Paul E. V. Shannon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Eugene Virgil Shannon was a Bishop of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, elected in 1957.
[edit] Birth and early life
Paul was born 25 March 1898 in Mountville, Pennsylvania, the fifth child of the Rev. Absalom Lincoln and Linnie (Erb) Shannon. Paul was named for the Apostle Paul and for Eugene Field, whose writings his parents enjoyed. Fifteen years later, his mother added Virgil to his name. His parents hoped that Paul would become a minister in the Church they loved and served.
Before Paul was three years of age, however, his father died of diphtheria just twelve days before Christmas. Leaving meager financial resources, his mother worked at whatever jobs were available to support her six children. The long hours away from home and the care of the children proved too much. Four of the children were placed in other homes. Only Paul and his invalid sister, Lois, remained with their mother. One brother and sister were in fact the first residents of the Quincy Orphanage in Pennsylvania.
Their hand-to-mouth existence meant there were days without food. Lois, who suffered from a heart ailment, died while still a young teenager. One month before Paul's High School graduation, his mother died. Paul wrote, "I was called into the room and there was my mother drawing her last breath. She had laid down her life for us as the Good Shepherd did. Worldly separation is cruel, yet we can be thankful that we can not fully realize our loss. I immediately placed my heart in God's will and said, 'They will be done.'" This marked his decision to enter the Gospel ministry.
[edit] Education
His parents had planned for Paul and his brother Carl to attend Lebanon Valley College, where their parents had met. Obviously. their deaths cast a shadow over such dreams. Paul and Carl lived together following their mother's death. And when they inherited a little money from an aunt, they both enrolled. Paul was a student there 1914-1918, and at Hillsdale 1917-18. Following college graduation he enrolled at Bonebrake Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio.
