Albert Rymph II
1925 - 2019
Obituary
Pastor Albert James Rymph II, 93, of
Newton, passed away on Saturday (Feb. 16, 2019) at Asbury Park in
Newton.
Albert James Rymph II was born on Nov.
9, 1925, in Liberal, the first child of Levi Budd and Jessie Mae
(Hershey) Rymph. He was named after his paternal grandfather who, in
the 1870s, homesteaded in Harper County. He was baptized in the
Sublette Methodist Episcopal Church. As a young child, he lived with
his parents in Sublette, Zenda and Harper, until the family moved to
Wichita and Sedgwick County in 1929.
While in grade school, Albert was
confirmed as a member of the Body of Christ at the First Methodist
Episcopal Church in Wichita. Born in a Methodist hospital, reared in
a Methodist home, educated at a Methodist college and a Methodist
seminary, married in a Methodist church and spending his adult life
as a Methodist pastor, he was a life-long Methodist - seeing the
Methodist Episcopal Church into which he was born become part of the
Methodist Church through denominational mergers in 1939 and then the
United Methodist Church through another denominational merger in
1968.
Albert married Edna Mae Heath on Sept.
28, 1952, in Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri. He received a
Bachelor of Arts degree from Southwestern College in Winfield in 1949
and a Master of Theology degree from Perkins School of Theology,
Southern Methodist University, in Dallas in 1955. Together, Pastor
and Mrs. Rymph had and raised four children: son Bradley Budd,
daughter Carol Ann, daughter Karen Jeannine and son Alan DeWayne.
During Pastor Rymph's ministerial
career, he felt honored and privileged to serve numerous
congregations and communities through much of central and western
Kansas, including First Methodist Church, Copeland; Ebenezer and
Green Methodist Churches, near Clay Center; Mount Olivet and Saint
Luke Methodist Churches, Wichita; First Methodist Church, Kingman;
Trinity United Methodist Church, Russell; First United Methodist
Church, El Dorado; First United Methodist Church, Beloit; First
United Methodist Church, Dodge City; and First United Methodist
Church, Ulysses.
Albert also served as a part of the
medical and health ministries of the United Methodist Church,
including as a trustee of Hadley Memorial Hospital in Hays; as an
ex-officio trustee of the Trinity Hospital Association in Dodge City;
as a supervising pastor involved with the Southwest Kansas Mexican
American Ministries in Dodge City and Ulysses, at the time when its
medical clinics were being initiated and developed; and as a charter
member trustee of the United Methodist Health Ministries Fund, a
foundation related to what was then the Kansas West Conference of the
United Methodist Church.
Albert retired from the active ministry
in 1989 under the United Methodist Church's "40 years of
service" rule for clergy. He and his wife moved to the Friendly
Acres (now Asbury Park) Retirement Community in Newton, where he
lived until his death and where Mrs. Rymph continues to reside in
Assisted Living. With his retirement, Pastor and Mrs. Rymph became
active worshippers at Trinity Heights United Methodist Church in
Newton and continued to worship together there as long as their
health permitted. They particularly enjoyed being able to sit
together during worship and in church school classes, something they
had rarely been able to do during the many years of Pastor Rymph's
pastoral ministry.
In addition to his marriage and family
life and his career as a United Methodist pastor, Pastor Rymph was a
veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Army both stateside and
in the Pacific Theater. As a preministerial student at Southwestern
College when he turned age 18, the Draft Board offered him a
ministerial deferment from military service, but he declined, knowing
that the nation and world were gravely at risk. At age 19, he
participated in the Leyte and Luzon Liberation Campaigns in the
Philippines. For his service during World War II, he was awarded five
medals. He particularly valued his Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal
with two bronze stars, awarded him by the U.S. Army, and his
Philippine Liberation Medal, awarded him by the Army of the
Provisional Government of the Philippines. At age 20, at the end of
World War II, he was returned stateside and discharged. He was called
back into military service a few years later during the Korean War,
serving stateside as a reservist and at Fort Hood, Texas. For this
service, he was awarded a sixth medal.
Pastor Rymph is preceded in death by
his parents and one brother, Thomas Merton Rymph.
He is survived by his wife, Edna Mae
Rymph of Newton; his children: Bradley Budd Rymph (José Verzosa
Baquiran) of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Carol Ann Carlson (James Wayne
Carlson) of Bellevue, Nebraska, Karen Jeannine Smarsh (Thomas G.
Smarsh) of Colwich and Alan DeWayne Rymph (Lisa Kay Jackson Rymph) of
Wichita; two brothers, Raymond Calvin Rymph of Columbia, Missouri,
and David Budd Rymph of Port Townsend, Washington; 10 grandchildren;
and two great-grandchildren, with two more on the way.
Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday (Feb. 20, 2019) at Trinity Heights United Methodist Church
and will be open prior to the service at the church. Funeral services
will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 21, 2019) at Trinity Heights
United Methodist Church, 1200 Boyd, Newton, with The Rev. Donna
Voteau officiating. Burial with military honors will follow at
Greenwood Cemetery, 1100 E. First St., Newton. Arrangements are by
Petersen Family Funeral Services.
Memorial donations may be given to
Trinity Heights United Methodist Church, Newton, and the Asbury Park
Retirement Community, Newton, in care of Petersen Funeral Home.
