Disciples Divinity House

K. Everett Munson, Honorary Trustee for Life, died at his home in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, on his 95th birthday, May 22, 2011. He became a member of the Board of Trustees in 1966, and served as president from 1975-77 and 1986-89. For thirty-six years he was minister of First Christian Church of Maywood, Illinois. Near at hand to the Disciples Divinity House, he gave financial and development leadership to the Board of Trustees, and he was a beloved and influential teaching pastor for many House Scholars. He was a leader in the community and in Chicago and Illinois churches. One testimony to the significance and spirit of his leadership was the honorary doctorate granted by Eureka College, where he was a trustee, in 1959.

Born on May 22, 1916, in Galesburg, Illinois, he and his four younger sisters grew up in Monmouth, Illinois. He received his BA at Monmouth College in 1940. On their wedding day in 1940, Everett Munson and Virginia Leonard were both ordained to the ministry in the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. That fall, he began his studies at the University of Chicago as a Disciples House Scholar, eventually earning his BD. He served as pastor of numerous rural Illinois congregations, including Coldbrook, where he and Virginia served from 1940-44, and Mt. Morris, where they served from 1944-1949. In December, 1950, they accepted the call to Maywood. In their semi-retirement, the Munsons served several Chicago-area congregations as interim pastors.

Everett Munson was predeceased by Virginia Munson in 1998, and by three of his sisters. He is survived by a sister and a sister-in-law, and by his three children and their spouses, Dorothy (Munson) Steele and her husband Claude Steele, Carolyn (Munson) Gray and her husband Richard Gray, and Karl L. Munson and his wife Meg Munson, and by grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 26, at the Hoover Hall Memorial Chapel at 900 N Main, Monmouth, IL. Visitation will be at 1:00 pm. Interment will be at the cemetery following the memorial service.