Wilbur P. Thirkield

Thirkield was married to Mary Haven Thirkield, the daughter of Bishop Gilbert Haven. She was president of the Woman's Home Missionary Society for 10 years. She died on February 18, 1935, in New York at the age of seventy-six. Thirkield died on November 8, 1936. His obituary read: The Rev. Wilbur Patterson Thirkield, 82, a retired bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died in the Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal Hospital after an illness of several weeks. Bishop Thirkield retired in 1928 after approximately half a century of service to the church, distinguished in his early years by his work for Negroes and in later years by his effort toward the development of sacred music. The Physics department building at Howard University, Wilbur Thirkield Hall, is dedicated to him and his service to the school. ==References==