WHO WAS D. S.WARNER MONROE?

Someone asked me that question earlier today. Warner Monroe was a distinguished Church of God educator who taught at Warner Pacific University in Portland, OR, formerly Pacific BibleCollege and later Warner Pacific College. Beginning in 1943, he taught until his death. a lifetime beginning in 1943 and added me as another of his student  in January 1948, when I found myself as a twenty-something sitting in his Roman History class and meeting the new PHd for the first time.

Warner was born in Alberta, CA in a log cabin. The child of missionary parentage, he arrivved in 1909 and grew up in Canada, serving in educational ministry for his entire lifetime He. Eventually completed his PHD in Ethics and Philosphy at the University of Washington in the States and spent his entire professional life teaching Ethics, Philosophy, History etc. at the small Church of God school in the Northwest founded by Dr AF Gray.

Monroe also became a highly distinguished botanist, a well known Oregon outdoorsman, and an extraordinary athlete. He disovered a new strain of Maple Tree. He volunteered many years teaching children out of the travelling suitcase he deveoloped for the purpose of teaching children, volunteering with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Warner also won several post-70 Marathons races. He was a fierce competitor but he spent his entire lifetime in efforts of peace and non-violence.

Warner died accidently and shocked his world while smelt fishing with his daughter Patricia. Altho an avid athlete, he lost his footing and slipped into the cascading waters and drowned before he could be recovered. In his loifetime, Warner Monroe became best remembered as an explorer who was not satisfied until he had done his best to achieve whatever it was he had set out to achieve, discover, or explore aeat the moment.

Warner's textbook, AN INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS, was one of several books he authored. I kept that book available on my shelf as one I valued more than almost any other outside of my RSV Bible.  While it may have seem to rest quietly, it probably influened my life more than any other book I ever read outside of my bible. Now that I have reached the decade of the ninitie, I now find that I am once more re-reading Warner Monroe's makestic conclusions regarding the moral life and the majestic teachings of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Monroe remained quietly out of sight while Gray, Linn and other leaders seemed more obvious, influential, and important.  Nonetheless, Warner Monroe wears well with the years and does not fade with time and study and I find that when all is said and done, he may have in his quiet introspective way been even more influential than the upfront men I thought I admired the most.

AN iNTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS by D S  Warner Monroe offers as fine a resume of the teaching of Jesus to Love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself as any book in print. He writes in long and convoluted sentences and is not an easy readl I wondered if Warner Press lacked editors to help him simplify his text but he is worth wading through. Now in my nineties decade, I find myself once more turning to Warner Monroe and his majestic concepts and pondering the implications of the teachings of Jesus in our world -  a world that surely needs a rediscovery of what true love is all about.

This is walkingwithwarneratblogspot.com