Wayne Ray Rood died May 20, 2000 in Berkeley, California. He was born on June 24, 1915, in Neillsville, Wisconsin, the only child of Warren Ray Rood (pitcher, high school teacher and principal) and Eleanor Babcock Rood (musician), both born on pioneer homesteads in Nebraska, both 1903 graduates of Milton College (WI), and both religious people by birth and by choice.

Wayne Rood attended the public schools of Riverside, California, from second grade through Junior College. He graduated from Salem College (WV) with a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees; from The School of Theology of Alfred University (NY) with the Bachelor of Divinity; from The Hartford Seminary Foundation (CT) with a Master of Religious Education; from Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley, CA) with the Doctor of Theology, magna cum laude; and was a Student of the University at Oxford (UK) during two sabbatical years.

He was ordained by the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Riverside and was pastor of Seventh Day and First Baptist churches in Rhode Island. He was Chaplain with a Quartermaster Truck Battalion in New Caledonia, and was with the 105th Infantry Regiment in the Solomon Islands for the landing on Tsugen Jima and ten weeks in the Battle of Okinawa. He participated in the landing on Iheya Shima, an island north of Okinawa, on July 4, 1945, the last offensive action of World War II, and was among the first to land in Tokyo with the occupation force on September 3. He was minister of Congregational and Presbyterian churches in western New York and with the Swedenborgian and Baptist churches of El Cerrito and Berkeley.

Separated from the Army as a Major, he became Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Alfred University. From 1952 to 1981 he was Professor of Religious Education at Pacific School of Religion and continued as Adjunct Professor of Theater and Theology until 1996. He participated in the establishment of a program for Religion and the Arts at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and was a member of the doctoral faculty. He also taught at The College of Theology at Silliman University (Philippines), Stanford University (CA)(where he was Acting Dean of the Chapel), at the University of Colorado (where he was Resident Theologian with the Boulder Council of Churches) and at Berea College (KY) (where he was the Lilly Visiting Professor).

For seven years as Dean of Summer Session at PSR, he brought national scholars to Berkeley, as well as from England and Germany, Japan, Cuba and South Africa, and leaders in Art History, Music, Dance, Storytelling, Mime and Clowning. During that time he led a three-week plunge experience for beginning seminary students reading the entire Bible together, mostly aloud. He also taught in summer sessions for PSR at Hawaii Loa College, at The Evangelical Theological Seminary at Matanzas, Cuba, the Chandler School of Theology at Emory University (GA) and The Southern California School of Theology at Claremont (CA).

He was founder and artistic director of the Bay Area Religious Drama Service (BARDS) which performed scripts by proven playwrights in a score of churches in the Bay Area. As lecturer and often as actor (sometimes with his company of actors from Berkeley), he appeared on college campuses from San Diego to Seattle and Vancouver (BC). In addition to conventional projects, his major experimental projects were "For the Time Being, a Christmas Oratorio" by W.H. Auden, and "omegAlpha", the biblical Book of Revelation. He was a member of the Board of Directors for The Bread and Wine Mission and its successor, intersection, in San Francisco, and The Episcopal Drama Foundation.

In addition to books on Seventh Day Baptist history and procedures, he was author of three books published by Abingdon Press, The Art of Teaching Christianity (also published in Spanish, Korean and Japanese translations), Understanding Christian Education, On Nurturing Christians and Theater and Theology an Autobiography of an Unexpected Career, soon off the press. His lectures and articles, sermons, worship services and prayers, play scripts and theater textbooks are in the Archives of the Flora Lamsom Hewlett Library at the Graduate Theological Union.

He is survived by Anna Loofbourrow Rood (married in 1940), graduate of Milton College, high school teacher and for sixteen years member of the Board of the University YWCA in Berkeley. Both of their children were born in Berkeley: Suzanne Rood Cox, PSR graduate and Religious Educator, and Wayne Randall Rood, musician and proprietor of The Emeryville Recording Company. There are two grandsons, Courtney Rood Cox and Cohn Randall Rood. Memorial gifts may be directed to the Rood Fund for Theater and Theology at The Center for the Arts, Religion and Education (CARE) at the Graduate Theological Union. A Memorial Service will be held at the Chapel of Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, on Sunday, June 4, 2000, at 2:00 in the afternoon.

It is with deep sadness that we report the death on Saturday, May 20, 2000, of Dr.Wayne Rood, Professor Emeritus of Pacific School of Religion. Wayne taught at PSR from 1952 to 1981 as Professor of Christian Education. He served as Dean of Summer Session from 1973 to 1980 and was Emeritus Professor of Christianity and the Arts from the time of his retirement in May 1981 until very and Congregational churches on both coasts. He was an army chaplain in the Pacific and Japan with the rank of major and received the Purple Heart. He loved travel andhistory. He was a frequent guest on various campuses where he shared his love and knowledge with the theater departments. To many, he was best known for his theater projects in which he excelled in both directing and acting.

We ask you to hold his family, his wife Ann and his children Suzanne and Randy, in your prayers. We also invite you to join us for a memorial service in the PSR Chapel on Sunday, June 4, at 2 pm. For more information, contact the PSR Vice President's Office at 510/849-8227.