Dr. Richard C. Bush, Jr. 1923-2008

Stillwater News Press – Obituaries/Local-story. Published: March 2, 2008 Dr. Richard C. Bush, Jr.卜瑞德, a retired missionary and educator, passed away Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 in Denton, Texas. He and Mrs. Mary (Richard) Bush, 卜美麗were in Taiwan from1966 to 1971 as missionaries at Tunghai University in Taichung.

Dr. Richard C. Bush, Jr., a retired missionary and educator, passed away Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 in Denton, Texas. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

Bush was born in Waco, Texas on Aug. 18, 1923. After attending Baylor University he received his bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University in 1944 and an M.A. from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology in 1946. He was ordained as an elder in the Methodist Church in 1948. He continued his graduate study at the University of Chicago in the late 1940s, and served as the pastor of churches in Creston and Thornton, Ill. He received his doctoral degree in 1960; his thesis compared ethics in ancient Hinduism and early Buddhism.

In 1950, the Methodist Church commissioned Bush and his wife, Mary, as missionaries to the Philippines. For five years, Bush was Protestant chaplain at the University of the Philippines. In 1955 he joined the faculty of Perkins School of Theology at SMU. From 1960 to 1965, he was director of the Christian Study Center of Chinese Religion and Culture in Hong Kong. Research conducted during that period formed the basis of his Religion in Communist China, published in 1970 by Abingdon Press. Dr. and Mrs. Bush then served from 1966 to 1971 as missionaries in Taiwan at Tunghai University in Taichung. They returned to the United States in 1971, and Bush joined the faculty of Oklahoma State University. A decade later they moved to Oklahoma City University, where he served as Dean of the School of Religion. He also served as pastor of the Billy Hooten United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, a congregation in the Indian Conference. He retired from OCU in 1989.

Bush was also the author of Religion in China, published in 1977, and general editor of the 1993 edition of The Religious World: Communities of Faith. His entire career was directed to understanding the peoples and cultures of East Asia.

Bush is survived by his wife, Mary Ethlyn Ball Bush, of Denton; two brothers, Jack C. Bush of San Antonio and Robert C. Bush of Corsicana; four children and their spouses, Richard C. and Martha H. Bush III of Fairfax, Va., Nancy Ellen Frenkel of Denton, Susan and Paul Thompson of Norman, and Paul and Laurie Eisenbach-Bush of Webster Groves, Mo.; and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m., at the First United Methodist Church of Denton prior to the memorial service at 11 a.m. in Cole Chapel.

Religion in Communist China. By Richard C. Bush Jr., Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970. 432 pp.