The Garden City Telegram

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The Rev. Howard West

Published 2/4/2010 in Obituaries

The Rev. Howard Wendell West, 84, died Monday, Feb. 1, 2010, at Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice in Wichita.

He was born Feb. 22, 1925, in Deerfield, to Frank G. and Nellie West. He grew up in Deerfield and graduated from Garden City High School in 1943.

A retired elder of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, he began his preaching career in June 1944 in Minneola, became associate minister in Arkansas City in 1947 and graduated from Southwestern College at Winfield in 1948. After serving in Rozel from 1948 to 1950, he enrolled in Iliff School of Theology in Denver and served area churches. After receiving his Master of Theology degree, he returned to Kansas and served at Rush Center/Nekoma, Hill City and Dawson in Wichita. From 1965 to 1970, he was the associate program director of the Nebraska Annual Conference Program Council. From 1970 to 1976, he was an associate pastor at Good Shepherd UMC in Colorado Springs and Longmont UMC in Colorado. After serving one year as the first full-time pastor at Rinn UMC in Colorado, he moved to Pennsylvania in 1977 and served Morgan Run Charge, McVeytown, Lewistown and Benton, where he retired in 1995. After retirement, he served the Petersburg Charge for three years.

After the death of his wife, Sue Funk Haney, whom he had married in 1970, he married Gweneth McDonald Reeder on Jan. 1, 1998, in Alexandria, Pa., and moved back to Kansas in August 1998. For 10 years, he lived in Caldwell and served as chairman of the board at the Caldwell Senior Center for several years. He had resided at Grassland Estates since May 2008. He became active in the Wichita Area Retired Ministers, serving as chairman of the local group and of the Kansas West Conference Retirees.

Survivors include his wife, of Wichita; his daughters, Gweneth West, Jolene West Webb, Lori West Vernon and Rebekah Howe; a stepdaughter, Kay Denton; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; two brothers, Kenneth West of Nashville, Tenn., and Duane West of Garden City; a sister, Janice Lee of Manhattan; and his former wife, Helen Counsell. He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Madison West; and a daughter, Mari Sue Crowley.

A memorial service will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday at Caldwell United Methodist Church, with the Revs. Jan McDaniel and Steve Allen officiating. Burial will be in Bloomsburg, Pa., after memorial services at the United Methodist Church in Danville, Pa.

Memorials are suggested to Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, 313 S. Market St., Wichita, KS 67202-3805; Caldwell United Methodist Church, 110 W. Central, Caldwell, KS 67022; or to the Caldwell UMC for Camp Horizon.

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