Roy Elden Carnahan passed away on Saturday, 1 July 2017 after a year of declining health.

Roy Carnahan was born on 19 April 1927 in Wadsworth, Ohio, the only child of Kent and Bertha Carnahan. He was educated at Kent State University Elementary School, De Puyster Junior High School, and Theodore Roosevelt High School, all in Kent, Ohio. During high school, he drove a delivery truck for Getz's Hardware Store. Most of his life he spoke of accompanying his Uncle Harlan on the morning milk-delivery route.

He entered Eastern Nazarene College in 1944, traveling with the Evangelistic Association and singing bass in traveling quartet groups. At ENC he also met Doris Jackson of Rochester, New York. They were married after graduation in 1948 and moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Roy attended the Nazarene Theological Seminary, graduating in 1951. The couple accepted an assignment in Potsdam, New York, where there was a church building but no congregation. Their first son, Elden, was born there.

After a successful pastorate in Potsdam, the couple moved to Rochester, New York, and began another new congregation there, Calvary Church of the Nazarene, and helped establish a Spanish congregation. During this time, sons Stephen and Geren and daughter Sherril were born. In 1966, the couple and their family accepted an assignment at First Church of the Nazarene in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1969, Carnahan was elected superintendent of the Washington District of the Church of the Nazarene (now the Mid-Atlantic District) and served in that position until retirement from full-time ministry in 1992. As superintendent, he started churches in Baltimore and Washington and began the district's venture into Haitian, African-American, Korean, and Spanish ministries. During those years, he served on the Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College and rose to become chairman. He was granted a Master's of Divinity degree upon completion of his book, Creative Pastoral Management.

In retirement, Carnahan served on the staff of Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene in York, ministering to shut-ins and elderly church members.

Carnahan’s interests included cars, photography, travel, history, camping, and long walks with the family and their dogs. Three times he led his family on a cross-country camping trip and served on mission teams to many countries. Until the last months of his life, he was an avid reader and always ready to discuss the latest book he had read.

Roy is survived by his wife of 68 years, Doris Carnahan, and his children, Elden and wife, Mary, of Laurel, Maryland; Stephen and wife, Judith Taylor of Auburn, Maine; Geren and wife, Cheryl, of Hampton, Virginia, and Sherril Mohnkern and husband Mark of Petersburg, Pennsylvania. He is also survived by 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, please make all donations to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries c/o Church of the Nazarene, 17001 Prairie Star Parkway, Lenexa, KS 66220. Services will be held on Wednesday, 5 July at 1:30 p.m. at Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene, 400 Stillmeadow Lane, York, PA 17404.

--NCN News submissions

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