December 29 Today in OPC History

“My parents were both 43 years old when I was born on a farm outside of Idana, Kansas, December 29, 1923, the last of five children,” reads the opening sentence of the Rev. Glenn T. Black’s autobiography. The family soon moved to a dairy farm outside of Hays, Kansas. Much to his regret his parents relocated to Denver before he was 5. He writes: “How many four year old boys in Denver got to drive the harnessed team of horses into place in front of an implement, then back them up astraddle the implement’s tongue, so dad could complete the job of preparing for work in the field? How many boys in Denver had the privilege of driving the team while dad pitched feed to the cows from the back of the wagon?”

Even at that young age on the farm he was interested in flight: “Kansas has its share of hawks and of the thermals on which they rise. Flight was a mystery to me, and it was fascinating!” When World War II began, Glenn enlisted in the Army Air Corps, eventually piloting a B-25. While in flight school he and Carmen Crook were married on December 31, 1942. On a mission over Livorno, Italy, his plane was hit and he was seriously wounded, but was able to land on a base in Corsica.

Glenn was reared in the Reformed Presbyterian (“Covenanter”) Church. He writes:

I cannot remember a time when I did not believe in God. I don’t know when it became clear to me that I was a sinner, unworthy of being in the presence of God who is absolutely Holy, and that my only hope was in being identified with the Lord Jesus Christ, identified with Him in His righteousness, His suffering and death, and in His resurrection. I don’t know “when,” but I do know “that.”

Following the war Glenn graduated from Sterling College and Westminster Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1958. After serving as pastor of Westminster OPC, Westchester, Illinois, he became a home missionary in Eugene, Oregon. He became a missionary-at-large in the Denver area, following which he served the old Dakotas Presbytery in that capacity. Since the presbytery covered the central United States from Canada to Mexico, his plane and the ability to fly proved useful!

On April 17, 2021, Glenn Black died at the age of 97 and went to be with the Lord in heaven.

The guest author of today's entry is the Rev. John W. Mahaffy, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Newberg, Oregon. To read more about the Rev. Glenn T. Black, visit https://mahaffynet.net/?page_id=53. All quotes are from this document.

Pictures: Counter clockwise, Mr. Black during basic training at Gardner Field, Taft, California in October 1942; Mr. Black in a B25-G in Greenville, South Carolina; Mr. Black at age 94 piloting a Stearman, the kind of plane in which he trained as a cadet in WW II.