Lee Tuttle, former World Methodist executive, dead at age 95
9/11/2000
NOTE: A head-and-shoulder photo of Lee Tuttle is available for use with this story.
By United Methodist News Service
The Rev. Lee Foy Tuttle, 95, staff executive of the World Methodist Council from 1961 to 1976, died Sept. 10 at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
During his 15-year tenure with the World Methodist Council, Tuttle planned three World Methodist Conferences (London 1966, Denver 1971, Dublin 1976) and led the council's efforts to raise $1.2 million to restore historic Wesley's Chapel in London.
At the request of Pope John XXIII, Tuttle named several Methodists as official observers to the Second Vatican Council in 1966-1967. Under Tuttle's leadership, the World Methodist Council was among the first Christian world communions to enter into formal dialogue with the Vatican on matters of faith and the relationships existing between Methodists and Catholics. A formal joint commission between World Methodists and the Vatican has met annually for 33 years.
Tuttle expanded the council's program to provide the international exchange of ministers, now in its 53rd year, and helped launch a program of world evangelism that today touches every continent in the world.
Under his leadership, the World Methodist Conference established the World Methodist Peace Award to recognize "courage, creativity and consistency" in seeking international peace and reconciliation. The award has been presented to 22 individuals, including Anwar Sadat, Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter. Nelson Mandela will be presented the 2000 award in Capetown, South Africa, on Sept. 21.
At Lake Junaluska, N.C., Tuttle enlarged the headquarters building, added significantly to the World Methodist Museum and created the Susannah Wesley Garden, which is widely used for group meetings and weddings. The museum contains a Wesley Window given by Tuttle in honor of his wife.
In 1999, Tuttle received the "Honorable Order of Jerusalem" for his service to the council. The order has 40 inductees worldwide.
Tuttle's successor, the Rev. Joe Hale, praised his work. "I shall greatly miss him. He always challenged me to be more than I am by the excellency of his life and his unfailing encouragement."
Tuttle was educated at Duke University, Durham, N.C., where he received his undergraduate degree and did post-graduate work in theology. He received his divinity degree from Yale University.
Tuttle was a clergy member of the Western North Carolina Conference, where he was ordained an elder in 1936 and served as a pastor of churches and a district superintendent. He was a delegate to general and jurisdictional conferences and assemblies of the World Council of Churches, and was a governing member of several churchwide agencies, including the Methodist Commission on Overseas Relief, the Methodist Publishing House, and the Commission on Archives and History.
He is survived by his wife, Mae Simpson Tuttle, who resides at Arbor Acres Methodist Retirement Center in Winston-Salem; two daughters, Marcia Tuttle of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Diane Schmidt of Hillsborough, N.C.; and three grandchildren. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at Centenary United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem.
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