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Richard Heber Bennett (1866-1945) was a pastor, moral reform leader, and author. He attended private schools in Richmond and Ashland, Virginia. He received a B.A. in 1883 and am M.A. in 1885 from Randolph- Macon College. From 1883 to 1885 he was an assistant professor at Randolph- Macon. Hebrew was his field of post graduate work. In 1895 he married Mamie Bruce. They had four children.

Bennett was the principal of Woodbourne Academy in Louisa, Virginia from 1885 to 1888. During 1889, he was principal of Spring City, Tennessee, High School. Later that year he was licensed to preach. In November 1889, he joined the Virginia Conference and was assigned to Washington Street in Richmond.

Between 1892 and 1893 Bennett attended Princeton Theological Seminary. He returned to Virginia in the summer of 1893 and worked in the West Mathews Circuit. He was then assigned to Trinity Church in Richmond. After a brief time in the Baltimore Conference, Bennett returned to Richmond in 1894. Later that year he was transferred to Farmville and Norfolk.

Bennett pastored the McKendree Church in Norfolk from 1894 to 1899 and the St. James Church in Richmond from 1900 to 1901. In 1901 he was re-assigned to Norfolk. At the Conference of 1902, he was appointed presiding elder of the Richmond District. Bennett held this position for a year, and then went to Randolph-Macon College to become professor of moral philosophy. During his four years at Randolph- Macon, Bennett became the Virginia State Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League.

In 1907, he left his administrative post and returned to the pastorate at the Court Street Church in Lynchburg. After four years he left that church and became the conference's missionary secretary for three years.

During his time at Lynchburg the donated $20,000 to their missionary offering which went to the construction of a building at Soochow University in China.

In 1914, the General Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected Bennett secretary of ministerial supply and training. During this time, he also oversaw the correspondence school at Emory University in Atlanta.

In 1926, he was elected field agent for the southern states of the Anti- Saloon League of America. A year later he was elected president of Lander College in Greenwood, South Carolina, a position he held for five years. He returned to his pastoral duties in 1932 at Portsmouth, Virginia. This was followed by appointments at Norfolk and Lawrenceville, Virginia. He retired in 1936.

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.