It was
only natural that Charles Beeler should graduate from Southwestern Junior
College Academy and Southwestern Junior College, and should later serve
three years as its Alumni Association president. His grandparents on both
sides of the family became Seventh-day Adventists in the 1880’s. Rejected
by both family and customers, his grandfather Beeler, a miller from
Kentucky, moved his immediate family to Keene to obtain a Christian
education for the children.
Grandfather Beeler had a blacksmith shop in
Keene, and Grandmother Beeler drove the mail hack, bringing the mail to
Keene from Cleburne. Charles Beeler received his associate degree in
theology from SWJC, and completed his ministerial studies at the
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Leaving Keene with his bride,
La Verne Wharton Beeler (’37), he taught church school in Texas one year,
pastured in Arkansas and Louisiana six years, and then began a ten-year
term in the Inter-American Division as a departmental director and
president in the Dominican, Venezuela, and Columbia-Venezuela Union
missions. He returned to pastor three years in Florida.
In 1958 he turned
to the field of print journalism, and since that time has been a major
force in the Seventh-day Adventist communication. He has served as
communication director for two local conferences and two union
conferences, and has been editor of three union papers: the Columbia Union
Visitor, the Central Union Reaper (now the Mid-America
Outlook), and the Southwestern Union Record. In October 1987,
he celebrated his 50th year of service to his church. Elder
Beeler and his wife live in Keene; they have two daughters and seven
grandchildren.
Homecoming
Weekend Brochure
April 7-10,
1988
