Frazier, Clyde Charles
7/10/1998
| It was only a month after last year’s Annual Conference that our colleague in ministry, Clyde Frazier, died. Clyde had been an active participant in virtually every significant progres-sive change that our Conference experienced during his half-century membership. The longevity of his tenure in his appointments stands as a model of what can be accomplished in ministry when we stay long enough in one place to really make a difference. Clyde was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was a graduate of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, where he was president of the student body and of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. After significant pastorates at Lake Vista in New Orleans, St. Paul’s in Monroe, District Super-intendent in Monroe, Asbury in Lafayette, he returned to his beloved New Orleans and Rayne Memorial, where after his retirement he was named Pastor Emeritus. Whenever I find myself reflecting on colleagues who have made a difference for me in my own ministry, Clyde’s name is always among them. My first appointment out of seminary was in New Orleans, and Clyde was already there at work in Lake Vista. It was fortunate for me to work with him early on. Amid the shifting social currents that challenged all of us, the work he did as President of the Greater New Orleans Federation of Churches gave that fledgling group variability. Through it all, Adelaide, the consummate English teacher, has been at his side, not only as wife, but also as best friend. She continues to teach at the University of New Orleans and lives in the Uptown section of the city near Rayne Memorial. the children often beckon, Dr. Adelaide Stuart Frazier of Baton Rouge, Dr. Clyde Charles Frazier III of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and William Aubrey Frazier of Houston. There are two grandchildren, Laura and William. Clyde was a careful, thoughtful, and precise preacher of the gospel—worth listening to. In celebration of the life and a valued church member and friend, he once said, “We are gathered here to share a legacy which has made each of our live richer. It is neither property nor coin. It is no material thing which our friend could not take with him. If this legacy were material and we shared it, each our us would have less of it. But our sharing of this legacy does not diminish each or our shares, for this is a spiritual leg-acy. The poet wrote, ‘Traveling friends bring distant countries near.’ So it is as friends and loved ones depart to that “better country”; they bring it a little closer. They stimulate a hope of finally reaching it ourselves. This is a treasured legacy.” And those wonderful quotations he would find, with a little help from his literate best friend, Adelaide, no doubt. This one from Robert Louis Stevenson is about what being a good man is like, “To be honest, to be kind; to earn a sum and spend less; to make the whole family happier by his presence; to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered; to keep a few friends…” |
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| Source: Journal Louisiana Conference, 1999; p. 259 By John Winn | |
