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Raymond J. Wade (1875-1970), American Bishop, was born in LaGrange, Indiana, on May 29, 1875. He was educated at DePauw University and held honorary degrees from DePauw University, Taylor University, and Albion College. Wade joined the North Indiana Conference in 1894 and had pastorates in several Indiana churches. From 1915 to 1920 he was district superintendent of the Goshen District. Wade also served as corresponding secretary of the Commission on Conservation and Advance (1920-1924), was executive secretary of World Service Commission (1924-1928), and was secretary of the Methodist Episcopal General Conference (1920-1928).

Elected bishop in 1928, Wade was assigned to the Stockholm area which included the entire Kingdom of Sweden at that time. While in Europe, he was president of the University of Scandinavia's School of Theology at Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1928 to 1939. Wade supervised the work of the Methodist Church in several European countries until his return to the United States in 1940. He retired in 1948 after eight years of service to churches in the Detroit area. Wade died in 1970.

Myrtle L. Wade (1889-1969) was president of the World Federation of Methodist Women during the time her husband, Bishop Raymond J. Wade, was in Sweden. Myrtle Wade was the second wife of Bishop Wade. They were married in 1913.

Emily Smith (1865-1963) was an English born missionary who served in northern Africa. She began her mission work in 1892 with Dora Welch under the auspices of the English Society North Africa Mission. In 1908 they transferred to the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Smith and Welch did evangelistic and educational work with Moslems in Kabylia and Algiers until their retirement in 1933 whereupon they returned to England. The history of their work is recounted in Stranger Than Fiction: Adventure in a Moslem Land, a book they co- authored.

The idea for the World Federation of Methodist Women (W.F.M.W.) began in 1923 when Ohio Wesleyan University student Helen Kim, later President of Ewha University in Seoul, Korea, was asked to speak before the Des Moines, Iowa, branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. During her preparation she had a vision of a world fellowship of Christian women. When she presented her address entitled, "To the Women of the World," Kim outlined her plan to bring together delegates from all kinds of women's international organizations.

In 1927 during the tenth anniversary celebration of the China Woman's Society, Chinese women began to develop plans for an international organization. Two years later the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society acted on the plan and organized its International Department. On October 26, 1939, the first assembly of the W.F.M.W. met with delegates from twenty- seven lands signing the charter and constitution. The W.F.M. W. was officially recognized by the 1940 General Conference of the Methodist Church. Other assemblies were held in 1944, 1948, and 1952. Reorganization took place in 1956, and a new constitution was signed by forty-one units. At that time the W.F.M.W. became affiliated with the World Methodist Council and continued to advocate for women and provide leadership and training.

Philip William Otterbein (1726-1813) was born June 3, 1726 in Dillenburg, Germany. In 1748 he was approved a candidate for ministry and was ordained in 1749. He volunteered to go to American to fill vacant pulpits among the German Reformed in 1752. He was soon called to the congregation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He married Susan LeRoy of Lancaster, in 1762. She died in 1768 and he remained a widower for the rest of his life. In 1767 he attended a meeting where he heard Martin Boehm, Mennonite bishop, preach. This occasion began a friendship which furnished roots for a religious movement that eventually was to culminate in the formation of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Perhaps at the urging of Francis Asbury, Otterbein assumed charge of an independent Reformed congregation in Baltimore, Maryland in 1774. A close friendship developed between Asbury and Otterbein. Never intending to begin a new church, Otterbein and a group of laymen and ministers began to meet regularly for greater spirituality and inward piety. This eventually resulted in a breakaway and the formation of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Otterbein and Boehm became its first bishops. Otterbein participated in Asbury's consecration and ordination as bishop December 27, 1784 in Baltimore, Maryland. Otterbein never fully recovered from a serious illness in 1805. He remained in Baltimore until his death on November 17, 1813.

Ira Franklin Bergstresser (1872-1942) was an Evangelical Church pastor in the East Pennsylvania Conference.

He was born December 1, 1872 in Lower Saucon Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. to Abrahm T. and Susannah L. Bergstresser.

In 1900, he married Carrie Grace Newhart. They had four children. Carrie Bergstresser died in 1926, and Franklin married Katie B. Marxen in 1928.

His education was first in the public schools and later at the Academy at Springtown. He attended the Normal School in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, after which he taught school. Later, he received a B.S. from Illinois Wesleyan University, and in 1941 received the doctor of divinity degree from Albright College.

Bergstresser was licensed to preach in 1896 by the East Pennsylvania Conference. In 1898 he was ordained Deacon and later Elder by Bishop Thomas Bowman, and served the following appointments: Berlinsville Circuit, Hegins and Reiner City, Pottsville, Slatington, Allentown (Ebenezer), Bangor, Lebanon, Pen Argyl, Allentown (Salem), Bethlehem (St. John), and Mohnton.

He also served the conference in various other capacities. He was a member of the Board of Examiners; served as assistant secretary of the conference; and later as its secretary. He was president of the Conference Missionary Society for eight years, and served as a member of the Conference Church Extension Society. He was secretary of the Forward Movement in his conference. In 1933 he was elected District Superintendent and stationed on the Eastern district. In 1935, his conference elected him to membership on the Board of Trustees of Albright College, and in this connection he served as member of the Committee on Administration for the Evangelical School of Theology.

From 1920 to 1928 he was the delegate from his conference to the General Board of Missions. He was a delegate to the General Conferences of 1919, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, and 1938. For twelve years he was a member of the executive committee of the Board of Church Extension. In 1926, he was appointed to the Commission on Church Merger, and served as secretary of the Commission. In 1934 and 1938 he was elected secretary of the General Conference of the Evangelical Church. His writings include a series of articles on "The Great Religions of the World," which appeared in the Sunday school publications. He also wrote Expositions of the Sunday School Lessons for Teachers' and pupils' materials. He died February 26, 1942.

Matthew Walker Clair, Jr. (1890-1968) was a Methodist Church bishop. He received his B.A. from Howard University in 1915, a bachelor of sacred theology from Boston University in 1918, and a doctor of divinity from Gammon Seminary in 1936.

Clair's first appointment was to Bedford, Virginia in 1918, and this was followed by appointments in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1919; Roanoke, Virginia, in 1920; Daytona Beach, Florida (1924-1925); and Denver, Colorado (1925-1928). In 1929 he was appointed to the Board of Home Missions. Clair was professor of Practical Theology at Gammon Theological Seminary from 1936 until 1940, when he became pastor at St. Mark Church in Chicago.

During World War I Clair served as a United States Army chaplain. Elected to the episcopacy by the Central Jurisdictional Conference in 1952, he was sent by the Council of Bishops to review and appraise Methodist work in several parts of the world. He visited Africa in 1954, Singapore in 1956, Central and South America in 1958, and Europe in 1961

Clair was a member of several church wide organizations. He also served as president of the Board of Trustees of Philander Smith College. In 1964, after eight years as the bishop in charge of the work of the Central Jurisdiction, Clair retired.

Thomas C. Nixon (1793-1872), an American minister, was born on October 22, 1793, in the Kershaw District of South Carolina. While he was still young, he and his family moved to Tennessee and settled on Duck River in Maury County. His parents were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and his father was a local preacher.

In 1810, Nixon had a spiritual awakening and joined the Church at Mount Pisgah. The Tennessee Annual Conference licensed Nixon to preach and admitted him on trial, November 1, 1812. In 1813, the annual conference appointed him to the Cumberland District, Somerset charge. Bishop Francis Asbury ordained Nixon a deacon in the following year he was appointed to the Illinois District and served at New Madrid. Nixon traveled for three years in the Tennessee Conference before being appointed in 1815 to the Wilkinson Circuit in the Mississippi Territory. The year proved to be a busy appointment for Nixon. Another appointment to both the Holston District and the Wilkinson District while stationed at Lee added to his responsibilities. The following year, 1816, became a pivotal year for both Nixon and Mississippi Methodism.

Due to church growth, the General Conference divided the Tennessee Annual Conference to form a separate Mississippi Annual Conference. The new annual conference covered Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Nixon and eight other circuit riders became the clergy foundation of the new annual conference. Bishop Richard Roberts ordained Nixon as a full elder with all the rights, duties, and privileges granted a minister in full connection. Roberts would appoint him to the Wilkinson (1817), Louisiana District-Attakapas charge (1818), Mississippi District–Amite (1819), and Alabama (1819).

The 1821 Mississippi Annual Conference minutes records Nixon's appointment to the Alabama District, Cahawba charge but also its presiding elder. This is the last time Nixon’s name appeared on the conference appointment list until his expulsion in 1823. Nixon’s journal records the suspension from his official office in the church. The journal also tells a story of sorrow during the same year.

Despite the disconcerting pause in Nixon’s ministerial career, his personal life had positive moments. He married Elizabeth Rawles on May 9, 1824. The couple had eleven children before Elizabeth died during the birth of her twelfth child on May 3, 1846. During this period the Nixon family settled on a farm in Hinds County, Mississippi, where he lived the rest of his life. Despite the disconcerting pause in Nixon’s ministerial career, his personal life had positive moments. He married Elizabeth Rawles on May 9, 1824. The couple had eleven children before Elizabeth died during the birth of her twelfth child on May 3, 1846. During this period the Nixon family settled on a farm in Hinds County, Mississippi, where he lived the rest of his life. Nixon’s journal indicates that the plantation produced mostly corn and cotton crops through the labor of enslaved people.

By 1832, Nixon is readmitted for the first time into the Mississippi Annual Conference. For the next five years, his ministry included the following appointments: Washington District-Bayou Pierre charge (1833), Vicksburg District-Madison and Raymond charges (1834-1836). Once more he locates by the 1837 Mississippi Annual Conference. Before his second readmission to the annual conference, he marries Cynthia Dean. During the 1866 Mississippi Annual Conference, Nixon is readmitted and for the next five years serving at Brookhaven District-Crystal Springs and the Vicksburg District-Cayuga charges.

Nixon retires in 1871 to resume life outside the ministry. However, retirement is short as he dies on March 4, 1872.

Colin Wilbur Williams (1921-2000), a Methodist Church Minister, was born in Victoria, Australia. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Wesley College, Melbourne University before entering Drew University in 1947 in pursuit of a Bachelor of Divinity degree which he earned--summa cum laude--in 1950. He then returned to serve the Methodist Church in Melbourne from 1952 to 1954 before continuing his studies towards a Ph. D. degree at Drew Theological Seminary in 1954. It was during this period--1955 to 1958--that Williams taught historical theology at Garrett Theological Seminary and also lectured at Drew Theological Seminary. Upon completion of his Ph. D. in June, 1958, Williams once again returned to Australia where he was appointed Professor of Theology at Queens College, Melbourne University. He served in this capacity from 1959 to 1962, leaving to join the National council of Churches in Christ in 1963 as Executive Director of the Central Department of Evangelism. Among his most notable professional accomplishments was his position as tenured faculty in the Yale Divinity School where he also served as Dean from 1969 to 1979. After his ten year service as dean, Dr. Williams continued to teach at Yale until 1983 when he was appointed the first Exectutive Vice President at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. He has been recognized and honored by Yale for the "extraordinary contributions" to the Yale Divinity School and by Drew University because of his "extraordinary range of accomplishments." Among his numerous publications are John Wesley's Theology Today, 1960, Where in the World, 1963, and What in the World, 1965. Dr. Williams married Phyllis Miller in 1949. They have three daughters.

Charles Warren Brewbaker (1869-1960) was born October 18, 1869 at State Line, Pennsylvania. On August 30, 1899 he married Nellie M. Stokes. Two daughters were born of their marriage. He was educated at the West Virginia Normal Academy in Buckhannon, the Western College in Toledo, Iowa and the Union BIblical seminary. He also earned the STM and PH.D degrees from the Illinois Wesleyan University. Brewbaker was ordained by the Iowa Conference of the United Brethren Church in 1893. His pastoral appointments included United Brethren Churches in Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In 1913, he was elected by the General Conference of his denomination to serve as General Secretary of the Sunday School and Brotherhood work. From 1929 until 1933 he served as Secretary of Evangelism. After this assignment he was appointed pastor of the United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio. He served there until his retirement in 1939. Brewbaker was a prolific writer, authoring twelve books and many articles in the areas of Christian Education, Evangelism, and Churchmanship. He traveled nationally and internationally representing the church in the interest of Christian Education. Brewbaker died on May 11, 1960 at the age of 91.

George Edward Epp (1885-1970) was an Evangelical United Brethren bishop and administrator. He was recommended to the ministry by the congregation in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Epp received his theological education at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville, Illinois. Following graduation, he was ordained and received into membership in the Wisconsin Conference of the Evangelical Association.

In 1921, he became executive secretary of the Missionary Society of the Evangelical Association. He was reelected to that office in 1922, following the merger of the United Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Association. He remained executive secretary of the Missionary Society until 1930, when he was elected bishop, a position he held for twenty-eight years. Epp retired in 1958.

James Jolene Loomis (1830-1871), Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Minister, was born in Newark, New Jersey. He moved to Albion, Michigan as a child where he stayed until he finished college. Loomis then taught for one year in Missouri before moving to Columbus, Texas to take a position with the County Clerk's Office. He joined the 21st Texas Volunteer Infantry at the start of the Civil War as a Methodist Episcopal Church South chaplain. After the war he became a school teacher in Columbus, Texas until 1867 when his wife, Mary Elizabeth Loomis died. He then moved himself and his children to Galveston, Texas where he taught school at the local Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was ordained by Bishop William May Wightman, he appears to be a local ordained minister. In 1870 he moved to Goliad, Texas and became the headmaster of the Paine Female Institute, a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Women's College. He was also a Freemason, belonging to the Caledonia Lodge in Columbus, Texas. His daughter, Luna M. Branch joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South as a missionary immediately after his death in 1871.

John Dreisbach (1789-1871) was an Evangelical Association minister and co-laborer of Jacob Albright. He was born in Buffalo Valley, Union County, Pennsylvania in 1789. He married Catherine Eyer and, after Catherine died, married her sister, Fanny. There were thirteen natural children and one adopted child in the Dreisbach household.

Dreisbach was the first presiding elder of the Evangelical Association, and served as an itinerant preacher until his health forced him to locate in local congregations. He was instrumental in setting up the publishing interests for the Association in New Berlin, Pennsylvania. Dreisbach served as editor of the Evangelical Messanger.

By 1827, Driesbach had moved to Ohio to oversee the Association's work in what was known then as the Western Conference. He died on August 20, 1871 and was buried near Circleville, Ohio.