Paul Arthur Washburn (1911-1989) was an American bishop and former Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) minister, and executive secretary of the Commission on Church Union of the EUB Church. He was born in Aurora, Illinois, on March 31, 1911, the son of Eliot Arthur and Lena (Burhnsen) Washburn. He was a graduate of North Central College and of Evangelical Seminary. Ordained by the Illinois Conference of The Evangelical Church, he served as pastor of congregations in Eppards Point Township, Rockford, and Naperville, Illinois. He has served on the following General Boards and Agencies of the former EUB Church: The General Program Council, Council of Administration, Council of Executive Officers, and the Commission on Church Union, of which he was the executive secretary. Bishop Washburn was a delegate to every General Conference of his Church from 1946 to 1962. He was a member of his Church's Commission on Federation and Church Union beginning in 1958, and a representative of the denomination to the Consultation on Church Union. He was a trustee of North Central College and of Evangelical Theological Seminary. He also served as Guest Lecturer in Religion and Pastoral Theology at Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois; North Central College; and Evangelical Theological Seminary. In 1959, and again in 1960, he served as Lecturer in Homiletics at the Rural Leadership School of Michigan State University. He was married to Kathryn Fischer and was the father of two daughters and two sons. At the Uniting Conferenc of the Methodist and EUB Churches held in Dallas, Texas, in 1968, Dr. Washburn was elected a bishop on the first ballot in an election held at the last session of the General Conference of the EUB Church on Monday, April 22, 1968. He was solemnly set apart that same day for the duties of the episcopacy by the bishops of the EUB Church, with Bishop Roy H. Short of the former Methodist Church participating at the invitation of the EUB bishops. Bishop Washburn was assigned to the North Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church and at the Jurisdictional Conference held at Peoria, Illinois, was assigned to the Minneapolis Area.
Elmer Talmadge Clark (1886-1966) was a pastor, newspaper correspondent, editor, publicity manager, missionary secretary, and church historian. He joined the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1909 and served pastorates in the St. Louis area. During World War II, he was a correspondent for the New York Tribune. In 1918 he became publicity and promotion director for the Missionary Centenary, a movement which raised more than fifty million dollars for home and foreign missions. He also served in a similar capacity for the Christian Education campaign.
After those campaigns Clark became editorial secretary of the Board of Missions and editor of World Outlook. In 1948 he was elected executive secretary of the Association of Methodist Historical Societies (AMHS). At Oxford, England, in 1951, he was elected secretary for the Western Hemisphere of the World Methodist Council (WMC).
Clark founded and edited World Parish, the bulletin issued jointly by these two organizations. In 1952 he resigned his office in the Board of Missions and moved to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to carry on the work of the AMHS and the WMC and to ensure the construction of the World Methodist Building. In 1961 he became secretary emeritus of the WMC.
Clark was editor-in-chief of The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury, wrote twenty-seven mission study books, thirteen volumes of The Missionary Year Book, numerous articles, and helped compile the Encyclopedia of World Methodism.