Chaplain Gilberth. Mccurdy

Chaplain Gilbert Harry McCurdy, 94, died on August 12, 2016, in Topeka. He was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, on July 8, 1922, the son of Harry and Olive Downing McCurdy.

A World War II veteran, Gilbert served in the US Army Air Corps. He received a B.S. from Allegheny College, B.D. and S.T.M. from Andover Newton Theological School. Gilbert served as a minister in American Baptist churches in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. He was a hospital chaplain in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and at Eisenhower Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leavenworth from 1971-1995. Gilbert was a member of West Side Baptist Church in Topeka.

He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Rev. Beverly Lankford McCurdy, pastor of Hoyt United Methodist Church; daughter, Anne Beverly Kirk and husband Paul, Lecompton; son, John Gilbert McCurdy, Associate Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan; grandsons, Jeffery Lewis Kirk and Steven William Kirk, both of Lecompton; and sister, Hazel Wigfield of Jeannette, Pennsylvania. He was preceded in death by his brother, William McCurdy; and sister, Carroll McCurdy.

Funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 16, 2016, at West Side Baptist Church, 1008 SW 4th Street, Topeka, Kansas 66606. Burial will follow in Rochester Cemetery. Chaplain McCurdy will lie in state after 3:00 p.m. Monday at Penwell-Gabel Parker-Price Chapel, 245 NW Independence Avenue, where the family will receive guests from 6:00-8:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to West Side Baptist Church.

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