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Melville Owens Wiliams (1904-1995) was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Meville Owens and Mary Louise Codd Willams. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1924, an Master of Science degree in sociology and religion from Vanderbilt University in 1929, and an Doctor of Education from Union Theological Seminary in 1936. He married Annie Lee Young in August of 1926, and they had two children: G. Melville and Anne W. (later Craig).

Willaims spent his early years in education, serving as the chaplain for the Virginia Industrial School in Maidens (1924-1925), and then as a teacher at Emory University Academy, in Oxford, Georgia (1926-1928). In 1929 the Williams family moved to China where he taught sociology. They remained there until 1940. In 1942, Williams was ordained in the Virginia Conference of the Methodist church, receiving his full connection in 1945. The same year he was ordained Williams was appointed secretary of Missionary Personnel, a position he held until the merger in 1968. From 1964 until 1968 he was Chairman of the Commission on world Mission under the National Student Christian Federation. After his retirement from the Board of Missions, Williams worked with the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations (COEMAR), a cooperative effort with the Presbyterian Church, USA. In this capacity he and his wife traveled to Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central and South America. They retired to Ohio in 1985.

Roy Stinson Smyres (1895-1994) was born on November 17, 1895 in Mount Vernon, Indiana, to Luther Robert and Mary Hannah Brown Smyres. Nell Smyres was his only sister. Smyres grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana, attending local public schools and the local Methodist Episcopal Church. At the age of six he bought his first camera, a two-dollar Kodak Brownie, which began a life-long hobby that would create a large global image archive.

Smyres attended Northwestern University and Garrett Theological Seminary (then Garrett Biblical Institute), receiving his B.A. in 1921 and M.A. in 1922. He left during his junior year of college to go to Africa for one year as secretary to missionary John McKendree Springer. Roy sailed from New York City to Africa on the S.S. City of Glasglow in December 1916. The one year appointment stretched into three years.

Roy was stationed at Elisabethville, and later Kambove, Belgian Congo, where he taught at the night school when not traveling with Springer. He was appointed the assistant secretary of the Congo Mission Conference.

In 1917 Smyres was received into membership by the Central New York Annual Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained under the missionary rule by the Congo Mission Conference, with Bishop Eben, Johnson officiating in 1919. During that same year, Smyres journeyed with Bishop Johnson across West Africa to map out future mission stations. He sailed back to the United States on October 5, 1919 to resume his college work at Northwestern University.

Roy and Esther Montgomery of Sioux City, Iowa, were married on September 7, 1921. They eventually raised five children: Peg, Richard, Mary, Bob, and Ruth. The following year Roy was appointed to be the minister for the Forest Home Chapel in Ithaca, New York. At the same time he enrolled at Cornell University for a doctoral degree.

In 1924, Roy and Esther Smyres became missionaries for the Methodist Episcopal Church and returned to the Congo, where they worked for five years. Most of their time was spent in the bush country. Roy served as principal of the Congo Institute, district superintendent for the Elisabethville-Luba District, and treasurer of the mission.

They returned to the United States in 1929. Upon his return and in order to make financial ends meet Roy taught at Ithaca High School. He also worked at Associated Gas and Electric Company. Ministerial appointments for the Central New York Annual Conference included Forest Home Chapel (1931-1936), Horseheads (1937-1940), and Montour Falls (1941-1945). Roy became an instructor at Cazenovia Seminary in 1940, and served as treasurer of the conference from 1941 to 1945.

It was during this period of ministry that Smyres took his first around the world trip in 1957. He retired from the board in 1964.

The year after his retirement from the Board of Missions, Roy and and Esther Smyres volunteered to become missionaries to India and Nepal. They also traveled around the world for a second time, and that trip resulted in the production of more than six thousand photographic images.

Smyres remained active in church work on many different levels after retirement. He spoke, wrote, and freelanced as a photographer for the Mission Board and other religious organizations from 1966 to 1973.

Esther Montgomery Smyres died on July 2, 1972. Despite the loss, Roy Smyres later took his third trip around the world.

Mary Fraley and Roy Smyres were married on October 13, 1973. Smyres continued freelance photography and journalism for various religious organizations. The Protestant Church in Kathmandu in Nepal called Smyres to be an interim pastor for three months in 1974.

Upon his return from Nepal in 1975, Smyres developed a slide lecture about Nepal, and proceeded to speak about the country across the United States. During that same year, Smyres made his fourth and final around the world trip. It was Mary's first. Mary and Roy Smyres settled in Cayuga Heights, New York, until 1992, when they moved to nearby Bethany Manor.

Nell Smyres died on November 19, 1977, at the age of eighty-six

Eventually, Smyres visited eighty-five different countries during his lifetime. Many of these trips were to visit mission centers of the United Methodist Church. From the late 1970s and early 1980s, , Smyres focused on writing and publishing, and began to write his autobiography. He also continued to keep an active speaking calendar until 1981.

Smyres continued to be active in church work until 1989. He died on September 7, 1994, at 98. His final act of charity was manifested by donating his body to medical science.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1867, Laura Marsden White (1867-1937) was a missionary to China for about 43 years of her life. Her work there included teaching, translating, writing, editing a magazine, and organizing schools.

Before her work as a missionary, White taught in public schools in Philadelphia for five years, then attended Wellesley and Chicago Training School, graduating in 1890 with a B.H.

She sailed for China in 1891 under the auspices of the Philadelphia branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and taught school in Chinkiang. Then in 1907 she moved to Nanking, where she was given the task of turning the school there into a college. In 1912, the first building for the junior college in Nanking was dedicated. In 1915, this school merged with several different denominational mission institutions to become Ginling College.

White was chosen in 1912 by the Christian Literature Society in China to edit The Woman's Messenger, one of the first missionary literary projects developed for women. In 1915, she moved to Shanghai to work full-time with the Christian Literature Society. White retired from mission work in 1934, and died in 1937.

Willard Edwin Graves (1880-1966), an American missionary and educator, was born in Oak Hill, Clay County, Kansas, on April 5, 1880. His wife, Almyra Alford Graves was born in Beloit, Kansas, on May 31, 1884. Both graduated in June 1907 from Kansas Wesleyan University and were married that same month.

Willard and Almyra Graves were commissioned by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church to serve as teaching missionaries in Rangoon, Burma beginning in 1908. Willard taught and later served as principal of the Methodist Episcopal Church School for Boys in Rangoon. Almyra suffered ill health and returned home for a year. She returned to Burma, but her health deteriorated again, which necessitated their final departure for the United States in 1913. She died on July 7, 1914.

Following his wife's death, Graves earned his master of arts degree at the University of Chicago. He never returned to the mission field, though he remained an ardent supporter of missions all of his life. He married Edna B. Murphy in 1915. They had four children. He continued to teach in Kansas and Colorado, and later became a sales representative for a company that published textbooks in New York. He died in Milwaukee on December 10, 1966.

Lucretia Rose Shearouse Thomason (1937-2001), American United Methodist layperson, was born to Herbert Samuel and Eula Mary Bennett Shearouse in Brooks County, Georgia, on March 2, 1937. She lived and worked in Georgia, Florida and in Virginia. During her career in education, she taught students from the elementary through the graduate level. Thomason earned degrees in English (B.A. 1958) and Education (M.A.T. 1973) from Emory University and the University of Florida (Ed.D. 1979). Thomason is the author of professional and other articles, poetry, fiction, and a memoir.

Thomason was an active layperson in the general, jurisdiction, annual conference and local church levels. When she volunteered to serve on the many different boards, agencies and various ministries confronting the church it was a time of great social change, especially the Women’s Movement. It is in this area that Thomason found her voice for change within the United Methodist Church. Thomason served as an officer on both the General Commission on the Status of Women (COSROW) and United Methodist Women Caucus(UMWC). Her stint at COSROW lasted from 1976-1980 where she served as vice-president, Chair of the Task Force for Women and Planning Committee and member on both the Nominating and Legislative Committees. It was during this time that Thomason developed a close, lifelong relationship with then General Secretary Nancy Grissom Self.

Thomason, with Judy Leaming-Elmer created and organized the United Methodist Women’s Caucus (UMWC) in 1971 as a result feeling frustrated at their standing as both women and clergy spouses within the denomination. As a result of their meeting and close friendship, a formidable force for women’s rights crashed upon the shores of United Methodism. By 1972, the United Methodist Women’s Caucus was organized which pushed and resulted in major role changes for women’s roles within the denomination on all levels. This was accomplished through the various levels of the United Methodist Connection which is made manifest in the legislative changes adopted by various General Conferences of this time period. As an effect of her work with COSROW and UMWC, Thomason was invited in 1978 to serve on the Board of Higher Education and Ministries’ Commission to Study the Itineracy in order to speak on the issues facing contemporary clergy wives’ concerns and frustrations dealing with the appointment process that required many moves and larger parsonage related matters.

Rose was married for forty-two years and, with her husband, the Reverend Robert Thomason. They have two sons, Mark and Bryan, and seven grandchildren. Rose Thomason died on April 8, 2001.

Ethel Glyde Anderson (nee Lea) (1897-1961) was born March 7, 1897 in Erie, Pennsylvania, and later moved with her family to Elgin, Illinois. She was educated at Elgin High School; Elgin Junior College; and Northwestern University. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and an accomplished musician. She joined the First Methodist Church in Elgin around 1909. After completing her B.S., she taught mathematics and music in high school for two years. In 1921 she was appointed missionary to China by the United Evangelical Church, and in 1922 married H. C. Anderson. She returned to the United States with her husband. She died in 1961.

John Emory Godbey, American Methodist preacher, teacher, editor, and author, was born August 11, 1839, in Casey County, Kentucky. He was educated in private schools. His education at St. Charles College, in St. Charles, Missouri, was interrupted by the Civil War. The college was seized by Union troops.

He joined the St. Louis Annual Conference in 1859. Godbey married Mary S. Halloway on November 2, 1865. She died in 1910. He then married Martha Virginia Dunnavant in 1911.

In 1867, while stationed in Washington, Missouri, Godbey opened a private high school, his first educational venture. After two years as presiding elder, he was appointed to First Methodist Episcopal Church, South and afterward to Cook Avenue Church, both in St. Louis.

While in St. Louis, Godbey played an important part in establishing the Southwestern Methodist in 1882. He was elected editor, and served in this post until it was combined with The St. Louis Christian Advocate in 1890. He was then appointed to the presiding eldership of the Kansas City District and served until 1894, when he was elected editor of The Arkansas Methodist in Little Rock. While editing that paper, he was sometime professor of philosophy at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. He served in these roles until 1905. He returned to the St. Louis Annual Conference in 1910 and was stationed in Kirkwood, Missouri. He died on February 29, 1932, at the age of 92.

Augustus Waldo Drury (1851-1935), Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History at Bonebrake Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, served as the denominational historian during his lifetime. He had a number of academic interests, most notably in theology, history, and later in his career he was interested in secularization, the local histories of Dayton, Ohio area, and William James. Drury is most well known for his biography on Otterbien as well as his three volume history of the United Brethren Church in Christ; Drury received high praise from his denomination for these works.

Drury was a husband and father and had an avid correspondence with a significant number of persons related to the United Brethren Church in Christ. He would regularly receive questions regarding lineage in families and church relations, as well as financial histories--such as a minister's salary at a particular church.

Dorothy A. Nyland (1905-2008), born on April 15, 1905 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Henry T. and Christine Nyland, was a staff member for the Women’s Society of Christian Service in multiple departments. Serving for fourteen years as the Secretary of Student Work for the Women’s Division of Christian Service of the Methodist Board of Missions, Nyland advocated for peace through her work in race relations and had a hand in developing Christian student leaders through her work with Christian youth. The Dorothy Nyland papers are comprised of writings, seminars, informational files, photographs, and correspondences.

Nyland worked for three years as a teacher for Cleveland Public Schools. In the 1930s, she began her work with the Methodist Church. From 1930 to 1936, holding the position of Director of Student Activities at the Wesley Foundation of the University of Oregon. From there, Nyland moved on to be the Director of Christian Education at the Cleveland Church Federation for six years. In 1943, she moved to Houston, Texas to be the Director of Christian Education at the First Methodist Church. In 1945, Nyland left Houston for New York City, to work as the Secretary of Student Work for the Women’s Division of Christian Service of the Methodist Board of Missions. After fourteen years at this position, she moved back to Cleveland, Ohio, to take care of her elderly parents in 1959 and took the position of Secretary of Promotion at the Women’s Guild Evangelical and Reformed Church. After three years there, in 1962, she left to become the Director of Christian Education at the Bethany Presbyterian Church. During her time in Cleveland, Nyland also worked as the Director of Christian Education at the Franklin Circle Christian Church. After almost two and a half years at Bethany Presbyterian Church, she left in 1965 to be the Director of Peace on Earth for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Santa Barbara, California, for a year.

During her time working, Nyland made multiple trips to different countries. She took a three month trip to Asia during 1935, spent a summer in Europe in 1939, visited Mexico in 1942, and Puerto Rico in 1948, went on a sabbatical for three months in 1951 to travel around the world, and visited Latin America in 1969. While in Europe in 1951, Nyland was a leader at the First World Conference of Christian Youth in Amsterdam, Holland. In 1957, she attended the World Student Christian Federation meeting in Bossey, Switzerland. Nyland spent a month in 1958 in the Soviet Union with a Peace Group and in 1966 she went on a Study Tour with a Methodist group to Czechoslovakia. Nyland was also a member of the district cabinet of the Epworth League in Cleveland, and director of the Epworth League and young people’s work in the Philadelphia Conference.

Throughout her life, Nyland advocated for peace through her pioneering work in race relations, and had a hand in developing Christian student leaders. She worked closely with Christian youth and traveled extensively around the world, visiting sixty-three countries, as well as all fifty states in the United States. Nyland was the author of multiple newspaper articles and pamphlets, as well as the program guide that accompanied the missionary education movement’s textbook, The Trumpet of the Prophecy by Richard Baker. She was known as the “Epistle Packing Mama” among students because she received extensive world-wide mail.

After retiring on April 15, 1969, she was chosen as the chairman of the Women’s Committee of the Cleveland Chapter of UNICEF. Nyland passed away on April 4, 2008, just eleven days shy of her 103rd birthday at Wesley Glen Retirement Community in Columbus, Ohio.