M. Matthews; 1st Woman of Bishop Rank

The Rev. Marjorie S. Matthews, who took up the ministry late in life and became the first woman elected a bishop in the 300-year history of the United Methodist Church, has died at the age of 69.

Bishop Matthews, a divorcee who was working for an auto parts manufacturer and raising a son when she turned to the ministry, died Monday of cancer here.

She was elected one of the church’s 46 bishops in 1980 and served in the Wisconsin area until her retirement in 1984. Before being appointed a bishop, she was district supervisor for the Grand Traverse (Mich.) District.

As bishop she had jurisdiction over 135,000 Methodists in 522 Wisconsin churches.

Since her appointment, two other women have become United Methodist bishops--Judith Craig in Michigan and Leontine Kelly in San Francisco.

Bishop Matthews was working as secretary in her late 40s and said later of that time, “I thought there must be something else to do with my life.”

She entered Central Michigan University when she was 51, graduating cum laude, earned a master of divinity degree from Colgate-Rochester School of Theology, and a doctorate from Florida State University.

Bishop Matthews began her pastoral career in a small rural parish in Napoleon, Mich.

After retiring, she taught at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.