Disciples Divinity House

Alumnus G. Parker Rossman died on October 18, 2013. He was 94. The following obituary is adapted from The Missourian, Columbia, Missouri.

Mr. Rossman spent his life working toward solving global problems through his work as an educator, a minister, and a futurist. After earning his BA from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, he entered the University of Chicago as a Disciples Divinity House in 1941. He earned his BD from the Divinity School in 1944, where he wrote a thesis on "The University Community and Its Churches" with Disciples sociologist Samuel C. Kincheloe. He worked with the Student Christian Movement following World War II. He lived in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked for the World Council of Churches and in Beirut, Lebanon, where he worked with the Greek Orthodox Youth Movement. He earned a PhD in Education at Yale University, and then taught at Yale Divinity School. He was a freedom rider and traveled the world often on World Council of Churches fact finding missions.

Mr. Rossman authored more than a dozen books including Hospice: New Models of Care for the Terminally Ill; After Punishment What; Family Survival; Computers: Bridges to the Future; a children's book, Pirate Slave; and two books on the future universities: The Emerging Worldwide Electronic University and his 3-volume online book, The Future of Higher (Lifelong) Education. Adopting technology early, he was frequently a keynote speaker on using computers and the internet at international conferences, especially in the area of providing worldwide education to the developing world.

Mr. Rossman is survived by his daughters Kristen, and Mary-Michelle; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jean, and his son, Terry.