Rev. Eustice Kirkpatrick, former pastor of the Woodstock Free Methodist Church and chaplain at Hearthstone Manor in Woodstock, wasn’t the retiring type.
“He would go out and visit in the hospital and take care of people even though that was no longer his job,” said Rev. David Cooper, pastor of Woodstock Free Methodist Church. “He was always out there in the community, especially in the institutions ministering to people and their needs. He did a lot of things behind the scenes.”
Rev. Kirkpatrick, 90, of Woodstock died of natural causes Saturday, May 19, in Hearthstone Manor.
From 1986 to 1994, Rev. Kirkpatrick was chaplain at Hearthstone Manor, a senior living community, and continued working after his retirement, said Randy Waller, current chaplain at the facility.
“It was not easy for him to sit down and have a relaxing conversation,” Waller said. “He was always on the go, very gregarious, and enjoyed being with people. He kept going as long as he could.”
Born in Milwaukee and raised in and around the city, Rev. Kirkpatrick graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Platteville. He became a math teacher at Barneveld High School in Wisconsin and later became principal.
In 1940, he married his late wife, Evelyn, also a former teacher.
Rev. Kirkpatrick enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Camp Wolters, Texas, in World War II. He returned to teaching after his discharge but soon entered the ministry.
“It was always his conviction,” said his daughter, Kathy Johnson.
His first assignment was the Free Methodist Church in Platteville. He moved his family to Chicago and was at the Westlawn Free Methodist Church while continuing his studies at several seminaries, his daughter said.
For six years he was at a church near Midway Airport before transferring to Woodstock Free Methodist Church in the mid-1950s.
He was instrumental in moving the church from Illinois Highways 120 and 47 to its present location at 934 N. Seminary Ave.
“The other church wasn’t big enough and he had a bigger vision. But even after he moved it here he said, ‘We should have made it bigger,’ ” Cooper said.
He was in the community for five years in the 1950s before being elected conference superintendent for the Northern Illinois and Wisconsin region of the Free Methodist Church, where he worked for eight years.
“Basically, he was the pastor to the pastors. He was a great leader,” Cooper said. “He has lived two or three lives in one.”
Rev. Kirkpatrick also worked at churches in Janesville, Wis., and New Berlin, Wis., before retiring to Woodstock and becoming chaplain at Hearthstone Manor. “It was a lifetime of preaching and reaching out to people, and he touched a lot of lives,” Cooper said.
Other survivors include a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Free Methodist Church, 934 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock.
