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Marjorie Swank Matthews (1916-1986), first female bishop consecrated in The United Methodist Church, was born circa July 11, 1916 to Jess A. and Mae (Chapman) Swank. Before entering the ministry, Matthews was secretary and assistant treasurer for an automotive parts corporation. Matthews began her ministry in 1959 at Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church in Michigan. She was ordained as a local elder in 1965. Matthews also served Pleasant Valley-Leaton, Vermontville-Gresham, Sunfield-Sebewa Center, Evart, Ashley-Bannister, and Napoleon Methodist charges, all in Michigan. While at seminary, Matthews served LeRoy and Barre Center Presbyterian Churches in New York. Matthews was received as a Full Member into the West Michigan Conference in June of 1969. In 1976, she was appointed District Superintendent of the Grand Traverse District. On July 17, 1980, Matthews was elected United Methodism's first female bishop by the North Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, she was appointed to the Wisconsin Conference, where Matthews served until her retirement in 1984. Matthews was a champion of women’s issues in the church and led many workshop for clergywomen and pastors’ wives. Matthews had a considerable academic career. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from Central Michigan University in 1967 and a Bachelor of Divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1970. Matthews received a Master of Arts in 1971 and Doctorate in Philosophy in Humanities in 1976, both from Florida State University. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled “Issues and Answers in the Book of Job and Joban Issues and Answers in Three Twentieth Century Writers: Carl Jung, Robert Frost, and Archibald Macleish." Matthews had one son, William, and three grandchildren, Robbie, Lori, and Greg. She died after a prolonged bout with cancer on June 30, 1986. Matthews is interred in the Alma Cemetery, Alma, Michigan.

Paul Stephen Mayer (1884-1962) was a missionary to Japan with the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) from 1909 until 1947. Mayer spent his childhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended college at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, graduating in 1907. He then attended Evangelical Theological Seminary at Naperville, graduating in 1909. That year he married Frances Frank, who had just completed her nurses training, and they left together for Japan that November. They lived and worked in Tsukiji until 1914 and then in Shimo-Ochiai, Shinjuku-ku. Mayer taught English for most of his years in Japan at several different schools in addition to his church work. He served as the EUB Japan Mission superintendent from 1926 until 1941. He also served as the chairman of the Japan Forward Movement. of Christ in Japan (UCC Japan) in 1941. When the Japanese government ordered all missionaries home in 1942 the Mayers refused to go, and they were eventually held in separate internment camps for a year. They were released and returned to the United States in 1944. Mayer was part of the reorganization of the Church and in the preparations for new missionaries responding to MacArthur's call for "10,000" new missionaries to Japan. Mayer worked with the Foreign Missionary Conference of North America and the Kyodan, the indigenous church of Japan, as well as his own denomination, in this role. He also helped to begin the work of rebuilding damaged or destroyed church buildings and schools. He served as the associate secretary of the National Christian Council, which replaced the United Christian Church Japan, for five years. Mayer attempted to put together a history of the Japan Mission while in retirement, but it was never finished. Mayer died in Washington, D.C., but his body was returned to Japan for burial.