PHILLIPSBURG - The Rev. Harold L. Ellis, 72, died Monday Sept. 29, 2008, at his home, Phillipsburg. He was born Sept. 24, 1936, in Gretna, the son of Arthur and Lucy Fern Gaines Ellis. He attended Kirwin Schools and graduated in 1954. He later attended Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colo., and graduated in 1971.

The Rev. Ellis was ordained in the Nazarene church and served congregations in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas. His most recent pastorates were at his home church in Kirwin and Palco. He was a past officer in the Kiwanis Club and the Lions Club, and a member of the Ministerial Associations of the various communities he served. He was a district church camp director and director of the teen Bible quiz teams. He also participated on a Work and Witness team which traveled to Honduras to construct a church parsonage. He was a member of the Smith Center Church of the Nazarene.

He married Rachel L. Marple on Oct. 25, 1954, in Phillipsburg. She survives. Other survivors include: three sons, Kenneth and wife Susan, Denver, Colo., Mike and wife Tami, Hutchinson, and Paul and wife Kim, Meridian, Idaho; three daughters, Rhonda Joneson and Jim, and Katherine Ellis, both of Lincoln, Neb., Bonnie Daigh and Matt, Eudora; a brother, Vincent, San Marcos, Calif.; two sisters, Vada Unrein, Hutchinson, and Connie Bruning, Glade; his mother-in-law, Mildred Marple, Phillipsburg; 19 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Smith Center Church of the Nazarene, Smith Center. Interment will precede the service at Kirwin Cemetery, Kirwin. Memorials may be sent to Central Christian School, 1910 E. 30th, Hutchinson, or the Hospice services of the donor's choice.

Hutchinson News, 30 Sep 2008.