Obit: Dr. Merlin W. Merrill, Lincoln Parish, LA Submitted by: Dorothy Rinehart Taylor, 111 Racove Drive, West Monroe, LA 71291 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** The Ruston Daily Leader, Friday, January 21, 2000 Dr. Merlin W. Merrill Services for Dr. Merlin W. Merrill, 85, of Ruston will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 22, 2000, in the Trinity United Methodist Church Sanctuary. Officiating will be Rev. Fred Wideman assisted by Rev. Rolly Walker, Rev. Jimmy Pyles and Dr. Douglas McGuire. Private graveside services will be at Forest Lawn Cemetery, offi- ciated by Rev. James. 0. Evans. Services are under the direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home. Dr. Merrill died Thursday, January 20, 2000, in Ruston. Merlin Walter Merrill was born and reared in Nebraska, the son of a Methodist minister. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb., his Master of Divinity Degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and his Doctor of Divinity Degree from Centenary College in Shreveport. He was married to the former Evelyn Gay who was a Director of Christian Education at the time they married and who assisted him for 55 years in his ministry. He served in churches in Gurley and Blue Springs, Nebraska, Wichita Fall Texas and Cotton Valley, New Orleans, Mansfield, Minden, Lake Charles, and Ruston as well as serving as District Superintendent of the Lafayette District. After his retirement he served as pastor of the Dubach United Methodist Church and the Ansley Union Church. Before his retirement he served as chairman of the Louisiana Con- ference Boards of Pensions, Evangelism, and the Ministry. He also served as vice chairman of the Board of Education. He was a life member of the Board of Trustees of Centenary College and had served on the Boards of the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home in Ruston, the MacDonnell United Methodist Children's Services in Houma, the Sager-Brown Methodist School in Baldwin, the Dulac Cooperative Ministries in Dulac and the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation. He was a delegate to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Ark., in 1980 and reserve delegate to the United Methodist General Conference in Indianapolis, Ind., in the same year. In 1981, he served as a delegate to the World Methodist Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. He exchanged pulpits for five weeks in 1976 with a minister for the Trinity Methodist Church in Abingdon, England. In 1960 he made a mission trip with preaching appointments in San Jeronimo and Callao, Peru and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in 1966 he made a mission trip to Ketchikan, Alaska. He was preceded in death by his father, Rev. Walter H. Merrill, and his mother, Bessie L. Merrill, and his two sisters, Valeria M. Merrill and Leola Merrill Johnson. Survivors include his wife, Evelyn Merrill of Ruston; one son, Dr. Lynn Walter Merrill of Marshall, Texas; and a number of nieces and nephews. Honorary pallbearers will be Ruston Kiwanis Club members and their families and Methodist ministers and their families. Memorials may be made to the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home, Centenary College, or the church of the donor's choice. Family will receive friends from 5 until 7 p.m. Friday, January 21, 2000, at the funeral home.