Reid, William Watkins Jnr

b New York City, USA 1923; d 2007. Oberlin Coll and Yale Divinity Sch. From 1943 to 1945 he worked with the Medical Corps in the US Army and spent 8 months as a prisoner of war. Ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Methodist Ch, he then served in Congregational and Methodist churches in N Dakota and in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and in 1978 became District Supt for Wilkes-Barre (Penns) in the United Methodist Ch. In retirement he served as a County Commissioner for Wyoming County.He was active in the Hymn Soc in the US and Canada and (like his hymnwriting father W W Reid, a former Secretary of the Society) wrote many articles and papers on hymnody. The Canadian ‘Hymn and Worship Book’ Voices United (1996) is among N American hymnals to feature texts by both father and son. Among his other hymns, O God of every nation has been popular in the USA. No.554.