Dr. Allan C. Emery Jr.

Dr. Allan Comstock Emery Jr., age 91, of Weymouth Heights, MA died on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at his home surrounded by his family. Dr. Emery was born and raised in Weymouth Heights, MA and graduated from Weymouth High School. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois. He worked with his father in the Boston wool trade beginning in the late 1930s. He enlisted in the US Coast Guard following the attack on Pearl Harbor, graduated from the Coast Guard Academy, and served on combat vessels in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific. He returned to the firm of Emery, Russell & Goodrich following the war and served as President of the Boston Wool Trade and later of National Wool Trade Association. In the mid-1960s he left the wool business to work with ServiceMaster Industries of Downers Grove, IL. He retired from ServiceMaster in the mid-1970s. Dr. Emery served until the mid-1990s as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Dr. Emery was active in many education institutions serving as trustee of Gordon College, Wheaton College (IL), and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He was honored with the LLD by Wheaton College. He also served on many charitable and philanthropic organizations including many years as President of the Evangelistic Association of New England (now Vision New England), as President of the Boston Industrial Home-Union Rescue Mission and as a Life Deacon at Park Street Church, Boston, prior to his move in the early 1980s to Boca Raton, FL where he was active in the Spanish River Presbyterian Church until returning to live again in Weymouth Heights. Of all his efforts in ministry, that which undoubtedly gave him the greatest joy was working together with his wife Marian for some 33 years with high school students in the Weymouth Bible Club which met on Thursday nights in their homes initially in Braintree and later in Weymouth. Dr. Emery was the husband of the late Marian Hancock (Smith) Emery; father of Allan Comstock Emery, III married to Lynn (Ericksen) Emery of Beverly, MA, Arthur Hancock Emery married to Karen (Fontaine) Emery of Salem, MA, and Annetta Emery Thurber married to Richard Judson Thurber of Epsom, NH, grandfather of six, and great-grandfather of six. He was the son of the late Allan Comstock Emery and Elsie (Conant) Emery formerly of Weymouth Heights, MA, and is also survived by his sister, Virginia Emery Fuller of Grand Rapids, MI. A private burial service was held at the Blue Hill Cemetery, Braintree. A public Memorial Service will be held at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 130 Essex Street, South Hamilton, MA on Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Marian H. Emery Endowed Scholarship at Wheaton College, 501 East College Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187 or to the Allan C. Emery, Jr. Scholarship Fund at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 130 Essex Street, South Hamilton, MA 01982. (Submitted by the Peck Funeral Home, Weymouth, www.peckservices.com)