Joseph Kenneth Grider

J. Kenneth Grider, 85, long-time resident of Kansas City, passed away Wednesday, December 6, 2006 in Chandler, AZ. Viewing will be 5-8 p.m. Thursday, December 14 at the J.B. Chapman Memorial Chapel at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Services will be 11 a.m. Friday, December 15 at the Seminary with burial following in Green Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation may be made to the Kansas City Rescue Mission, PO Box 419527, Kansas City, MO 64179. Kenneth was born October 22, 1921 in Madison, IL to William Sanford and Elizabeth (Krone) Grider. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Virginia (Ballard), several months after their 60th anniversary. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Willis-Grider; three children, Jennifer Grossman and Ken Grider II of Gilbert, AZ, and Carol Crosby of Belton, MO; four grandchildren, one great-grandson, and a large extended family. He taught a total of 50 years and was a distinguished visiting professor of theology at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL, and professor of theology emeritus at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City. He held six earned degrees, including the Ph.D. in theology from Glasgow University in Scotland, and studied theology and poetry two terms at Oxford University in England. He was an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene. He was one of the translators of the New International Version, working at two committee levels on six New Testament books. His listing in Who's Who in America began in 1984. He was a prolific writer, authoring nine books, the most thorough of which was a 589-page systematic theology, A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. He also wrote over 2,000 poems, articles, commentaries, essays, and lessons and contributed to numerous symposia. He was the editor of The Seminary Tower for 36 years. For 40 years, he convened the monthly Breakfast Club, a Kansas City theological discussion group. He gave many lecture series and commencement and baccalaureate addresses and presented papers at national and sectional meetings of learned societies in the areas of theology and ethics. He taught courses in Hurlet Nazarene College (Scotland), Point Loma Nazarene University, Olivet Nazarene University, Southern Nazarene University, Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, and extension courses in Mexico and the Philippines. He was a member of the Wesleyan Theological Society as well as other learned societies. Special honors given him include Olivet Nazarene University's Clergy Alumnus of the Year award in 1966 and its honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1991. An annual lectureship in his name was established at Olivet Nazarene University in 1999. Nazarene Theological Seminary awarded him its quadrennial Citation of Merit in 1985. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Wesleyan Theological Society and the Christian Holiness Partnership. He was an avid chess and table tennis player, having won the gold medal for table tennis and the silver for chess at the 2002-2003 Arizona State Senior Olympics. (Arrangements: Park Lawn Funeral Home, 816-523-1234).