News Release -- 2003

Pogue elected chair of Brethren Benefit Trust

August 5, 2003 Elgin, Ill.

The Brethren Benefit Trust Board of Directors held its reorganization meeting on July 8, 2003, at Annual Conference in Boise, Idaho. Board members elected Dick Pogue as Board chair and Fred Bernhard as vice chair, and re-elected BBT President Wilfred Nolen as secretary and Chief Financial Officer Darryl Deardorff as treasurer.

Pogue, a Church of the Brethren member from Susan, Va., has served on the BBT Board since 1997. He served as executive vice president of the Investment Company Institute — the national trade association representing U.S. mutual funds, unit investment trusts, and closed-end funds — for 29 years, until his retirement in 1998. Pogue has served the Washington, D.C. community through his work with For Love of Children, Inc., an agency serving abused, neglected, and homeless children and their families; as co-founder and director of MANNA, Inc., a developer of housing for low-income people; and as director of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, an inner-city community center.

Bernhard, from Arcanum, Ohio, serves as pastor of the Oakland Church of the Brethren. He has served on the BBT Board from 1992 to 1994 and from 1997 to present. In 1996, he served as Church of the Brethren Annual Conference moderator. As a member of the General Board and Pension Board from 1980 to 1985, he served on the Pension Board executive search committee in 1982 and 1983 and as vice chair of the General Board from 1984 to 1985. Bernhard has been active in his local community, serving on the boards of the Council on Rural Service Program, the Brethren Retirement Community, Wayne Hospital, and the United Fund, and on the Darke County Mental Health Board, the Tri-County Mental Health Board, and the State of Ohio CROP Board.

In other BBT board elections, conference delegates elected Eric Kabler of Ebensburg, Pa. and approved the BBT election of Janice Bratton of Hummelstown, Pa. Plan members elected Brenda Reish of Richmond, Ind., to represent the seminary and colleges.

Three members completed their terms on the Board. Ann Quay Davis, Covina, Calif., served on the Board from 1988 to 1992, 1993 to 1995, and 1995 to 2003. She chaired the Board from 1998 to 2003. Ray Donadio, Greenville, Ohio, and Melvin Wampler, Bridgewater, Va., served on the Board from 1995 to 2003. Donadio served as vice chair from 1998 to 2003.

The next Board meeting will be held at McPherson, Kan., Nov. 21-22, 2003.