David W.A. Taylor memorial service held May 27

Born in China, the son of missionary parents, he grew up in Nashville, Tenn., participating actively in the youth ministries of the churches throughout the state.
    Feeling a definite sense of divine call to ministry in the church, he studied to equip himself for ministry, following service in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II.  He graduated from Vanderbilt University (1949), Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (1952), and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey (1953).  He served as pastor of local congregations:  first in Elkton, Va., and later in Bristol, Va.  King College in Bristol awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
    In 1962, Dr. Taylor was called to an executive staff position on the Board of World Missions of the Presbyterian Church U.S. with offices in Nashville, Tenn.  In 1973, the Presbyterian Church U.S. called him to be the director of its Office of Ecumenical Coordination, based in Atlanta, Ga.  He served there for nine years (1973-1982).  Then, following a pastoral ministry in Orange Park, Fla., he was called to serve the Consultation on Church Union, an interdenominational consortium of nine major denominations in America seeking the visible unity of the churches.  Its offices were located in Princeton, N. J.  He initially served as Associate Director and subsequently as General Secretary of the Consultation for a period of seven years (1986-1993).
    Dr. Taylor is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, the Rev. Lillian McCulloch Taylor; their two adult children: the Rev. Dr. Frances Taylor Gench and her husband, the Rev. Dr. Roger J. Gench, of Washington, D.C.; and Dr. David W.A. Taylor Jr. and his wife, E.B. Taylor, of Greensboro, N. C.;  two grandchildren, D. Wyatt A. Taylor III, and Anne Preston Taylor; and by a sister, Margaret Taylor Kiemele.
    The memorial service was held at Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, N. C. on May 27, 2010. Burial was in Elizabethtown, N. C.
    The Presbyterian Outlook expresses deep sympathy to the Taylor family for their great loss, especially to Lillian McCulloch Taylor who served as the magazine’s book editor for many years.