Edgar Blake

Edgar Blake

8 December 1869 - 26 March 1943
Bishop: 1932-1940


Bishop Edgar Blake

The Division of Foreign Missions of the Board of Missions and Church Extension has learned with regret of the death on May 26, 1943 in Coral Gables, Florida, of Bishop Edgar Blake.

Bishop Blake was born in Gorham, Maine on December 8, 1869. He attended the common schools in Maine, and went to Boston University School of Theology, without attending college, graduating from that institution in 1898. Nebraska Wesleyan in1909 and Wesleyan University in 1915 honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1929 DePauw University gave him an LL.D. He began his lifetime of ministerial service at Salem, New Hampshire in 1895, going to Lebanon in 1899 and to Manchester in 1903. In 1908 he was made Assistant Secretary of the Board od Sunday Schools, and in 1912 became the Corresponding Secretary, serving until 1920, when he was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

His first episcopal assignment was to the Paris Area, where he remained for eight years. During this period Bishop Blake became intensely interested in Soviet Russia, urging recognition of it by this country. He also spoke in favor of the cancellation of the Allied war debts by the United States. He directed the expenditure of millions of dollars given by the Methodist Church in war-torn areas of Europe In 1928 Bishop Blake was assigned to the Indianapolis Area, which was merged, four years later with Detroit, and Bishop Blake was assigned to the larger jurisdiction. He retired in 1940.

Bishop Blake was married in 1891 to Miss Charlotte Woodman of Westbrook, Maine, who died in 1925. In January, 1930 he was married to Miss Mary Jane Eaton of Circlesville, Ohio, who survives him. To her and to his two sons and daughters we would express our sympathy in their bereavement, and our deep appreciation of his great service as a liberal leader of Methodism in this country and abroad.

- Press release from the Board of Missions and Church Extension

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