Headings, Richard Lee (1941-2003)

Newton Kansan obituary: 2003 June 28 p. 2

Birth date: 1941 Jun 25

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2003 Jul 21 p. 6

text of obituary:

Former S. Central Conf. minister dies in Virginia

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Richard Headings, longtime pastor and former conference minister of South Central Mennonite Conference, died of cancer June 26 at his home. He was 62.

Headings was lead pastor of Ridgeway Mennonite church. He and his wife, Dorothy, moved to Harrisonburg in July 2000 from Kansas, where he had served as conference minister for South Central Conference since 1991.

Previously he was pastor at Lebanon (Ore.) Mennonite Church in Oregon from 1974 to 1991.

Headings was diagnosed with cancer in March 2001 and continued to serve the Ridgeway congregation until April 30, 2003.

He loved flying and was a certified aviator, pilot and flight instructor.

He was born June 25, 1941, in Iowa City, Iowa, the son of Mary Louise Miller Headings of Steinbach, man., and the late Ivan Montgomery Headings.

He received a degree in elementary education from Oregon State University in 1964. He taught in the Oregon school system for nine years and then earned a master's degree in administration and education from Oregon State in 1972. He attended Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg in 1973.

On Aug. 2, 1963, he married Dorothy Jean Yoder, who survives.

Other survivors include a son, Kevin of Lebanon; a daughter, Lauri Headings Whyte of Boone, N. C.; two brothers, Roger of Steinbach and Robert of Lebanon; two sisters, Patricia Sharp of Cost Rica and Donella Keim of Harrisonburg; and four grandchildren.

Memorial services were held at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. Burial was at Lindale Cemetery.