Grace E Huck died Sunday, August 12, 2018 at age 102.

Grace Eloise Huck was born June 27, 1916 to William G and Grace E (Kearns) Huck at their home in Harding County, SD. She was the second of six children. She attended elementary school in the Karinen school, then went to Bowman High School for two years. After a year at home during the drought and depression, she completed high school in Spearfish SD in 1935 and continued for one year of college at Black Hills Teachers College. She then taught rural schools in Harding Co for several years.

Feeling a call to the Christian ministry at a time when women were not accepted she began in 1941 a career of preaching, teaching and studying. She was ordained a Deacon in the Methodist Church (now the United Methodist Church) in 1945 and an Elder in 1949. The same year she earned a BS in Education from Black Hills Teachers College, Spearfish, SD.

After a number of years in various jobs including fieldworker for the ND Interchurch Council, Fargo, ND, assistant pastor and Director of Christian Education at Spearfish Methodist Church and part-time teacher in the college lab school in Spearfish, teacher at Navajo Methodist Mission School in NM, and Director of Christian Education at First Methodist Church in Fargo ND, she finished a Masters in Education degree at North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU), Fargo in 1956. That same year when the General Conference of the Methodist Church granted women clergy rights as full members of the Annual Conference she was the first woman in the USA to be received.

In 1959, she was accepted as a missionary of the Methodist Church and went to Manila, Philippines where she taught at Harris Memorial College and served as Academic Dean for two years. During a furlough year she completed her MA at Scarritt College, Nashville, TN graduating in 1968. In 1971 she returned to the states to be with her aging father and to continue her ministry. She served churches in SD from 1972 to 1981 when she officially retired but frequently came out of retirement to serve churches wherever she was needed.

Always a firm believer in Christian Education, she served many years on the Conference Boards of Education in both North and South Dakota, served as a Trustee of Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD for a number of years and has given generously for the support of Scarritt College, Harris Memorial College and Dakota Wesleyan University which awarded her the "Outstanding Citizen's Award" in 1984. In 1988, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters Degree by Philippine Christian University in consortium with Harris Memorial College.

Preceding her in death were her parents, a brother William and three sisters, Mabel Galbraith, Frances Ellis, and Geneva Siverson. She is survived by one brother, Willis Huck, many nieces and nephews and their families, and a number Philippine God-children.

Rev Grace E Huck served the following churches in ND and SD for the Methodist/United Methodist Churches: Rural/Ft Rice in ND, Velva/Voltaire/Benedict, Juanita/Grace City/Sutton in ND, Spearfish in SD, Navajo Methodist Mission School in NM, Fargo First, Hope/Finley in ND. Her service as a missionary and teacher at Harris Memorial College in the Philippines was 1960-1972; then she transferred from the ND Conference to the SD Conference. She served Faith/Marcus, Cresbard/Northville, Claremont/Hecla, Camp Crook/Buffalo UCC in SD, ending her active appointments in 1994.

Grace Huck wrote a book of poetry called Songs of the Soul , and two other books: When You Pray, and Amazing Grace, Stories from My Life.

Memorial services will be at 2:00 PM on Monday, September 24, 2018 at the United Methodist Church in Spearfish. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the United Methodist Church of Spearfish, SD.