USA > Ohio > Church of the Brethren in southern Ohio > Part 27
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MARY COPPOCK
Mary Coppock, daughter of Harley M. and Olive Coppock, was born near Tipp City on December 1, 1920.
Graduating from the Tipp City high school she entered
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Manchester College, from which she graduated in 1941 with the A.B. degree. She then entered Colorado State College of Education, from which she graduated in 1948 with the M.A. degree.
She served in Brethren Service from 1949 to 1952, in the material aid program in Germany. During 1950-51 she directed work camps in Germany. She also worked with the Kalmuk resettlement committee for six months. In April and May 1952 she represented Brethren Service in a speaking tour on the west coast.
She is now a high school teacher in New Mexico.
NEVIN L. COPPOCK
Nevin L. Coppock, the son of Elder Harley M. and Olive Coppock, was born at Miami, New Mexico, on January 12, 1914.
He was educated in the Tipp City public schools and has been a member of the Middle District church since 1924.
His wife was Audrey Harnish. They were married on March 29, 1936. There are two children, Patricia and David.
Brother Coppock was the Sunday-school superintendent at Middle District for ten years, and for a similar period director of the youth department. In 1933 he represented Southern Ohio in the interdenominational youth camp at Indianola.
He was a member of the Committee on Reorganization for the district and was elected as one of the first members of the new District Board, in which he acts as chairman of the Commission on Stewardship and Finance. He was a member of the Men's Work Cabinet from 1946 to 1951 and its president from 1947 to 1951. At present he is on the National Council of Men's Work. He was the first layman to represent Southern Ohio on Standing Committee, serving in 1953.
A farmer, he is active in community and county farm organizations and is a member of the Monroe Township school board,
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RAY E. DULL
Ray E. Dull is the son of Vernon S. and Lucille Brenner Dull. He was born January 7, 1927. His education was received in the Brookville high school and Manchester College, where he prepared for teaching.
He first served his church as a member of the District Youth Cabinet. Then he participated in international work camps in Austria during the summer of 1951. Returning, he was trained for Brethren Volunteer Service at New Windsor, following which he returned to Europe on a cattle boat, as an attendant, and worked at Linz, Austria, until September 1953.
While in Austria he met and married Neva Joan Eisenbise, daughter of Elder Forest Eisenbise of Texas. They are now living at Puente, California.
VERNON S. DULL
Vernon S. Dull, a native of Darke County, Ohio, was the son of Samuel and Emma Shelly Dull, born on November 10, 1895.
He married G. Lucille Brenner of Montgomery County on November 10, 1915. There are four children: Dortha, Rosemma, Ray, and Ralph.
His service in the local church (Brookville) has included that of Sunday-school superintendent, church treasurer, and deacon.
In the district he has served on the Apportionment Com- mittee, the Heifer Project Committee, and the Council of Men's Work. He has also been on the board of the Heifer Project, Incorporated. He and Mrs. Dull accompanied fifty-two heifers to Germany in 1952, visited several Brethren Service projects there and in Austria, and also visited a German girl who had been an exchange student in their home. The daughters also have had exchange students in their homes and both sons have been in volunteer service.
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His vocation is farming. He has served his community and county as chairman of CROP (Christian Rural Overseas Program).
OMY KUNS ERBAUGH
Omy Kuns Erbaugh, wife of Orion Erbaugh, was the daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth McMullen Kuns, of Trot- wood, Ohio. She was born June 11, 1885.
She graduated from the Trotwood high school and later attended Bethany Seminary for one term.
Her marriage to Orion Erbaugh occurred on January 11, 1911. Their children are Eleanor and Richard.
She was a member of the Trotwood church, where she was a Sunday-school teacher for many years. For some ten years she worked in the district as the children's director.
Sister Erbaugh entered into pastoral work with her husband when he became pastor of the Constance church in 1936. Following his decease, she carried on at Hamilton and Constance for three years as director of the church program and activities and at Constance alone since then.
RUTH E. ERBAUGH
Ruth E. Erbaugh, daughter of Elder John and Kathryn Mummert Eikenberry, was born September 7, 1913, near Bradford, Ohio.
Her high school work was taken at Bradford and her college training at Manchester College.
She was married to Wilbur Erbaugh on December 24, 1935. They have one son, Bruce.
A public-school teacher, she is also very active in the church at Bradford, where she has been superintendent of the junior department, a teacher in the Sunday school, music director, and a director of daily vacation Bible school.
In the district she has shared in the Women's Work program, being for six years a member of the cabinet and having special responsibilities as Homebuilders director.
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MILDRED M. ETTER
Mildred M. Etter, daughter of Ralph A. and Lydia Miller Etter, was born at Dayton, Ohio, on March 2, 1913.
Following her high school years in the Fairview school, Dayton, she entered Manchester College, Indiana, graduating with the A.B. degree in 1936. She received the M.A. degree in 1942 from Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.
She taught school at St. Paris, Ohio, from 1936 to 1939 and in the Dayton schools from 1939 to 1952.
Since 1952 she has been working for the General Brother- hood Board, at Elgin, as the administrative assistant to the Christian Education Commission.
In this district she was the director of Children's Work from 1946 until 1952. In her local church she served as the director of music and as superintendent and teacher in the junior department.
CORA HEESTAND FISHER
Cora Heestand Fisher, wife of Everett R. Fisher, was born to Eli and Salome Heestand on September 12, 1897, at Nappanee, Indiana.
They were married on September 12, 1920, and have three children, Glen, Evelyn, and Esther.
She has been active in both district and ecumenical work through the years. She was president of Women's Work in both Southern Indiana and Southern Ohio and also president of Women's Work of the Central Region as well as of the National Council of Women's Work.
While in this state she was a member of the Ohio United Council of Women, of the assembly of the Ohio Council of Churches, and of the national board of managers of the United Church Women.
The Fishers reside in Huntington, Indiana, serving as pastors of the church there.
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JOE B. FLORA
Joe B. Flora was born in Miami County, Ohio, on June 30, 1905, to Benjamin F. and Laura Katherine Flora.
His high school work was completed in the Bethel Town- ship schools, Miami County, after which he entered Ohio State University, where he graduated with the B.Sc. degree.
He was married in the Salem church on August 12, 1928, to Mildred Wenger. They have three children, Reis Wenger, Curtis Benjamin, and Susan Marie.
A deacon in the Trotwood church, he has served also as a teacher and as superintendent in the Sunday school, as church treasurer and church clerk, and as a member of the finance committee and of the planning committee for the remodeled church.
For the district he has been the Brotherhood Fund representative since April 1951 and was the district's second lay delegate on Standing Committee in 1954.
He has been the general manager of the Trotwood Trailers since 1932.
PHARES D. AND FANNIE FOURMAN
Phares D. and Fannie Fourman became man and wife at Potsdam, Ohio, on December 19, 1907. They have four children living: Dale, Galen, Edith, and John.
Brother Fourman was born July 25, 1897, to John and Emma Niswonger Fourman. Sister Fourman is the daughter of Samuel and Lydia Dohner Christian.
Brother Fourman is a deacon in the local church. He is retired, having been in the grocery business prior to being called to direct the work at the Greenville Home. He is a leader in the 4-H Club work of Darke County.
Their service to the district has consisted of the manage- ment of Camp Sugar Grove from 1946 to 1949 and two periods as superintendent and matron of the Brethren Home at Green- ville. The first was for ten years, 1936 to 1946; the second for over four years, 1949 to 1953.
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RUTH FUNDERBURG
Ruth Funderburg comes from Clark County, the daughter of Cyrus and Emma Funderburg. She was born December 10, 1912.
Her education was received in the North Hampton schools and Manchester College. A member of the Donnels Creek church, she has been superintendent of the primary depart- ment, teacher, and chorister and is now the superintendent of the junior and intermediate department. She has also directed the daily vacation Bible school.
In district work she has been a member of the Children's Work Cabinet for several years, a member of the Board of Christian Education, and a camp leader.
She teaches in the elementary school at North Hampton.
CHESTER J. GEORGE
Chester J. George was an active member of the Oakland church at the time of his decease but had grown up in the Lower Miami congregation.
Educated at Manchester College, Miami University, and Ohio State University, he followed the profession of teaching vocational agriculture in Darke and Miami counties. He mar- ried Mildred Kline in 1922.
In the district he was an early promoter of Men's Work and became a member of the District Council of Men's Work as well as of the National Council. He gave much time to the promotion of "heifers for relief" and to the development of a church at Turkey Creek, Kentucky. He died in 1948 in his fiftieth year.
J. PAUL AND VERDA GIBBEL
J. Paul Gibbel, the son of Abram and Emma B. Gibbel, was born March 29, 1896, at Hemet, California.
He finished his high school training at Virden, Illinois, and graduated with an A.B. degree from Mount Morris College,
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Illinois, in 1920. In 1926 he graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Illinois.
Verda E. Hershberger became his wife on June 9, 1926, at Lanark, Illinois. They have three children, Kathleen, Donald, and Phyllis. Their home is at Greenville.
Dr. Gibbel has been active in the Rural Life Association and is a member of the board of this organization.
Verda Gibbel, of Darke County, is the daughter of Jonas and Fannie Hershberger, of Grantsville, Maryland; she was born January 22, 1897.
She took her high school work at Waterloo, Iowa, and graduated from Mount Morris College in 1921, A.B. degree. In 1919-20 she attended Bethany Seminary.
She has served her local church on various boards and committees. Her present service to the district is that of director of missions for Women's Work.
S. C. GNAGEY
S. C. Gnagey, a native of Maryland, is a layman in the Pitsburg church. After the family came to West Milton in 1905 he became a charter member of the local church and later became the Sunday-school superintendent. He attended Juniata College, Pennsylvania.
For a total of seventeen years he was a trustee of the Brethren Home at Greenville, most of the time being sec- retary of the board.
He married Merle Deeter, of Covington, Ohio. In 1934 they became residents of Arcanum, Ohio, where he is the vice-president of the local bank.
The Pitsburg church made him a deacon in 1936.
W. K. GROFF
W. K. Groff was born at Oxford, Ohio, on July 10, 1913, to Jonas and Gertrude Groff.
He completed high school at New Lebanon and entered
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Manchester College, graduating, B.S. degree, in 1935. Later he took the M.A. degree at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
On June 6, 1936, he was married to Lucille Noffsinger, at the Lower Miami church. They and their three children, Kay, Jennie, and Jill, live near Vandalia.
He is a teacher in the Dayton city schools and also a licensed real-estate salesman.
In the local church, Mack Memorial, where he is a deacon, he has been a member of the trustee board, the building committee, and the ministerial board.
His service to the district comprises two terms on the Historical Committee which was responsible for the com- pilation of the material and the publication of this volume.
HARVEY GRISSO
Harvey Grisso, the son of Elias and Elizabeth Grisso, of near North Hampton, Ohio, was born February 1, 1902.
His education was obtained in the common schools and in a night school of engineering. He was an auto mechanic for several years and then became a farmer.
Marie Barnhart became his wife on June 22, 1927. They have one daughter, Evelyn. They are members of the Spring- field church, where he is a deacon.
In his local church Brother Grisso is chairman of the deacon board, of the church cabinet, and of the ministerial board. He was a member of the building committee when the church was remodeled in 1953. He is presently the sec- retary of Men's Work for the district.
He has delivered relief goods from his community to New Windsor and in December 1945 went with a relief cargo of horses and cattle to Danzig, Poland.
HARRY HART
Harry Hart comes from Miami County, Ohio, the son of Clarence E. and Myrtle McMaken Hart.
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He married Harriet M. Snyder on October 21, 1915. They have four children: Wilma, Lowell, Edwin, and Marvin.
Representing the local church, Piqua, he has been a delegate to Annual Conference. He is on the building com- mittee and the finance board. For the county he has acted as the Christian Rural Overseas Program chairman.
The Harts served the district as superintendent and matron of the Brethren Home at Greenville from 1946 to 1949.
VINNA HELSTERN
Vinna Helstern is the daughter of Harvey and Rhoda Bowers, of Wakarusa, Indiana. She was born May 29, 1906.
After graduating from high school at Wakarusa she spent two years in Manchester College.
She married Russell F. Helstern on April 16, 1927, at Wakarusa. They have four daughters.
Her service in the district has been on the Women's Work Cabinet, for a while as director of the Aid Society, and more recently on the District Board as a member of the Brethren Service Commission. She assisted in collecting the data for the account of Women's Work in this volume.
ROBERT L. HONEYMAN
Robert L. Honeyman was born near Brookville on Sep- tember 13, 1903, the son of Enos and Etie Bowman Honeyman.
Since coming into the church in 1923, he has attended the Salem, Brookville, and Potsdam churches, the last-named for the last twenty-five years.
His marriage to Dorothy Mildred Myers took place on March 8, 1925. They have five children: Robert, Jr., Betty Lou, Ned E., Karen Faith, and Benny Foster.
Brother Honeyman spent three months of the winter of 1945-46 with a relief shipment to Greece-horses, mules, cattle, and fertilizer. He sponsored a relief sale for Miami County, held at the Troy fairgrounds, which netted over $15,000 for relief abroad.
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ORA L. HOOVER
Ora L. Hoover came from Garrett, Indiana, where he was born on August 11, 1891, to Elder David E. and Rozella Haynes Hoover.
His high school work was completed at Garrett; he then entered Manchester College, from which he graduated in 1916. After teaching for a few years in Manchester College, he entered Ohio State University, continuing until he secured the Ph.D. degree in chemistry. He taught chemistry here for some time, later becoming a research chemist for the Rockefeller Foundation Psychopathic Hospital at the State University of Iowa.
Brother Hoover was married to Alice Marie Kindell on September 20, 1924, at North Manchester, Indiana. They have one son, Keith Kindell, of Wright College, Chicago.
Upon the death of his wife's father Brother Hoover came to Covington to take over the Sugar Grove Mills, in which business he is still engaged.
His service to the district has included membership on the Mission Board, as its treasurer for several years. At present he is the treasurer of the newly organized District Board. In the local church he has served in several capacities: as a member of the ministerial board, as a Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, and as church clerk.
ROSCOE INMAN
Roscoe Inman of Bradford, Ohio, is the son of Isaac and Mary Ellen Frey Inman. He grew up in the vicinity of Brad- ford. On July 22, 1911, he married Ivy E. Bookwalter. They have four children living.
In the local church he has been a trustee and a member of both the pastoral board and the finance board.
A builder by trade, he has been used by the church a great deal in this capacity. He supervised the construction of the Turkey Creek church, Kentucky. Later he had charge of the erecting of a parsonage there. The Brethren Service Commission asked him to direct the construction of the Kassel
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House, Germany, a project that took nearly two years-May 1952 to February 1954.
The District Board of Southern Ohio asked him, upon his return, to supervise the construction of the new district parsonage at West Milton, which was dedicated November 7, 1954. He is also directing the remodeling of the Piqua church, soon to be completed.
NAOMI V. KINSEL
Naomi V. Kinsel, the daughter of Elder Clarence and Clara Horning Erbaugh, was born in Perry Township, Mont- gomery County, on February 20, 1914.
She completed her high school work at the Dixie high school, near New Lebanon, and entered Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana, completing the normal course in 1937. She graduated from the Training School of Bethany Biblical Seminary in 1946. Before her marriage she was a public-school teacher.
Her marriage to Paul W. Kinsel occurred on June 7, 1941. They have three children, Barbara Ann, Susan Elizabeth, and John Daniel.
She has been a children's work director in the local church, a member of the District Children's Cabinet, and a district director of Children's Work. In Eastern Maryland she was also the director of Children's Work. In Southern Ohio she has served on the Youth Cabinet, as its president for one year, and has also shared in the district camping program as a leader and a director at Camp Sugar Grove.
MRS. MOYNE LANDIS
Mrs. Moyne Landis was born at Liberty Mills, Indiana, on June 4, 1888, to M. K. and Ida Martin.
She finished high school at North Manchester, Indiana, and took further training in the Training School of Bethany Biblical Seminary.
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Her marriage to Moyne Landis took place on May 14, 1911, at North Manchester. They have one son and two daughters living.
In Indiana she was the president of the Middle Indiana District Aid Society, and in Southern Ohio she has been the president of Women's Work. She represented the Church of the Brethren on the assembly of the Ohio Council of Churches and was a member of the executive committee of the Ohio Council of Church Women.
IRA MIKESELL
Ira Mikesell, a native of Darke County, Ohio, was reared in the Pleasant Valley congregation. His parents were Herbert and Ollie Mote Mikesell. He was born June 6, 1904.
He has served in various capacities in the local church, as superintendent of the Sunday school and as teacher, and on the finance and ministerial boards and the committee on men's work.
His residence was in the Beech Grove congregation from 1950 to 1953. The Union City congregation elected him a deacon in 1946.
Lovelle Hindsley became his wife on December 27, 1925. She passed away February 2, 1931. He was married to Zelma Thornburg on December 12, 1936; they have two children, Robert Lee and Linda Sue.
On September 1, 1953, the Mikesells were called to be superintendent and matron of the Brethren Home; they are living and working there at the present time.
LEVI MINNICH
Levi Minnich was born to Abraham and Elizabeth Swinger Minnich on March 19, 1862, in Franklin Township, Darke County, Ohio.
On May 24, 1888, he married Laura E. Netzley, of Naper- ville, Illinois. Born to them were Beulah (Mrs. T. S. Eiken-
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berry), H. Spenser, and Ruth (Mrs. Quinter Neher). His companion died in 1909. In 1912 he was united in marriage to Susie Forney, of California.
Brother Minnich was educated in the local schools, and in Ohio Normal University, Ada, Ohio. He taught school for ten years; then he turned to farming.
Uniting with the church in 1890, he was superintendent of the Painter Creek Sunday school for more than twenty years, president of the Darke County Sunday-school Associa- tion for several years, a member of the District Mission Board for three terms of five years each, a member of the General Sunday School Board for several years, and long a trustee of Manchester College. He was a civic leader in his own com- munity and county, a strong advocate of prohibition, and once a candidate for the state legislature.
He passed away on March 31, 1948. His second wife, Susie Minnich, followed him in death on June 18, 1953.
ROBERT NOFFSINGER
Robert Noffsinger, the son of Elder and Sister Jesse Noff- singer, is a layman in the Mack Memorial church. His wife was Alma Studebaker of New Carlisle. They live near Vandalia, Ohio.
A Manchester graduate, A.B. degree, he took his Master's degree at Wittenberg. He has been taking additional work at the University of Cincinnati.
His activities in the district have included: B.Y.P.D. president, 1933-34; leader in the first Mexican work camp; leader of youth camps; and treasurer and manager of the Common Bond Credit Union at the present time.
JOHN E. OLIVER
John E. Oliver, of the Greenville church, is the son of George and Amy Oliver, born November 8, 1901.
He was educated in the local high school, Manchester
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College, A.B. 1931, and Miami University, M.A. 1941. He is a teacher in the Greenville high school.
His marriage to Mary M. Miller took place on June 10, 1926. They have three children, Janis, Carol, and James.
A deacon in the local church, he has served also as Sunday- school teacher and treasurer of the building committee.
For the district, as secretary of the Historical Committee responsible for this volume, he has rendered most valuable service.
DARYL M. PARKER
Daryl McCoid Parker was born March 17, 1904, in Whittier, California, to Harry C. and Nina McCoid Parker, and grew up on a farm. He graduated from the Glendale union high school in 1922, and from Occidental College at Los Angeles in 1926. Following this he taught school and supervised play- grounds for two years. During this time he was active in the work of the Glendale Presbyterian church, of which he was a member.
His purpose to become a medical missionary brought him to Chicago. Here he graduated from Northwestern University Medical School, interned at Evanston General Hospital, and took a special eye course at the university clinics. Later, on his first furlough from China, he took postgraduate work in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
While in training in Chicago, he was active in the work of the Fourth Presbyterian church, the medical school Y.M.C.A., and the Interdenominational Student Volunteer Movement. It was in this work that he met and married Martha Neiderhiser in June 1932. Their first year was spent in Chicago, where they attended the First Church of the Brethren. It was during this time that he became a member of the church.
Each had been preparing for service on the mission field before they met. Now they believed that God would guide them as to where and when they could serve together. And it was the need for medical workers in our North China mission
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field that led them to answer that call. They were dedicated and sent out by the Annual Conference at Hershey, Pennsyl- vania, in 1933. After a year in language study in Peking they were stationed in Shansi, North China, where Dr. Parker worked in the three Brethren hospitals in Ping Ting, Show Yang, and Liao Chow.
The Parkers' main emphasis in their medical mission work was to train Christian Chinese doctors and nurses to work with their own people and assume responsibility for the hospitals and training schools in China.
In 1942, while Dr. Parker was at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, he was asked to help train the first China unit of civilian public service men then preparing at Camp Lagro, Indiana, to serve in unoccupied China. When this unit was refused passports by the State Department, it was re- organized and the Parkers went with the group to Puerto Rico to begin the Castañer project. Their work was to build a twenty-five-bed hospital, take over government clinics that had been abandoned, and train civilian public service assignees and Puerto Ricans to do the work of doctors, nurses, and technicians. In 1944 the Parkers again tried to return to China, and when passports were refused they were loaned to the Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Dr. Parker served as medical director and resident surgeon.
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