Herb Turner Retires
Herb Turner, long time volunteer for Haiti Hope Fund, retired this year as Treasurer and Board member. We will miss you Herb for your tireless and faithful service. His wife, Phyllis continues to be involved as a Board member with Haiti Hope Fund.
When the Haiti Hope Fund (originally the International Christian Education Fund) was created in 1994, the Turners helped with the printing and mailing of the Newsletters. The next year Phyllis was appointed to the Board of Directors and in 1997 Herb was appointed as Controller, later becoming Treasurer. He has also been receiving and acknowledging donations, filing government forms, paying bills, and working with Phyllis to process the newsletter mailings.
Herb and Phyllis first met Harold and Ivah Heneise, founders of Haiti Hope Fund, in Rochester, New York where the Heneises were taking Doctoral studies. The Turner’s church (Greece Baptist) was looking for a mission project to support. The Heneises suggested helping to finance the building of a Baptist primary school in the town of Pilate, Haiti. The Heneises’ enthusiasm was contagious: the Turners soon decided to visit Haiti and study the mission work. Armed with cameras and tape recorder, they spent two weeks doing just that. They stayed for four days with the pastor’s family in Pilate, watching the school construction. Three years later they returned to Haiti to participate in the dedication of the school. Several more trips followed over the years as the two families developed a warm friendship. After the Turners retired in 1984 they went to Haiti for three months every winter to help with the work. Herb used his electrical engineering skills to provide and upgrade electric services and to repair whatever was broken. Phyllis used her secretarial skills in answering correspondence and preparing manuscripts. They continued this arrangement until 1991, when the Heneises were forced to leave Haiti because of political turmoil. They settled in northern Florida and were soon joined for a few months by the Turners, who had left New York and were building a house in North Carolina. Five years later, they, too, moved to Florida to join the Heneises in the same retirement community. We will certainly miss you! Thank you again, Herb for your faithful service.
