four days in the post. 
    Powell, who holds both a divinity degree and a law degree, has been 
pastor to AMEZ congregations in North Carolina and Missouri.  Ecumenically, 
he has served on the World Council of Churches' Black Church Liaison 
Committee. 
 
                                 # # # 
 
    Donald L. Hibbard, 90, former chief administrator of the Board of 
Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), died Jan. 13 at his home in 
Nashua, N.H.  He headed the board from 1946 until 1972. 
    During Hibbard's 26-year tenure, the Board introduced medical benefits, 
raised retirement pensions, added life insurance, increased disability 
payments and greatly expanded the retirement homes program.  He was the 
first layperson to serve as chief executive of the Board of Pensions. 
    Hibbard was born in the Philippines.  His parents, David Hibbard and 
Laura Crooks Hibbard, founded Silliman Institute - now Silliman University 
- under the former Board of Foreign Missions. 
    Hibbard was married to Katherine L. Lewis, who died in 1996.  His 
daughter, Rosemary Pomeroy Turnbull, also preceded him in death.  He is 
survived by his grandchildren, Bradbury S. Pomeroy of Easton, Pa., and 
Marion L. Pomeroy of White Plains, N.Y. 

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