Rev. Eugene McGraw

CENTERVILLE, Ind. – Rev. Eugene McGraw died July 6, 2009, at the age of 100. His father, Oliver McGraw, the Centerville harness maker, died in 1977 at the age of 102. Eugene got the nickname, “Mac,” when he was in Malaya. His wife, Louise, always called him Mac. Eugene was born in Falmouth, Indiana, in 1909, the oldest of four boys. His mother was Ina McGraw, formerly Ina Kerschner. Eugene grew up on the small family farm in Harrisburg, Indiana. In 1920 Eugene and his younger brother, Charles, walked the family stock from Harrisburg to the newly purchased 100 acre farm just south of Centerville. He attended the Hardscrabble School and then the Centerville High School. During high school years he built radios for fun and sold them for a profit. Upon graduation, DePauw University offered him a full tuition scholarship but the family had no money for his room and board. Earlham College offered a small scholarship and a part time job so he was able to attend Earlham and live at home on the farm. With a major in Physics and Bible Studies and the highest grades in his class, he received a full tuition scholarship at Earlham for his senior year. When he graduated in 1933, during the depth of the Depression, Oberlin School of Theology offered him a three-year tuition scholarship. He always liked to say that at Oberlin he “prayed for his food.” (He was given the job of cafeteria chaplain.) He also earned money typing papers and repairing cars for other students. Until very recently, he could type with blinding speed on an old manual typewriter. In addition to his bachelor’s degree from Earlham and his theology degree from Oberlin, Eugene studied social work at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and became a certified social worker in 1945. He studied German, Latin, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Foochow Chinese and was fluent in Malay. He also studied industrial arts at New York University in 1956. He loved woodworking and was very proud of his woodworking tools. Eugene had a lifelong love affair with cars and all objects mechanical. He regaled his family and friends with stories of every car he ever owned. His first job as a pastor was at the Methodist Church in Mount Comfort, Indiana. It was 1935 and nobody had much money. The church couldn’t pay him all of the very small salary that he had been promised. He seriously considered continuing as the preacher and starting an automotive repair shop in Mount Comfort. He loved to tell of the Buick that he rebuilt during the two years that he was a missionary to the Yakima Indians in White Swan, Washington. There was also the story of the generator he rebuilt at the Methodist summer camp in Washington. And the hydraulic ram he fixed at the Methodist Girls’ Hostel in Kuala Lumpur. And the piano he repaired for a Methodist School in Malaya…. After a year in Mount Comfort, Indiana, “where there was neither mountain nor comfort,” he took the train to California and then a cargo ship to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore and then the train up into Malaya where he became a Methodist missionary teacher and pastor. The Rev. Peach, who was the principal of the Methodist school in Kuala Lumpur, met him at the station and was greatly amused to see him get off the train with a suitcase in one hand and his homemade wooden tool box containing electric meters, soldering iron, drill and screwdrivers in the other hand. The next morning he was teaching and that afternoon he was working on that famous hydraulic ram. Before retiring in 1971, Eugene served as principal of Methodist schools in Sibu, Sitiawan, Malacca and Penang. He also served a term as Methodist District Superintent in Sibu, Sarawak, Borneo. His first and longest principalship was in Sitiawan starting in 1937. During these years he was also pastor at the Methodist Church in Taiping, where he courted and then married the beautiful church organist, Louise Leonard, who was a missionary teacher in a Methodist school in Taiping. Shortly after they were married, Eugene and Louise fled Sitiawan and Malaysia by cargo ship when the Imperial Japanese army attacked Malaya at the same time that Pearl Harbor was bombed. From the beginning Eugene and Louise were quintessential tourists, so even during their six month period as refugees, fleeing the Japanese army, they managed to see the sights of Indonesia and Australia. While they were off sightseeing near Padang, on the South Coast of Sumatra, Japanese planes bombed and set fire to their ship which was loaded with rubber bound for America. Eugene went on board and rescued a few clothes and more importantly, his camera! Over the years Eugene and Louise traveled all of Eurasia from Japan to Britain and almost every place in between. Eugene McGraw devoted his life to service of the Methodist church, both in America and Malaysia. He was also a supporter of Earlham College. Even thought he lived an extremely frugal life on a small missionary salary, he created and funded an Earlham Scholarship Fund to help students from overseas and from Centerville. Eugene is survived by his brother, Glenn of Ohio; his daughter, Bonnie of Richmond, Indiana; his son, Paul of Patriot, Indiana; three grandchildren, Jack Bond of Las Vegas, Nevada, Deborah Sweeney of Elk Grove, California, and Oliver McGraw of New Orleans, Louisiana; and two great-grandchildren, Cathleen Sweeney and Seamus Sweeney of California. Eugene was a great storyteller and prolific letter writer all his life. The family has many hundreds of pages of letters that he wrote home to his parents from the time he went to Oberlin through his years as a missionary in Asia. The letters are being typed and hopefully will be available someday under the title “Letters Home to Centerville.” The letters tell quite a story. But he liked to say that his letters to his Mom and Dad didn’t tell the whole story (he actually participated in dancing at Oberlin – and not just square dancing either!) He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Louise Leonard McGraw, and two brothers. Visitation for Rev. Eugene McGraw will be from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, July 9, 2009, at Mills Funeral Home, 405 East Main St., Centerville. Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Friday, July 10 at Centerville United Methodist Church, 112 South Morton Ave., Centerville. Burial will be in Crown Hill Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Centerville United Methodist Church, 112 South Morton Ave., Centerville, IN 47330. Condolences may be sent to the family via the guest book at www.doanmillsfuneralhome.com

Rev. Eugene McGraw

May 17, 1909 - July 6, 2009