Rev. Dr. John L "Jack" Topolewski

OBITUARY FOR THE REV. DR. JOHN L. TOPOLEWSKI
Following four years of declining health, the Rev. Dr. John L. ("Jack") Topolewski of East Lempster, New Hampshire, died from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, NH, on 20 January 2025. He was 83 years old.
Jack was born on 15 October 1941 in Jersey City, New Jersey, the older of two sons born to John Leo Topolewski and Josephine Mary Aitken Topolewski. His education through the second grade was in St. Anthony's Parochial School. From the third through the twelfth grades, he was a student of Jersey City public schools, graduating in the Class of 1959 from James J. Ferris High School. The Teachers' Union granted him a full scholarship to Jersey City State Teacher's College; he completed his freshman year there before leaving school to start a family.
In 1960, Jack married Donna Larson. Together they raised three children, Cristen (born 1961), John (1962), and Patricia (1964). Seeking to further his education, to provide for his family, and to follow a religious vocation, Jack was granted a License to Preach by the Newark (NJ) Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in 1961. He was appointed as a Student Pastor to the Hop Bottom Charge in rural Susquehanna County, PA, and matriculated as a student at Keystone Junior College, La Plume, PA, where he earned an Associate in Arts degree in 1963. In 1964, Jack was appointed Pastor to the Damascus Charge and matriculated as a student at the State University College of Oneonta, NY, from which he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1967. Beginning as a student at Drew University School of Theology in the fall of 1967, Jack also served as Pastor to the Lanesboro Charge and was ordained a Deacon at the meeting of the Wyoming Annual Conference in May of 1968. Graduation in the first class at Drew to earn the Master of Divinity degree and ordination as Elder followed in the spring of 1970, as did Jack's appointment as Associate Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Oneonta, NY, where he spent the next two years.
In June of 1972, Rev. Topolewski was appointed pastor of the Trucksville United Methodist Church in Trucksville, PA, and moved into the parsonage with his family the day before flooding from Hurricane Agnes devastated the nearby Wyoming Valley. While in Trucksville, he returned to Drew University to enroll in the newly-created Doctor of Ministry program. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1974.
Jack joined the community choral group, the Wyoming Valley Oratorio Society, that practiced in Wilkes-Barre, during the fall semester of 1972. While part of that chorus, in 1974 he met Nancy Rodda, a student at Wilkes College who was moving toward ordained ministry and receipt of a Bachelor of Arts degree. Jack completed the dissertation for his doctoral program and was awarded the D.Min. in May of 1975. He and Nancy were married in June of 1975, and Jack was appointed pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, Mountain Top, PA at the same time. In September of that year, Nancy matriculated into the Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary; Jack's three children moved into the parsonage in Mountain Top, and the family was reconstituted.
Christ Church was the locus of Jack Topolewski's ministry for ten years, during which time he also took a six-month sabbatical to coordinate educational efforts at the national level in honor of the Bicentennial of American Methodism, which took place in 1984. After Nancy graduated from Princeton Seminary and was ordained by the Presbytery of Lackawanna in 1978, she was called to the Presbyterian Churches in Ashley and Warrior Run, PA, and the interdenominational chapel at Lake Nuangola. Thus began a parallel track of ministry, one in the United Methodist Church and one in the Presbyterian Church (USA), for the Topolewskis, that continued until Nancy's ordination was recognized by the Wyoming Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1989, after which Jack and Nancy served within the same Conference but in different parish churches.
Appointment for Jack to Sarah Jane Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church in Johnson City, NY, came in 1985. In 1988, he was appointed Superintendent of the Oneonta District of the Wyoming Annual Conference, a post he held for eight years, four of which involved his recognition as Dean of the Cabinet. His superintendency term completed, Rev. Topolewski was appointed in 1996 as Senior Pastor of Vestal United Methodist Church, Vestal, NY; Nancy was appointed simultaneously as Pastor to the neighboring Vestal Center United Methodist Church. In 2001, Jack retired from full-time service and spent the next five years as part-time Associate Pastor of the Owego United Methodist Church, Owego, NY, while Nancy continued at Vestal Center. In 2006, the Topolewskis left the Southern Tier of NY and moved to the home they had built in East Lempster, NH. They were appointed to serve as Pastors of the United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd in Newport, NH. They worked together there for ten years until both retired "for good" in 2016.
Jack Topolewski was a published author, whose scholarship on matters of church governance was internationally recognized. Several of his articles on historical subjects were published in the journal Methodist History. He served as an Associate Member of the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies at Oxford University for the meetings of 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002. He was also actively involved in the Wyoming Conference's partnership with the Zimbabwe Annual Conference in southern Africa, and traveled to both Zimbabwe and South Africa in support of that work.
Theological education and the preparation of persons for ministry were areas of interest and responsibility for Jack over a period of more than forty years. He served on the Wyoming Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and taught the required polity course to ministers from other denominations who sought to transfer into the United Methodist Church. Jack offered Bible studies in every church he served, augmenting his knowledge and teaching background by leading tour groups to the Holy Land during the 1990s and 2000s.
During their shared ministry in Newport, Jack and Nancy chaired the Board of Directors of the Newport Area Association of Churches together. After Jack retired from that office in 2013, Nancy continued as chair for another ten years. He was an active supporter of the Newport Food Pantry and an advocate for shared worship services among the churches of Newport. His was a full life, with the hope of writing more scholarly articles in retirement. Sadly, that dream was never fulfilled.
Jack was diagnosed with dementia in 2020. The diagnosis was refined to include Alzheimer's disease in 2022. The slow decline and loss of intellectual acuity that so characterize the disease finally ended on 20 January 2025.
Jack Topolewski was a scholar, a teacher, a pastor, an administrator, and a beloved husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He was a lover of chickens and an indulgent father to a succession of ten dachshunds over forty years. A unique and special individual, whose life was a blessing in every community he served.
Rev. Topolewski is survived by his spouse of 49 years, the Rev. Dr. Nancy Topolewski; one brother, Bradner Topolewski, and his spouse Cheryl; children, Cristen, and her spouse Jerome O'Brien; John Topolewski and his spouse Christine; and Patricia; ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and three individuals whose calls to ordained ministry were facilitated by Jack: the Revs. Earl Roberts, Richard Jagger, and Alan Jagger; and many families and individuals who were touched by his parochial and administrative ministry, which spanned more than fifty years.
A Memorial Service for the Rev. Dr. John L. Topolewski is scheduled for Saturday, 25 January 2025, at 11:00 a.m., in the sanctuary of the United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd in Newport, NH. Service will be conducted by the Revs. Elisabeth Smith and Eldon Simpson, the Rev. Fr. Brian Clarke, and Pastor Carolyn Greenwood. The family will receive friends from 9:30 a.m. until service time. Interment will follow in the spring in East Lempster Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to the United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd, PO Box 715, Newport, NH 03773.