Dr. Esther Megill was born in
Kansas, where her father and mother (both ordained) were rural
ministers of the United Brethren in Christ Church (later E.U.B.).
She first went to Africa in 1951 to serve the former Evangelical
United Brethren Church as a medical technologist and Christian
educator in Sierra Leone. On her return to the United States in
1962, she entered graduate study in Connecticut. Then, after
receiving her doctorate in religious education (Ed.R.D.), she
served as a teacher at McCurdy School in New Mexico, under the
National Division of the E.U.B. Church.In 1968, after church union, she was Secretary for North and West Africa for the World Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. And for seven years following her return to Africa in 1973, she was a teacher and director of The Department of Church Leadership at Trinity College, a theological school in Legon, Ghana. Her work at the college included the training of pastoral leadership for the major Protestant churches in the country. She wrote a textbook for theological schools in Africa, and edited a hymnbook for African children. Earlier she wrote a prayer book for children, illustrated with her photographs taken in Sierra Leone. She at other times has written units of study for children in the Sunday School (both E.U.B. and U.M.). She also wrote the Leader's Guide for adult/youth for the 1983-84 Africa study (Friendship Press), and has written a number of articles and manuscripts for extension courses for both Africa and the U.S.
From 1980-82, after her return from Ghana, she was Mission Interpreter in Residence for the Southeastern Jurisdiction, for the General Board of Global Ministries. In September of 1982 she went to Wood Junior College, Mathiston, Mississippi, to establish a new program of leadership development in small membership churches. The Center for Church Leadership Development was a joint program of Wood Junior College and the North Mississippi Conference.She was transferred to the National Division as a Deaconess in 1983.
Upon retirement in 1989 Dr. Megill went to Africa for one year to serve as a volunteer, working in Christian education with churches in five different countries. At the end of the year she went to Egypt, Israel/Palestine, and the Philippines, where she visited a number of projects to which the United Methodist Church contributes.
Since January of 1991 she has lived at Brooks-Howell Retirement Home in Asheville, NC.