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Paul Bentley Kern (1882-1953), American bishop, was born on June 16, 1882 in Alexandria, Virginia. He began his college career at Randolph-Macon College, where his father, John A. Kern, was a professor. After one year of study, Kern transferred to Vanderbilt University and received two degrees: B.A. in 1902 and B.D. in 1905. He was then admitted into the Tennessee Annual Conference in 1905 and served two years as an instructor for the Correspondence School for Ministers while teaching at Vanderbilt and simultaneously serving various local churches. He married Lucy Gorhall Campbell of Nashville, Tennessee, on June 11, 1907. They had three children.

When Southern Methodist University was established in 1915, he became the professor of English as well as Bible and homiletics. By 1920, he was dean of the theological department. In 1926, he went back into the pastoral ministry, and was appointed to the Travis Park Church in San Antonio, Texas. Kern was elected to the episcopacy for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1930. Bishop Kern served in the China from 1930 to 1934.

From 1934 to 1938 he was bishop for both the North and South Carolina areas. In 1938, he was appointed to the Nashville Area with Tennessee, Holston, Florida, and Cuban conferences under his supervision. He was active in the unification of the three Methodist bodies which came together in 1939. Kean also helped in the consolidation of the Epworth League and Sunday School Boards into the Board of Education. Other areas of influence include the Youth Caravan Movement, the Crusade for Christ, and higher education in Methodism. He was chairperson of the board of trustees of Scarritt College. He wrote the Episcopal Address for the General Conference of 1952 which was held in San Francisco. Besides being an author and guest lecturer, he was also a member of many boards and agencies of the Methodist Church and a delegate to the World Council of Churches in 1948. He died on December 16, 1953, at Vanderbilt Hospital, and is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery in Nashville.

Cyrus Jeffries Kephart (1852-1932), American Bishop was born in Decatur, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1852 to Reverend Henry and Sarah Kephart. He attended Western College from 1869 to 1874 where he graduated the valedictorian. During his time at Western he entered the ministry in 1871 and married, Sarah Perry, in 1873. He began his ministry in Toledo, Iowa but quickly moved to Dayton, Ohio where he entered Union Biblical Seminary. During this period of his ministry he served as pastor of the Ludlow Street United Brethren Church in Dayton. He graduated Union Biblical Seminary in 1878 and was ordained by Bishop Milton Wright the following year.

Following his completion of training at Union Biblical Seminary he became the principal, and later president, of Avalon Academy (College) in Avalon, Missouri. He remained here until 1885, when after a sabbatical, he and his family returned to Toledo, where he became employed by Western College. For the next twenty years Cyrus Kephart moved back and forth between the clergy and academe. During this time he served as pastor of the East Side United Brethren Church, Summit Park United Brethren Church, in Des Moines, Iowa and in Lisbon, Iowa. He also served as the General Secretary of the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association from 1894 to 1897. In academe, Kephart for a second time was president of Avalon College and Western College, which during his time became Leander Clark College in 1905.

In 1908, Cyrus Kephart became the pastor of the First United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio. Serving with distinction, he was elected to the office of Bishop in 1913 by the United Brethren General Conference, held in Decatur, Illinois. Afterward he was supervisor of the Southwest District from 1913 to 1925. He retired from active ministry in 1825 and continued to live in Kansas City, Missouri until his death on July 20, 1932.

His published works include: Jesus the Nazarene (1894), The Life of Jesus for Children, The Public Life of Christ, What is a Christian? (1910), Jesus Lord and Teacher (1913), Christianity and the Social Weal (1914), with Dr. W.R. Funk, The Life of Isaiah L. Kephart (1909), and numerous other articles.

*Biographical Information from:

Koontz, Paul Rodes and Roush, Walter Edwin. The Bishops: Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Dayton: Otterbein Press, 1950.