Rev. Dr. Earl Hoffman Estill

September 30, 2020

Rev. Dr. Earl Hoffman Estill 84, of Lewisville, Texas, formerly of Sterling, Kansas, passed away September 27, 2020 at his home. He was born December 18, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Earl H. Estill became the son of Thelma A. and Earl H. Estill. He lived in Philly and graduated from Bartram High School in June of 1953. He attended Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, for one year and then transferred to Sterling College in 1957, a Master’s degree from Pittsburgh Seminary, Pittsburg, PA, in May of 1960; and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Austin Presbyterian Seminary, Austin, TX in June of 1982. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in July of 1960. His survivors are his wife, Mary; his adult children, Tim and wife Janice (Wichita, KS), Lynette Davids and husband Mark (Boley, OK), and Carol Vickery and husband Wade (Wichita, KS). He was blessed with three granddaughters and one grandson and in 2010 along came his only great-grandchild, a boy. One important move in his life was leaving Philadelphia and going west to Sterling, Kansas for three years of college. He left one of the major cities in the U.S.A. and stepped off a train into a community of about 2,000 people at 3:00 A.M. one day. Culture shock was immediate. No taxi’s, no buses, no trolley’s and he did not know how to get to where he was going to live. Thankfully two boys from the college were there to meet him. Slowly he adopted Kansas as his home state as he enjoyed the people, the environment and the challenges of Kansas life. Most of his pastoral ministry was in Kansas. But when he would leave to go to another state it seemed that he always returned to the place he was calling “home”. He left Kansas and went to Texas in the spring of 2013. After his death on September 27, 2020 he was returned to Sterling for the final time. A joyful graveside service will be held at the Sterling Community Cemetery on Saturday, October 3, 2020 at 1:00 P.M. Please, no flowers. If you wish to send a memorial gift it should be sent to Sterling College and designated for the Chaplain Endowment in care of Birzer Funeral Home, Sterling. In life Earl believed he was the Lord’s. In death he believed he would be the Lord’s. So whether he lived or died, Earl was the Lord’s. And as the reformer John Knox would say at the end of his sermon’s, “So be it.”

Graveside Service at the Sterling Community Cemetery at 1:00 PM on October 3, 2020.