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Dwight Lamar Sherertz (1893-1970) was a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, missionary to China and Africa. He received a B.A. from Roanoke College, an M.A. from Princeton University, and a honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Roanoke in 1945. Sherertz also studied at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, Columbia University, and Union Theological Seminary. In 1918 he began teaching English and religion at the junior and senior high schools in Soochow, China, a position he held until World War II when he was interned and then evacuated. Sherertz returned to China in 1945 and served as a liasison officer between Chinese and American troops. He continued to teach at Soochow University from 1946 until the Communist takeover in China in 1950. Forced to leave China, he went to Rhodesia in 1952 to work at a teacher training school and as an assistant minister until his retirement in 1957.

Margarita Mary Sherertz (1889-1973) married Dwight Lamar Sherertz in October 1919. She was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. William Hector Park and a niece of Bishop Walter R. Lambuth.

William Hector Park (1858-1927) was a Methodist Episcopal Church, South, missionary to China. He received an undergraduate degree from Emory College in 1880 and studied medicine at Vanderbilt University. He continued his medical course work at Bellevue Medical College in New York and later studied in Edinburgh, Scotland. Park arrived in China in 1882 and in the following year, with the assistance of Bishop Walter R. Lambuth, established the Soochow Hospital. He worked at the hospital for nearly forty-five years and trained many doctors. His book, "Opinions of Over One Hundred Physicians on the Use of Opium in China," published in 1899, was instrumental in stopping the British opium trade in China. Park married Nora Kate Lambuth (n.d.-1949), a sister of Bishop Lambuth. The Parks worked together at the Soochow Hosptial, and Nora Park was active in the Anti-Foot Binding Association.

William Orville Shepard (1862-1931), Methodist Episcopal Church bishop, was born at Sterling, Illinois, on April 11, 1862. He graduated from Jennings Seminary (Aurora, Illinois), DePauw University, A.B., 1885; S.T.B., 1886; then A.M., 1888; D.D., 1896; LL. D., 1912; Syracuse University, Ph.D., 1895 (hon. D.D. and LL.D.). Shepard was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church and joined the Rock River Conference in 1886. He held pastorates at Blue Island, Elgin (First Church), Rockford (Court Street), Chicago (Oakland), Evanston, and Englewood (Chicago), between 1886-1909. He served as district superintendent of the Chicago Northern District from 1909 to 1912.

Shepard was elected bishop in 1912, and his episcopal areas were: Kansas City, Kansas, 1912-1916; Wichita, Kansas, 1916-1920; and Portland, Oregon, 1920-1928, an area which included Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska. In 1928, Shepard was assigned to Paris, France. This assignment encompassed France, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, North Africa, Madeira Islands, and Liberia. He made trips to South America in 1916 and 1924, and to Europe in 1920, in order to survey post-war conditions and needs. He also made two trips into the Congo region.

William Orville Shepard married Emily Odell on August 15, 1883. The couple raised four sons. Shepard was considered a spokesman on moral questions, and in 1897 he published a book of sermons entitled "Oakland Sermons." He died November 30, 1931 at the age of sixty-nine and was buried in Mount Hope, Chicago.