Paul Orcutt

Paul Wesley Orcutt was born to Osborne Ray and Lois (Barger) Orcutt near Bruce, Wisconsin on January 19, 1914. He passed away on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at The Cedars in McPherson.

Pauls parents were tenant farmers and moved frequently throughout South Dakota and Nebraska. Paul and his siblings adjusted to new schools every year and sometimes more often. Farming, moving in wagons, and riding to school, Paul developed a love of horses and mules, which never left him.

When Paul was thirteen, the family attended community-sponsored revival services in Binkelman, Nebraska. He and his brothers went forward and prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Paul felt an inner joy. Later he was directed to the ministry through the influence of a book, SKY PILOT, the story of a western preacher, and felt he should become the same.

Paul completed high school in White, SD, in 1934. Enrolling at Wessington Springs Junior College, he received a two-year religion degree and a one-year normal training course. He taught in a one-room school and pastored rural Congregational churches.

Sensing his need for further education, he enrolled in Greenville College, Greenville, IL, in January 1942. There he met and married Estelle Hoffman on September 16, 1943, in Colorado Springs.

Leaving Greenville in the fall of 1944, he pastored two Free Methodist churches in northern Iowa.

In the fall of 1947, he and Estelle were accepted and appointed as missionaries to Rwanda/Burundi in Central Africa. There his assignments included language study, preaching, teaching, buying provisions for boarding schools, and school, mission, and church administration.

Following their assignment in Africa, Paul pastored the West Bethany Free Methodist Church in Leoti, in western Kansas. In 1982, Paul & Estelle moved to McPherson, KS, to become a part of a caring church and community.

Paul lived the greatest commandments: to love God and love people; and to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He was God's faithful servant.

He is survived by his wife, Estelle; his son, Jonathan and wife, Vickie, of Mission, TX; two daughters, Virginia Scott and husband, Tom, of McPherson, KS, and Drusilla McLeland and husband, Paul of West Chicago, IL; two sisters, Dorothy Hicks and Ellen Stroup and husband, Leonard, all of Marshall, MO; and three granddaughters, Sarah Orcutt, Katie McLeland, and Brienne Scott.

Paul was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, and one sister.

The funeral service will be at 2:00 PM, Wednesday, July 16, at the McPherson Free Methodist Church. Burial will be in McPherson Cemetery. Visitation will be from 3:00 to 8:00 PM on Tuesday at Stockham Family Funeral Home with the family present from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

Memorial donations may be given to the Free Methodist Church, The Cedars Health Care Center, or Central Christian College of Kansas in care of Stockham Family Funeral Home. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Paul Orcutt please visit our Sympathy Store.