RICHMOND, Va. — Charles Willis Bryan, a former Southern Baptist missionary to Costa Rica, Peru and Colombia and retired senior administrator for the International Mission Board, died Oct. 11. He was 80.
Missionary colleagues praised Bryan as a visionary leader who had a gift for involving others in creative strategies to take the gospel to the whole world.
IMB President Jerry Rankin knew Bryan as a friend and mentor even before Rankin went to the missions field in 1970. Both he and Bryan served as pastor of the same church in Texas when God called them to missionary service.
“Charles was an encouragement in our call and then throughout our service in Asia,” Rankin said. “His outstanding leadership as the IMB’s overseas vice president established a new dimension of research-based strategic planning that moved the board into innovative strategies of global outreach. He was a visionary who brought a unique mix of relationship skills and administrative ability in leading our overseas efforts for almost eight years.”
A native of Whitesboro, Texas, Bryan and his wife, the former Martha Christian of East Point, Ga., were appointed by the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) in 1950.
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