Rev. John Charles DeBoer

1923 - 2018

Rev. John Charles DeBoer

Windsor, VT - May 23, 1923 - April 15, 2018

John C. DeBoer was born in Kodaikanal, South India, first son of Dr. John J. and Erma DeBoer who were missionaries of the Reformed Church of America. Young John attended boarding school in Kodai, and moved to the states to attend Hope College. After his father died in India in 1940, John transferred to the University of Michigan to earn a degree in aeronautical engineering. Upon graduating he and his new wife, Clara Merritt, moved to Long Island, where John was an engineer in the wartime Flight Test Division of Grumman Aircraft.

Following the war he attended New Brunswick Theological Seminary and became a clergyman. He served Congregational churches in Union and Maple Shade, New Jersey, before becoming Associate Conference Minister of the Vermont Congregational Conference in 1959. After six years in Vermont he was called to be Secretary of the United Church of Christ Board for Homeland Ministries in NYC, and in 1977 became Executive Director of the Joint Strategy and Action Committee overseeing ecumenical work by a dozen denominations in the US and Canada. He authored How to Succeed in the Organization Jungle Without Losing Your Religion, and was included in Who's Who in Religion, and Who's Who in the East.

In retirement John and Clara settled in Green Valley AZ, where he was elected President of the Green Valley Forum. In spring of 2005 they moved to Reno to be close to their daughter, Katharine, who was then a professor of music at the University of Nevada. Clara died soon thereafter, and John later moved to The Village at Cedar Hill in Windsor VT. He was preceded in death by son David Charles DeBoer, and is survived by daughter Katharine DeBoer in Bradford VT, son John L. DeBoer in Fayetteville NC, four grandsons, and seven great-granddaughters.

A Memorial Service will be held at First Congregational Church, 627 Sunnyside Drive, Reno on Friday May 18 at 4:00 PM, with interment immediately to follow.