Obituary of Rev. Dr. H. Wilbur Skeels

Rev. Dr. H. Wilbur Skeels was called home to be with the Lord on Wednesday, Oct 19th, 2011. After a difficult struggle with prostate cancer, he passed away at his home in Thousand Oaks, surrounded by his loving wife of 49 years, Delia, and his three adoring sons, Andrew, Mark, and David. Born May 25th, 1938, in Dunedin, New Zealand, he attended Wellington College and later received a Master's Degree in English Literature & Language from Victoria University in Wellington, graduating with First Class Honors (summa cum laude). He also received the Diploma in Pianoforte from Trinity College of Music, London. Wilbur came to the United States in 1960 as a Fulbright Scholar and attended Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. There he met his future wife, Delia. They married on June 23rd, 1962. In 1963, Wilbur received his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. The couple then sailed to New Zealand, where Wilbur was ordained. He served as pastor of Raumati Baptist Church until 1967. They returned to California for good when Wilbur attended Fuller Theological Seminary and the American Baptist Seminary of the West in West Covina, receiving his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1972. Wilbur continued to pastor American Baptist Churches until his retirement in 2004, after 40+ yrs of parish ministry. He lived in Cairo, Egypt, with his missionary parents until age 7, when World War II forced them to return to New Zealand. There, he quickly began to nurture his prodigious intellect, his early sense of the world, and his life-long passion for music. Wilbur became a church organist at the age of 12. As a young man he crossed paths with two giants of the Christian faith. When Corrie Ten Boom was a guest in his home, she gave him a copy of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, requesting that he play it for her the next time she visited, which he did. In 1959, he helped organize the Billy Graham Crusade in Wellington. Prior to leaving for the States, he worked for the New Zealand Forest Service, where he was responsible for preparing the annual report to be reviewed by Parliament. This experience proved valuable because it gave him insight into governmental affairs and allowed for interaction with the Prime Minister. Later that year, he received his aviation certification and pilot's license, and he was granted admission into the Wellington Aero Club. In 1968, Wilbur accepted the call to pastor the First Baptist Church of Twentynine Palms, CA. While there, he organized the first drug abuse hotline in the Mojave Desert to help many of the returning Vietnam War servicemen stationed at the Marine Corps base. He organized a government grant for the region's first professional mental health services at a time when few knew how to deal with the harsh realities and emotional scarring of a war being fought during a time of violent cultural upheaval. It was for this work that he received his Doctor of Ministry. In every sense of the word, Wilbur was a renaissance man. He was a full decade ahead of the proliferation of Christian counselors and also played a significant role in the development of the groundbreaking book on spiritual, Christian mental health and counseling, CounselAid Manual. A resident of the Conejo Valley since 1974, Wilbur's gifts fully matured as he pursued his life's work and passion in Ventura County. He helped establish and then led Hospice of the Conejo. This was also the nexus for other community efforts to help the needy, including Many Mansions and the Manna Food Bank. He also served in various roles on the boards of Conejo Valley Little League and the Rotary Club. Wilbur pastored Baptist churches in New Zealand (Raumati) and in California (Twentynine Palms, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, and Ojai). He spent the last 14 years of ministry joyfully serving as pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai. During this time he also served as the Religion Editor for the Ojai Valley News. He authored and published two books, Attitude Checks for Believers and Skeptics and Faith. He was also the founding Director and first board President of the first homeless shelter in Ojai: the Ojai Valley Family Shelter. This organization would become the model for Ventura County. He remained as governing Director until his retirement in 2004. In 1994-1995, the city of Ojai established the honor of "Living Treasure" to recognize the invaluable contributions of special persons and to honor them for their community leadership and their ability to mentor others. Dr. H. Wilbur Skeels was the first recipient. Wilbur's gifts and passion were fully realized in his music. He often noted, "Music is a gift from God and we are obliged to nurture that gift to the best of our abilities." He was associated with the Los Robles Master Chorale from 1980 - 2006, serving as a singer, rehearsal and concert accompanist (organ, piano, harpsichord), assistant director, and resident composer. He conducted a variety of church, community and boys choirs, and handbell ensembles. Wilbur was a member of the National Assoc. of Church Musicians, the American Choral Directors Assoc., the Music Publishers Assoc. of America, and ASCAP, and he served as President from 1984-1989 of the Ventura County Choral Conductors Guild. Wilbur was renowned for his scholarly and encyclopedic knowledge of music - its history, complexity of styles, composer intentions, and appropriate interpretations and pronunciations. As a composer, he had more than 50 of his works published and performed, both internationally and in the United States. Many were premiered by the Los Robles Master Chorale, including Ubi Caritas, Songs of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Fantasia and Fugue for Christmas, Songs of Inscape, and his Missa Brevis Terrae Novae. Some were also taken on European tours. He was the founder, editor, and publisher of Cantus Quercus Press. He translated and published more than 100 choral works from Latin, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Croatian, Estonian, Gaelic, French, and Middle-English languages. His internet site included the most extensive information available anywhere about his friend and well known German composer, Franz Biebl. He was also the editor of the Sacred Choral Octavo series, by the renowned Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and of the oratorio Via Crucis by Martin Sawa. He considered it an honor to have played the organ at Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, Strasbourg, Chartres, and Saint Martin's of the Field, among others. Every year during the past decade, Wilbur would compose an original Christmas carol to include in his Christmas newsletter. Wilbur's greatest joy in life was his family. His constant source of joy and the one person who would always make his blue eyes twinkle was his wife, Dee. As two hearts that recognized the beauty and grace of God in each other, they raised a family together and traveled the world together, from Paris to St. Petersburg to NYC and to a lot of baseball games in between. Dee was always where he wanted her - right next to him. He was proud of his three sons and enjoyed watching them pursue careers in professional baseball and law. "Opa" was exceedingly proud of, and loved spending time with, his five grandchildren, and he was grateful to his beloved "daughters" who brought them into this world: Hannah, Rhett, and Macy (by Mark's wife Jennifer), and Mack and Scarlett (by David's wife Megan) - all of whom loved him dearly. Wilbur also loved, and was loved by, Andy's significant other, Julie Conner. Wilbur shared a special affection with his sisters in New Zealand and his brother in Canada, all of whom came to visit during his final weeks: Daphne (and Andrew) Hornblow, Allison (and Craig) Sunderland, Gilmore (and Elizabeth) Skeels, and Rosemary (and Gordon) Mock. Other survivors include relatives in New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, England, Estonia, Canada, and the United States. Rev. Dr. H. Wilbur Skeels was a man of towering faith in God, uncommon wisdom and humility, clever, razor-sharp wit, and a deep, abiding, soulful truth. He was a man for the ages, and he lived a life of meaning and purpose. We were all enriched by his time in our lives. The funeral service will be held Saturday Oct 29, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village, 32111 Watergate Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91361-3602. The graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m. at Bardsdale Cemetery in Fillmore, 1698 South Sespe St., Fillmore, CA 93015-9768. Donations may be made in his name to: Ojai Valley Family Shelter, 930 Grand Ave. Ojai, CA 93023 or to: The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board, 475 Riverside Dr., Suite 1700, NY, NY 10115-0049. Assisting the family with funeral arrangements is the family owned and operated Rose Family Funeral Home our family helping yours 805 581 3800