A United Methodist bishop and member of the Emory Board of Trustees, Joseph Benjamin Bethea died March 12 at his home in Columbia, S.C., after a sudden illness. He was 62.
Elected to the Board of Trustees in 1992, Bethea had served as the resident bishop for the Columbia area, South Carolina Conference, since 1988. Active in the World Methodist Council, Bethea had served on the Commission for the Study of Ministry and on the Ordinal Committee. He had been serving as president of the General Commission on Religion and Race, following his term as the commission's vice chair and chair of the funding committee.
A native of Dillon, S.C., Bethea was the son of the late Rev. Rufus E. and Ella Johnson Bethea. He was educated at Claflin College, Gammon Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. After serving as a pastor in both South Carolina and North Carolina, he was appointed district superintendent for the Virginia Methodist District in Richmond, then held that office in Rockingham and in Raleigh, N.C.
From 1972 to 1977, Bethea was director of Black Studies at Duke Divinity School, and from 1983 to 1986 was administrative assistant to the North Carolina Conference Bishop and Coordinator of Ministerial Affairs.
A life member of the NAACP and Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Bethea was elected chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta last spring.
Bethea, who was married to the late Shirley Cundiff Bethea, is survived by a daughter, Josefa Elizabeth.