- Date Of Birth: January 26, 1935
- Date Of Death: February 9, 2023
- State: Maryland
REV. HARRISON LEROY PENN
Rev. Harrison Leroy Penn captured his life in pictures. His decades on earth cannot only be seen
in photographs he took but in the kinds of cameras he used – Kodak Instamatic, slide film, Polaroid,
disposable point-and-shoots from CVS. He died Thursday Feb. 9, 2023 in Montgomery County, Md.,
where he lived for almost 50 years.
Born Jan. 26, 1935, in Ridgeway, Va., Harrison was the third of five children from the marriage of
George Harrison Penn and Minnie Hughes Harris. A teacher, pastor, musician, and military veteran, he
rose from the small town in South Central Virginia to become a proud husband and father of three
children who shaped countless lives. He lived his 88 years of life unambiguously, declaring in childhood
his love for Jesus Christ and demonstrating his penchant for leadership.
Even in his youth, he once prompted a protest in his local high school against a requirement to
participate in sports during physical education classes. The teacher sent him to the office after he refused
to catch a ball thrown at him because his church said they should not play ball. “The ball just hit me as I
stood there,” he often recounted. He believed in obedience, so much so that his mother said she recalled
spanking him just once (though his recollection seemed to reflect more than that). But it was Harrison’s
civil disobedience that emboldened other students with hardline church beliefs to refuse to play ball at
school.
He spent much of life focused on education, graduating with a B.S. degree from Maryland State
College – now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Aptitude tests indicated that he should pursue
studies in music, as he loved sitting at the piano, playing entirely by ear, mostly for church. But with the
challenges musicians had faced in their careers, he said, “I’m glad I didn’t pursue music,” though he
continued playing piano as a youth leader in the Virginia State Council of the Pentecostal Assemblies of
the World and even after his hearing was failing him.
Shortly after college, the U.S. Army called him into service. He reported in 1958 and became a
military medical aidman until 1960. Because he refused to use a gun on grounds of his faith, he again
showed his willingness to buck a system that countered his beliefs and served as a conscientious objector.
After that tour of duty, he returned to his hometown to teach, with his younger sister Dorothy
among his students. Dorothy tells of just how hard a taskmaster her eldest brother was. The military
recalled him for a second tour from December 1961 to August 1962, the year he returned to teaching –
this time in Washington, D.C., where he had met Edith Florence Parran, the love of his life and also a
teacher who was committed to her faith in Jesus. The couple married Oct. 13, 1962, less than a year after
they met. Their union produced three children, Yolanda Genelle, Anthony Harrison and Ivan LeRoy.
For 60 years, Harrison and his devoted wife Edith enjoyed a loving marriage as they raised their
three children, teaching them everything from changing oil in the car, how to drive a car, catch crabs from
the waters off Maryland’s Eastern Shore, make home repairs from drywalling and painting to replacing
windows and minor electrical work. He insisted on straight lines when cutting the grass and pressed
outdoor work, from cutting trees to spading, fertilizing and planting the family’s large garden. During
summers, he would help his wife’s uncle, Ferdinand Berry, drive one of his buses on tourist trips to
Pennsylvania Dutch Country and as far as Nova Scotia and elsewhere – at times with one of his sons
seated in a chair next to him.
Along with his family and career, he held roles at the First United Church of Jesus Christ
Apostolic and Rehoboth Church of God in Christ, including deacon, trustee, Sunday School
superintendent, pastoral administrator, minister, pastor, district youth president and men’s department
president. Even as he performed these duties, he continued pursuing his own education, earning a master’s
degree in administration and supervision from D.C. Teachers/Federal City/University of the District of
Columbia in 1974.
He mostly taught at Hart Junior High School in D.C., during his 26 years in the city’s school
system, teaching shop classes that highlighted his expertise in wood and metal work – his skill
highlighted by pieces of furniture and metal art he crafted for his family. He retired as an administrator at
Winston Educational Center in the District, though he referred to the departure as not a retirement but a
“change of emphasis.” As a licensed minister in the United Church of Jesus Christ, a certification he
received in 1984, Harrison turned to ministerial work, serving about two decades as a volunteer chaplain
at Greater Southeast Community Hospital in the city, always carrying what became known as his
signature ministry tool – a bottle of oil tucked in his pants pocket to anoint a person’s hands and head to
bless them.
More than 20 years ago, Harrison envisioned a ministry that would move outside of the church
walls and into the streets. He bought a recreational vehicle for a mobile ministry that ultimately became
United Ambassadors Ministries Inc.
His faith and education permeated virtually every area of his life. He quoted poetry, focusing on
uplifting people with phrases that promoted positive thinking and attitude. And he would fashion his own
sayings into pearls of wisdom to his family, the five godchildren he and his wife nurtured and others, like
“success builds strong wings, just watch your flying,” “chalk out your life that God can blow the particles
where He will,” “you’re something else,” “hold tight,” and “keep being special,” “watch your driving.”
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Edith; three children: Yolanda (Edmund), Anthony and
Ivan; six grandchildren: Dexter Edmund, Jr., Daniel Edmund, DeAnn Marissa Edmund, Ivy Penn, Isaiah
Penn and Immanuel Penn; one son in-law, Dexter E. Edmund Sr.; one daughter in-law; September Graves
Penn; two sisters: Pauline Copeland and Dorothy Arnold; one brother, Timothy Penn; two brothers
in-law: Madison Copeland and Harold Arnold Sr.; one sister in-law, Priscilla Penn; and many beloved
nieces, nephews and other relatives. He was preceded in death by his eldest sister Phyllis Jones.
Hospital.
To
