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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE LIFE OF RICHARD "DICK" THOLIN
WHEREAS, Richard D. Tholin was a teacher, minister, and activist who brought his faith and his commitments to peace and justice to everything he taught or did; and
WHEREAS, Dick was born on June 28, 1928. He grew up in Downers Grove before moving with his family to Edison Park on Chicago's northwest side. He attended Taft High School and then North Central College, graduating with a B.A. in Sociology in 1949. In 1952, he graduated from Evangelical Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the Illinois Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1953; and
WHEREAS, in 1951, he married Phyllis Eckardt whom he had met at North Central. In 1952, the couple moved to Diversey Parkway Evangelical United Brethren Church where Dick served as Pastor for seven years.; and
WHEREAS, in 1959, he enrolled in Union Theological Seminary where he earned a Master's degree in World Missions and a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics. He returned to Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1963 as a professor of Church and Community. With the merger of the Evangelical Theological Seminary and Garrett Theological Seminary, he moved with his family to Evanston where he taught at Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary until his retirement in 1993. The last eight years of his tenure, he served as Academic Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs; and
WHEREAS, over his years of teaching, Dick instructed hundreds of soon-to-be-pastors on the importance of understanding and engaging in the social and economic issues of the communities they would serve, both urban and rural; and
WHEREAS, throughout his life, Dick fought for social and racial justice, and for peace, locally, nationally, and internationally, both inside and outside the church; and
WHEREAS, in 1963, he joined a group of ministers on a trip to Jackson, Mississippi, to walk with African American students into White Methodist churches, risking arrest and s...
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