Babcock, Joseph L., Rev. 1925-2000

BABCOCK, SPOONER, BRADSHAW, SPEAGLE, MORAN, PEEK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/13/2014 at 11:49:37

Reverend Joseph L. Babcock

Funeral services for the Rev. Joseph L. Babcock, 74, of 201 W. 4th St. S., will be Monday at 10:30 a.m. at First Assembly of God Church in Newton with the Rev. Ed Aubuchon, pastor, officiating. Burial will be at Newton Union Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the church where family will receive friends from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The Wallace Family Funeral Home in Newton is handling arrangements. Memorials in the Rev. Babcock's name to be used to establish a scholarship fund in Nigeria, West Africa, will be accepted.

The Rev. Babcock died of heart failure, Wednesday, Jan. 26, at Skiff Medical Center in Newton.

The son of Lester Lee and Faustine Spooner Babcock, he was born Nov. 28, 1925, in Decatur, Ill. He attended schools in Orena and Argenta, Ill. and graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles, Calif. he married Donna E. Bradshaw June 8, 1945, in Decatur, Ill.

A longtime resident of Newton from 1962 to 1964, 1982 to 1984 and 1986 to present, the Rev. Babcock, he and his wife served as pastors for the Foursquare Church in Newton, Joliet and Rochelle, Ill. and New Castle, Ind. and as staff evangelists in Decatur, Ill. he was a veteran of United States Navy, serving during World War II and the Korean war and served as superintendent of Foursquare Churches in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.

The Rev. Babcock and his wife also served as missionaries in Nigeria, Wet Africa and Zambia, South Central Africa. he was an interim minister in several local churches and at the Newton Release Center. The rev. Babcock retired from full-time ministry in 1989, after which he employed part-time by Rock Communications, Inc. He attended First Assembly of God Church.

A member of several local boards and committees, the Rev. Babcock was a member of the Newton Ministerial Association, a committee member that established Project Prom, a founding member of Your First Step, Inc., the Newton Chamber of Commerce and Newton Noon Kiwanis.

Survivors include his wife; two sons and daughter-in-law, Michael J. and Fran of Pittsburgh, Pa. and Mark O. and Diane of Newton; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and three sisters, Barbara Speagle and Ann Moran of Tuscon, Ariz. and Lynn Peek of Decatur, Ill.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister. ~ Newspaper unnamed but possibly The Des Moines Register or Newton (IA) Daily News.