Barksdale John Oscar

John Oscar Barksdale died Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at the Gordon House assisted living facility in Gordonsville following an illness, just 18 days short of his 90th birthday.He leaves his wife of 64 years, Virginia (Gibbins) Barksdale; his son, Lewis Barksdale; his son, John Barksdale and his wife, Noriko Barksdale; his daughter, Helen Barksdale Walker and her husband, Ray Walker; his son, Andrew Barksdale and his wife, Anne Price; his six grandchildren; and many many friends both locally and overseas.He was predeceased by his father, Lewis Oscar Barksdale; his mother, Alma Martin Barksdale; brothers, George Dunham Barksdale and James Lewis Barksdale; and sister, Virginia Barksdale Lancaster.Born and raised in Waynesboro, he attended the University of Virginia and spent a year at Cambridge University in England on a Rotary Scholarship. Following service in the Navy during World War II, he completed his BA at UVa and then attended Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, where he met his wife and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree. While working as a missionary in Japan starting in 1951, he earned his Master of Theology and Doctor of Theology degrees. He taught at Shikoku Christian College on the island of Shikoku, and from 1962 was a Professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo. During the summers he would somewhat adventurously take his family by car over uncertain roads to Lake Nojiri in Nagano prefecture, where he loved to go sailing and to share in fellowship with other Missionary families. He returned to the US in 1967 and worked at the Presbyterian Board of World Missions in Nashville, Tennessee from 1968. He was associate professor at the College of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas from 1973 until 1978, and with his wife, also an ordained minister, became pastor at Madison Presbyterian and Gordonsville Presbyterian Churches in Virginia from 1978 until he retired in 1990.He taught Japanese part time at Woodberry Forest School from 1991 until 1994, and he and Virginia came out of retirement in 1994 to enjoy another adventurous year together as interim pastors at Kowloon Union Church in Hong Kong. He was a fine tennis player, a lover of organ music, a tenor in the choir at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville where he was a member, and an active member of the Lions Club in Madison. He kept fit by jogging and bicycling, and during the morning hours he would translate Japanese religious works and later even Chinese. Perhaps most of all he loved to go hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains, sometimes alone and sometimes with family or friends, during which times many a thoughtful or humorous discussion would ensue. He was a liberal thinker and a man of peace, and his opinion was held in high regard by many. He greatly treasured his family and his many friends. His wife once described him as "the gentlest man in the world".A memorial service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 Rugby Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 14, 2015.In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Church World Service at htp://www.cwsglobal.org or at 28606 Phillips St., P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.