The Rev. Dr. Arthur Piper Jr. of New Hope Baptist Church in Gretna dies
January 04, 2011 Times Picayune
Submitted by N.O.V.A.


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The Rev. Dr. Arthur Piper Jr., a prominent West Bank minister who founded a community center that sought to
offer help to those who would never turn to the church, died Thursday. He was 79.

Born in New Orleans, the Rev. Piper was a graduate of Southern University of New Orleans, Union Baptist
College and Theological Seminary and Dothan Bible College. He served in the Army.

As pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Gretna, the Rev. Piper saw that a number of needs in the community
were going unmet. So in 1996, he founded the William Tross Sr. Community Development and Counseling Center
in honor of New Hope’s late pastor. The center offered free family and substance abuse counseling, literacy
training and would later expand to provide an after-school tutoring and enrichment program.

He would also serve in a number of organizations including the Westside Association, the Louisiana Freedmen
Missionary Baptist General Association, Louisiana Baptist Convention, Louisiana Home and Foreign Mission and
Jefferson Parish Council on Aging. The Rev. Piper also was former chaplain at Orleans Parish Prison and the
Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna.

Survivors include his wife, Beulah T. Piper; four children, Dimitriean P. Gaines, Desserriea Piper, Arthur
Charles Piper and Andrea Piper; five stepchildren, Charlene B. Williams, Daphne Belonga, Charles Belonga,
June Mathews and Wesley Bettis Jr.; 15 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

A service will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at New Hope Baptist Church, 434 Seventh St., Gretna. Funeral
services will be Friday at 10 a.m. at St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church, 2538 Jackson Ave.,
New Orleans. Visitation will begin at 8 a.m. Burial will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery, New Orleans.

Murray Henderson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.