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- (Research):GOSPEL HERALD - Vol. XXXI, No. 7 - May 19, 1938, Page 158, 159
Brunk - Bishop George Reuben Brunk , son of Henry G. and Susan (Heatwole) Brunk, was born near Geneseo, Ill., Dec. 31, 1871; died suddenly while at work on the evening of April 30, 1938, at his home near Denbigh, Va.; aged 66 y. 4 m. His activities and unfailing interest in the Church and home continued to the very last. On the day of his death he completed and mailed the July issue of the "Sword and Trumpet," through which medium he labored faithfully for the welfare of the Church at large.
When he was two years of age his family moved on the western prairie near Marion, Kansas, later locating near Groveland, Kansas. Here, as a young man, he was brightly converted under the ministry of Bro. J.S. Coffman. At the age of 21 he was ordained to the ministry at West Liberty Church in Kansas, and at the age of 26 ordained to the office of Bishop, having oversight of the Spring Valley and Catlin congregations. In 1910 he with his family moved to Denbigh, Va., where he had bishop charge of congregations in southeastern Virginia until his death. From his ordination to the ministry he was actively engaged in evangelistic work for many years.
At the age of 28 years he married Katie Wenger of Harrisonburg, Va. To this home came nine children, making an unbroken family until the departure of a precious and loving husband and father. How we miss his tender sympathies, his counsels, his prayers. The strong pillar of our home is removed and we are a broken family here; yet heaven seems much nearer and we long for the time of meeting. He so often prayed that we might meet an unbroken family over there. We know that he is even now waiting for each one of us, as his expressed himself in these original lines:
"Not only through earth's toilsome years, do parents watch and wait
For children scatter far; but having heard the Master's call,
And folded earth work all aside and gone away,
The vigil is not ended; the alter fires of love still burn within.
From that far land they watch and wait, for the children to come Home."
He leaves his sorrowing companion and nine children: Esther Virginia, Truman Henry (minister), Stella Victoria (Mrs. J. Ward Shank, Broadway, Va.), Edna Frances (Mrs. Arthur Hertzler), Meno Simon, George Rowland (minister), Katie Florence (Mrs. John F. Shank, Broadway, Va.), Ruth Wenger, and Lawrence Burkhart. There are nine grandchildren. He is also survived by one brother (Pre. J.F. Brunk, Newton, Kans.), two sisters (Mrs. J.A. Cooprider, Hesston, Kans., and Mrs. Walter Cooprider, McPherson, Kans.), one half-brother (Charles W. Cooprider of Windom, Kans.), and two half-sisters (Mrs. E.J. Ely of Inman, Kans., and Mrs. O.E. Hostetler of McPherson, Kans.).
Funeral services at the home were in charge of Bro. Daniel Shenk, and at the Warwick River Mennonite Church by Bro. J.L. Stauffer (Texts, I Samuel 20:18 and II Timothy 4:6-8), assisted by Bros. C.C. Culp, S.H. Rhodes, J.R. Driver and Daniel Kauffman.
The sorrowing family.
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