GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Rev. Marjorie S. Matthews, the first woman elected a bishop in the 300-year history of the United Methodist Church, has died at the age of 69.
Matthews died Monday of cancer Monday in the M.J. Clark Memorial Home where she had lived 10 days, Chaplain Tom Burdette said.
Matthews was elected bishop in 1980 and served in the Wisconsin area until her retirement in 1984. Before becoming biship, she was district supervisor for the Grand Traverse, Mich., District.
Matthews began her pastoral career in 1973 in a small, rural parish in Napoleon, Mich.
A life-long Methodist, she was for many years a member of the First Methodist Church in Alma, where funeral services are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
Matthews graduated from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, earned a Master of Divinity degree from Colgate-Rochester School of Theology, and a doctorate from Florida State University.
After retiring, she taught at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
