Eileen Grace Starr

1944 - 2018

Eileen Grace Starr, 73, passed away Sept. 20, 2018, at her home in Anchorage of pancreatic cancer. Visitation will be held at 4 p.m. followed by the funeral at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018, at Anchorage Grace Church, 12407 Pintail. She will also have a Native funeral in Copper Center next week.
She was born Nov. 16, 1944, in Flint, Michigan, and became a Christian at 12. At 13, she felt God was calling her to be a missionary. She loved the outdoors, animals, gardening and sports. After graduating from Davison High School in 1963, she followed her older brother, Richard, to Taylor University in Indiana, with the goal of becoming a medical missionary. She graduated in 1967 with a B.A. in zoology and medical technology.
She desired more Bible training, so she again followed Richard to Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, where she earned a master's degree in religious education. Following seminary, Eileen was planning to go to Africa. Instead, she came to Alaska on what was to be a "temporary assignment." She ended up staying for the remaining 47 years of her life. She worked as a medical technologist at Faith Hospital in Glennallen, as well as professor of Christian education at Alaska Bible College.
About this time she was "adopted" into a Native family, and family members became extremely important to her.
In 1981, Eileen founded Alaska Christian Ministries, which conducted events for Sunday school teachers and pastors in Anchorage, Homer, Sitka, Fairbanks and Juneau. She earned a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1989. In 1994, Eileen began annual, monthlong trips to Far East Russia, conducting teacher-training seminars. The last several years she coordinated parenting seminars in the community and in local prisons. She passed away quietly at home, into the arms of God, on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.