Byler, Delmar R. (1930-1997)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1997 Jun 19 p. 12

Birth date: 1930 Jan 3

text of obituary:

DELMAR R. BYLER

Delmar R. Byler, 67, died May 2, 1997, at Baptist Hospital East, Louisville, Ky., of multiple myeloma. He was born Jan 3, 1930, in Hesston, Kan., to J. N. and Edna Ruth Byler.

In 1940 he was baptized as a member of Hesston Mennonite Church. He attended Hesston Academy and in 1951 received a bachelor's degree in religious education from Hesston. He also studied law at Oklahoma City University. later, in preparation for an assignment in Hong Kong, he took intensive Chinese-language training at Yale.

After World War II, as a teenager he sailed to Poland on a Mennonite Central Committee horse boat, now known known as Heifer Project International. From 1951 to 1953 he served with MCC in Puerto Rico. For the next eight years he worked in industrial relations for Cities Service Gas Co. in Hesston, Wichita, Kan., and Oklahoma City. From 1962 to 1968 he served as field treasurer for the United Methodist Church in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When he returned to the United States, he served as treasurer of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. From 1972 to 1986 he was associate general director of Support Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) From 1986 until his retirement in 1992 he was treasurer of the Presbyterian Church, with offices in New York City, later relocated to Louisville, Ky.

Surviving are his wife Karen; two sons, Joe of Texas and John of Massachusetts, a daughter, Jeanne Fisher of Texas; two stepdaughters, Janet Carmichael of Arkansas and Jamie Cornelius of Oklahoma, a sister, Donna Lou Bender of Wichita, and six grandchildren.

Services were held at Harvey Brown Presbyterian Church in Louisville.