William Wallace Faris ’39

Wallace (“Wally”) Faris died Oct. 31, 2013.

He was born in Beebe, Ark., and died at Chapel Woods Rehabilitation and Nursing Home after living with his son and daughter-in-law, the Rev. Philip and Linda Faris, in Warren, Ark., for more than 11 years.

A year after graduation, Wallace experienced a call to the ministry. After attending McCormick Seminary, he became a Navy chaplain serving stateside and in the Pacific. He was awarded a Battle Star in the costly fight to re-take Peleliu Island.

With his wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in 1942, Wallace pastored Presbyterian churches in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. After they retired to Austin, Texas, Wallace helped five churches by serving as interim minister. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Blackburn University and had a one-year tenure as moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of the Sun in Texas.

In our 25th-reunion book Wallace wrote, “The pastoral ministry is or can be a rich privilege. I’m grateful for it and the chance to help some people to ‘keep on keeping on’ when life gets pretty rough.”

Elizabeth died in 1999. Wallace is survived by two sons, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. To them all the class says, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”