Rev. Cecil E. Chapin - Florida

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Rev. Cecil E. Chapin 76, of Wimauma, Fla., formerly of Benton Harbor, Mich., died July 14, 2003. Funeral services were conducted July 18, 2003 by the pastor at the Wimauma Church of God. Burial was in Wimauma.

Rev. Chapin was born in Carlisle, to John and Lela Chapin, Sept. 19, 1926. He graduated from Leachville High School in 1944. He then studied at Lee College in Cleveland, Tenn. In 1948 he came to Benton Harbor and built the first Church of God in the Twin Cities and started a radio Christian broadcast at 19 years of age. He built a church on Midway Drive and than built a larger church on Crystal Avenue at which time he became an ordained minister and pastor of the Crystal Avenue Church for 12 years and also served as a justice of the peace in Benton Harbor. He then became pastor of the Churches of God in Detroit, Mich., and became overseer of all the Churches of God in Canada. In 1968 he retired and moved to Wimauma, where he became a realtor and a licensed real estate agent. There he was able to minister as a loving, kind father and person to his family and friends. His greatest love was God and the church.

Survivors include his daughter, Donna (Gary) Ball; sisters, Helen Wolford Craven (George), Dorothy (Virgil) Avery and Wanda Faye (James) Avery; three grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a niece, Kathy (Wolford) Brutsche; and nephew, Roy Wolford Jr.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Earl.

Memorials may be made to the Leachville Church of God Cecil E. Chapin Educational Center.