wfn.org | John Harper, long active in world Methodism, dies at 92

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 16, 2002	     News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-71B{475}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodist layman John R. Harper, 92, died Oct. 12 at his home in
Langhorne, Pa., near Philadelphia. 

Harper was active at every level of the denomination and beyond it. A
longtime member of the executive committee of the World Methodist Council,
he served as treasurer of the organization for 21 years.

He was a delegate to jurisdictional and general conferences, including the
1968 General Conference that united the Methodist and Evangelical United
Brethren churches. He also was lay leader of the Eastern Pennsylvania
Conference and its precursor, the Philadelphia Conference, for 10 years, and
he served on the General Council on Finance and Administration. He held
positions on various boards at his local church and was church school
superintendent for many years.

Ecumenically, at the local level, he worked in Christian Endeavor, an
historic non-denominational youth ministry, and once was responsible for
bringing President Richard Nixon to address a large Christian Endeavor
conference.

Harper was active in the North American part of the drive to "Save Wesley's
Chapel," which raised about $1 million in the United States to restore John
Wesley's Chapel on City Road in London in the 1970s. When the building was
reopened in 1978, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip attended the ceremony.
While Harper was in England for that event, his friend and fellow Methodist
George Thomas, then speaker of the British House of Commons, gave a dinner
in the Parliament Building to honor him and about a dozen others from the
United States who played key roles in the restoration.

The World Methodist Council headquarters, which moved into the new Royce and
Jane Reynolds Headquarters Building in July this year, benefited from
Harper's vision when he saw the property adjacent to the old headquarters go
on the market more than a decade ago. He also encouraged the expansion of
the World Methodist Council Museum and its acquisition of rare and valuable
artifacts. The museum and headquarters are in Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Harper spent his entire working life with the same gas-and-coal company,
beginning as a teen-ager and rising to become president - an unusual
attainment in a family owned company for one who is not part of the family. 

Historic St. George Methodist Church in Philadelphia awarded him the St.
George Medallion, and he was received into the Honorable Order of Jerusalem
in 2000 for his service to the World Methodist Council. This honor has only
been conferred on 35 people worldwide.

Harper's funeral will be Oct. 17 at Simpson Memorial United Methodist Church
in Philadelphia. He is survived by his brother, Robert, and several nieces
and nephews. His wife, Ann, died as the result of an automobile accident
about 10 years ago. 

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United Methodist News Service
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