Elden Keith Walter

WALTER — Elden Keith, 87; born April 4, 1928, Elma, Wash.; died Jan. 9, 2016, Centralia, Wash. Surviving: daughters and sons-in-law, Eve Garlyn and Steve Smith, Kingman, Ariz.; Eldena "'dena" and Jac Colon, Mossyrock, Wash.; sister, Lila Dorothy Irene (Walter) Vaughn, San Diego, Calif.; 4 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

Elden Keith Walter was the ninth child out of 11 born to his father. Growing up in the depression years in a large family pushed him into the adult world of making a living early in his life. He gathered wild ferns for sale in the Northwest woods, worked as a logger, and spent a summer on a roundup as a cowboy. He remembered working in a field on the day they heard that a new kind of bomb had been dropped over Hiroshima, and being in awe of this scientific breakthrough. In high school he enjoyed the pranks and mischief common to that age. During those years he also met the future mother of his two girls, Arlys George. They were married just before he entered Walla Walla College with a major in Biblical Languages. He became a journeyman watchmaker before college, and owned a watch store and repair business, hiring his future brother in law, and with the help of their wives income, putting them both through their college years. He took flying lessons, and began a lifetime of flying, and he fathered his first daughter, Eve Garlyn.

He also held his first evangelistic meetings, starting another of his lifelong loves.

There were many young men entering the ministry in those years immediately following World War II, and getting a job wasn’t easy. While still in college he spent one year serving as principal of a small Junior Academy in Missoula, Mont., and associate pastor of five churches. Coming back to the Washington Conference he worked as an intern for various Pastors, always holding evangelistic meetings. It was in Centralia that he was asked to be a Senior Pastor for the first time. Leaving Centralia he went to Aberdeen/ Hoquiam to work with Bruce Johnston as co-pastor and co-evangelist. They held three series of meetings in rapid succession, during which their younger daughter, ‘dena Kay was born.

Finally they received their call into full time evangelism, in the Texico Conference. From there they went on to serve in Arizona, where he pioneered the use of an airatorium as a meeting hall. Then to Michigan Conference, and the Central Union. During these years he began teaching Field Schools of Evangelism in conjunction with Andrews University to help young ministerial students know how to do evangelism.

In Michigan he first joined in producing a record of his singing — this first one with Richard Lange. They sang at a General Conference Session, complete with controversy because of the rhythms and guitar accompaniment.

It was while they served in the Central Union that he piloted a Beechcraft D-18 twin engine plane with the three families of their evangelistic team on a trip through Central and South America visiting the mission fields. Through his life he accumulated more than 7,000 hours as a pilot, earning the ratings of Commercial, Instrument, Multi-engine and Instructor.

In 1968, he became the Ministerial Secretary for the Southwestern Union Conference. During his service there he continued to hold evangelistic meetings, while training the Pastors of the area to do the same. He wrote a book called “New Testament Witnessing” that became very popular, carrying him to camp meetings across the nation giving workshops in how to win a soul to Christ. This book was a major contribution to the revival in the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the subject of Assurance of Salvation through Jesus Christ. The book was eventually translated into several languages. During these years he also was one of the encouraging forces behind the formation of a group called Maranatha Flights International — originally a group of pilots who would go into mission fields and help with building projects.

Following the Southwestern Union years he served as Director of the Bible School for the Voice of Prophecy, and as Ministerial Secretary for the Pennsylvania Conference. His evangelism, teaching, and seminars on assurance in salvation took him throughout the United States, and to England, Thailand, Sarawak, briefly in Australia, Russia and several other countries.

In 1984 Elden completed the course work for a Master’s degree in Human Resources Development. For several years he taught seminars on Management and Communications across the country, including a training seminar in Advanced Communications for Air Force officers, in the Washington area.

In the mid-80s he was president of Retirement Centers of America, a nationwide management company of retirement complexes, and later founded his own Senior Living Management Company for facilities of assisted living homes.

In the 1990s he returned to the Northwest, to Oregon Conference to again pastor. He pastored several churches there before retiring.

Those who knew Elden will remember him for his love for evangelism, music, the outdoors, and the many other interests of his varied life.