(Sept. 22, 2016 - by Harold Goerzen)  “Retirement” for Dub Page only meant getting four new “tires” and moving on to his next assignment, whether it be working for a major plywood company or ministering with two different mission organizations. He was also a World War II veteran.

Page’s storied career, spanning more than seven decades, came to a close while at the summer home of one of his sons in Tacoma, Wash., on Sunday, Aug. 28. He died at the age of 93 after two years of declining health, several family members at his side.

W.D. “Dub” Page was born to John and Eunice Page in Pope County, Ark., on Nov. 6, 1922. He attended school in Dover, Ark., and went on to graduate from Arkansas Polytechnic College (now Arkansas Tech) in 1942.

Dive-Bomber Pilot

While at the school he took a civilian flight class, enabling him to enlist as a naval aviator in July 1942. He became a dive-bomber pilot in the U.S. Navy’s Helldiver squadron and served on aircraft carriers in the Pacific during World War II. He left active service in December 1945 but remained in the Naval Reserves until 1958.

After leaving active service, Page enrolled in the forestry program at the University of Washington in Seattle, completing his bachelor’s degree in forestry in December 1947. While there he met his future wife, Patricia “Pat” Ann MacDonald. Following a whirlwind courtship, they were married on Sept. 18, 1948.

After Page graduated with a master’s degree in 1949, the Pages moved to Tacoma where he began his business career as assistant chief of quality control for the American Plywood Association (APA), then known as the Douglas Fir Plywood Association and now called the Engineered Wood Association.

A pivotal moment came in 1951 when Dub and Pat, active members of Lake City Community Church in Lakewood, Wash., attended a Billy Graham crusade. They both felt God’s prompting to serve in Christian ministry, so they packed up their belongings and moved with their young family to Chicago to study pastoral ministry at Moody Bible Institute, where Page completed his diploma in 1954.

Business Executive

While still a student at Moody, Page continued his business career as field promotion representative for the technical division of the APA in Chicago. He later advanced to the position of Chicago regional manager for the association, and in 1959 he was named the first executive vice president of the company’s affiliate, Plywood Fabrication Services, Inc., which created standardize plywood building components used nationwide.

Amid his busy schedule, Page found time to help found the Community Bible Church in Cedar Lake, Ind., becoming ordained by the church in December 1957. The Pages saw the church grow to the point where the congregation could support a full-time pastor. Then they focused on an outreach among young people at the church.

After a fire forced the APA to close its Chicago offices in 1967, Dub and Pat moved back to Tacoma. In 1971 the company named Page as its director of building systems, and two years later he began heading the firm’s new special services division, eventually becoming vice president of industry affairs. During those years he traveled the world representing the APA, and he was recognized as the architect of programs to assure the technical adequacy and professional quality supervision of the numerous foreign woods being used in the U.S. plywood industry.

Church Planter

However, Page’s greatest passion was to further the reach of the gospel, and he became a special representative for Reach Beyond, then known as HCJB. He also did youth work at Lake City Community Church and Westgate Baptist Church in Tacoma, and he helped plant Sunset Community Church (now Sunset Bible Church), also in Tacoma. He served there as a part-time pastor for three years until the church could support a full-time minister.

“I met Dub at a Bible conference in Washington in 1979,” recalled former Reach Beyond President Ron Cline, now serving as a global ambassador with the ministry. “He shared his lifelong desire to serve Christ in a mission organization, and I invited him to consider joining us.”

“Dub started by volunteering one day a week and working the other four for the APA,” Cline explained. “Then it was two days a week for us and three for them. Soon he gave three days to us and worked just two for the APA. Finally, he came with us full time and contributed so much to our mission. He was always humble and unassuming. He had such a positive ‘can-do’ attitude. He was a loyal friend.”

Stateside Missionary

After 33 years with the APA he retired, and the Pages joined Reach Beyond as missionaries in 1981. They initially served in Atlanta, Ga., then moved to Miami, Fla., and finally Colorado Springs, Colo., during their time with the mission.

“Many of the things we did in the 1990s were done because Dub was used of God to find the funds, and to encourage the dream,” Cline explained. “I loved working with him. His unique niche with us was that he loved sharing about the ministry, and he discovered he was a great fundraiser.”

Retirees Doug and Darlene Peters remember Page as the “Energizer bunny.” Doug, who served as Page’s supervisor for a number of years, said he “did the work of two people and did it well. He loved to involve others in the promotion of the mission. He built and encouraged a team of special representatives, revived the Power Partner program and set up teams to do multiple mission banquets across the U.S. Page did his work with the heart of a pastor and mobilized many people to serve and to give. He was enthusiastic and represented the mission well.”

Among the many involved in the fellowship dinners was missionary retiree Imogene Booker, then serving with her late husband, Leonard. “We worked with Dub for about 13 years,” she said. “He had an unusual way of filling up a schedule with meetings in churches and in private homes. Whenever he asked us to come for a series of meetings, they were always packed full of people. He was good at keeping us busy. We never felt like we worked for Dub; we worked with Dub. He was a team worker and an inspiration.”

“Dub was a mentor, partner in ministry and friend,” added missionary Dick Jacquin. “He took me under his wing and taught me the ropes about fund development for our mission. Dub was a lovable, affable child of God who loved his work and loved his Lord…. When he retired from our ministry it was the end of an era, and his legacy cannot be soon forgotten.”

After retiring from Reach Beyond in 2002, he began anew with SOAR International Ministries, a fledgling organization started by his son Dick that works primarily with orphans and at-risk street kids in Russia.

Bible Teacher

Page, then in his 80s, made more than 20 trips to Russia in the next 12 years, helping as a Bible teacher and summer camp “grandpa” to hundreds of Russian children. He made his final trip to Russia at the age 91 in the summer of 2014.

Just a few months later, Page injured his head in a fall, preventing him from traveling. But he never lost his passion for sharing the gospel and always wanted to return to Russia to minister to the children there.

During the last two years of his life, Page proved himself to be a “comeback kid” as described by his daughter Sue Baker. “It was such a privilege to care for my dad through the last two years,” she related. “It was inspirational to see him continue to fight to get better so that he could return to Russia. Even when he was sometimes confused or disoriented, he was usually planning a mission trip or a Bible camp.”

She added that her father often encouraged the many caretakers and medical professionals that he encountered to commit their lives to the Lord.

“Just a few days before he passed away, a home healthcare nurse had come back to see him after several months, and he challenged her by asking if she had asked Christ into her heart,” Baker recounted. “She replied, ‘Not that I am aware of,’ at which point he launched into a 10-minute mini-sermon about why it was critical for her to do so. It was the most words I had heard him say in weeks! I remember wondering if this was the reason that God was keeping Dad here—to talk to this person.”

She added that her father had learned to say “I love you” (ya lyublyu tebya) in Russian and often flashed the sign language hand sign for “I love you” while saying these words. “He was ever the loving and gracious southern gentleman until God called him home,” Baker said. “He will be greatly missed.”

In addition to Pat, his wife of nearly 68 years, Page is missed by his seven children, Dave, Dick, Paul, Steve, Sue, Jeff and Mary, as well as 19 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life service, complete with a military funeral honors, is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, at the New Tacoma Cemetery in University Place, Wash. This will be followed by a lunch at the nearby Olympic View Baptist Church. The family has asked that memorial donations be made to SOAR, Reach Beyond or a charity of the donor’s choice.

Source: Reach Beyond