William Webster Easley, Jr. was born in Lexington, Henderson County, Tennessee to William Webster Easley, Sr., and Gretchen Lorraine (Funderburk) Easley. He was a graduate of Tennessee State University as well as a Richard Allen and a Ford Foundation Fellow. He also received Lubrizol Foundation Award for Academic Excellence Educational Services at Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio.
As a Seminarian, Rev. William Webster Easley, Jr was selected to serve as a Student Observer to the Consultation on Church Union and as Liaison Representative for the National Council of Churches (NCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington, D.C. William takes great pride in serving his denomination as pastor of churches in both the 2nd and 13th Episcopal Districts.
Additionally, he has served the Episcopal Church as a Lesson Writer for the Primary, Junior and Senior Sunday School Quarterlies for the Division of Christian Education (1969-71), Member of the Revision of the A.M.E. Book of Discipline Committee and the Compilation Committee (1984, 1988, and 2004), Alternate Delegate to the A.M.E. General Conference (1972), Chairman of the 13th Episcopal District Delegation (Youngest Delegation Chairman 1976), Member of the A.M.E. Church’s Theological Working Papers II (1980), Member of the A.M.E. Church’s Strategic Planning Initiative (2003-2004), Delegate to the 15th, 16th and 17th World Methodist Assemblies, Chairman of the Board of Ministerial Training for the Western North Carolina and the Tennessee Conferences, Chairman of the 4th Year Studies for the Board of Ministerial Training for the Washington Annual Conference and Treasurer for the Second Episcopal District (1994-2000).
During his ministry, Rev. William Webster Easley, Jr was blessed to purchase land for new church buildings and parking areas, reduced and eliminated church mortgages and parsonage mortgages, established endowment funds, scholarship funds, prison ministries, homeless ministries, bible studies, tutorial programs, mentorship programs, family incentive programs, and purchased the new pipe organ at St. Joseph’s Durham, N.C. He was blessed to see the membership more than double in Durham, N.C. and was privileged to have many sons and daughters in Christian Ministry serving the congregation 17 years as pastor.
Additional Life and Work Experiences, Rev. William Webster Easley, Jr has been a Guest Lecturer at The University of Louisville, “Black Women In Methodism”, Duke University, “John Wesley and the Evangelical Revival in Great Britain”, and Bowie State University, “General and Clinical Psychology. He served as President of Durham Congregations In Action (sponsoring Meals On Wheels, Elder Neighbor, Medi-Port, Host Homes, the Community Soup Kitchen).
He was a Charter Member of The James E. Shepard SERTOMA Club of Durham, North Carolina, a member of The National Panel of Consumer Arbitrators, for the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., and has served as a member of The Kentucky Department of Justice’s Committee for Recruiting and Retaining Women and Minorities in State Government, the American Correctional Association, the Advisory Board, Duke University Comprehensive Sickle Cell Research and Treatment Program, Board of Directors, United Way of Greater Durham, The National Council of Churches IMPACT Briefing Sessions in conjunction with the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Bill and the Fair Housing Bill in the Congress of the United States.
Rev. William Webster Easley, Jr was privileged to serve as a Participant with the State of North Carolina’s Educational Policy Seminars, the White House Religious Consultation on the SALT II Arms Limitation Treaty between the United States of America and the U.S.S.R during the Carter Administration, with the Presidential Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad and the White House Briefings on the Africa Trade Bill during the Clinton Administration.
He is survived by his wife, Ora L. Seats Easley, son, William W. Easley, III; daughter-in-law, Sonja Elaine Tyler Easley.
