Bio – Mow, Joseph Baxter

MOw, Joseph B. (Hiner Photo - 2)

Born: July 10, 1926 (Mussoorie Uttarakhand, India)

Died: December 4, 2009 (Buckhannon, WV)


Education:

    • Woodstock School in India
    • John Marshall High School (Chicago, IL)
    • B.A. Manchester College (Wabash County, IN)
    • B.D. Bethany Biblical Seminary (Chicago, IL)
    • B.D. University of Chicago, 1957
    • Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1964
    • He studied at Oxford University in 1971-72

Taught:

    • Professor of Philosophy 1963-88
    • Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus 1988-2009

Notes:

    • Post World War II, Joe worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the Brethren Service Unit in China expediting relief shipments into the interior and teaching Chinese farmers how to run tractors.
    • Then went to Europe to work with the resettlement of war refugees, first with the Brethren Service Center, then with the World Council of Churches. He later became Associate Director for Immigration Services of Church World Services in New York City.
    • From 1958-61 Joe was the pastor of the First Church of Deerfield, MA, which served the student population of Deerfield Academy as well as the community.
    • He and his family came to Buckhannon in 1963 where he taught in the Department of Philosophy of West Virginia Wesleyan College where he served as the Department Chair until his retirement in 1988.
    • Joe was a member of the West Virginia State Ethics Program Planning Committee, theWest Virginia Philosophy Society, the Philosophical Association, and the American Society for Christian Ethics.
    • He also served as Chairman of the American Academy of Religion section of Society for Philosophy of Creativity.
    • Joe was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a member of the First Congregational Church in Marietta, OH, as well as the Southeast Ohio Association of that denomination.
    • He was a member of the Buckhannon Rotary Club for 46 years, and a Paul Harris Fellow. He volunteered for the Buckhannon River Habitat for Humanity.
    • Following retirement, he and his wife traveled to Nicaragua, China, India and Europe. His hobbies included playing the violin, woodworking, sailing and reading.
    • At his request, he was cremated and his ashes buried in the foothills of the Himalayas near Woodstock School.
  • Attended the West Virginia Philosophical Society conference April 24-25, 1964 and read his paper, “Process and Language: Sanskrit and Chinese.”

Sources:


PLM 2/3/2019