Rev. Joseph Hemphill Dies at 69
Memorial services will be held Wednesday for the Rev. Joseph Hemphill Jr., one of the founding members of the South Coast Community church in Irvine, who died Sunday at age 69.
Hemphill, born Feb. 5, 1924, in Asheville, N.C., joined the Marines after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and served in the South Pacific and later in Japan, achieving the rank of first lieutenant.
Hemphill was senior pastor of the San Gabriel Union Church in San Gabriel from 1956 until 1969. He then became the executive director of the National Sunday School Assn. in Wheaton, Ill. Later he became pastor of a Baptist church in Riverside.
Instead of retiring when he moved to Corona del Mar in the early 1970s, Hemphill helped found the South Coast Community Church.
Memorial services will be held at 7 p.m. in the South Coast Community Church auditorium, 5120 Bonita Canyon Road, Irvine. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the W. Joseph Hemphill Jr. Memorial Fund, care of the church.
Hemphill leaves his wife of 47 years, Marta; two daughters, Elissa Meyers and Cindi Estey, and three grandchildren.
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