Dr. Franklin Shannon's Obituary
Garrettsville
Dr. Franklin Shannon died at University Hospital, Portage Medical Center in Ravenna, Ohio on June 15, 2023, following a serious infection. He was 89 years old. He was born to William Eckert Shannon and Lucille Usher Shannon on January 17, 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio. When he was five years old the family moved to Lakewood where he graduated from Lakewood High School on his eighteenth birthday. Mr. Shannon was well known in Cleveland music circles as he played in the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Symphony Summer Orchestra, and the Cleveland Municipal Band. He also played in several other symphony orchestras. He was a life member of local four, Cleveland Federation of Musicians (American Federation of Musicians).
He was a graduate of Marion College (Indiana Wesleyan University), West Chester State University, Dallas Theological Seminary and Luther Rice Theological Seminary. He taught music in the public schools and served as head of the music departments of two colleges as well as teaching Theology, Bible and Pastoral Ministry and also serving temporarily as President of one school..
After serving thirty three years as a pastor in the United States in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kansas, New York and Ohio, he went to the former Soviet Union for twenty two years, teaching Theology, Bible and Pastoral Ministry in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. He was the founder and President of the Voronezh Theological Seminary in Voronezh, Russia. In recent years, he spent time teaching in Haiti and the Philippines.
He served as the founder and President of Cooperative International Studies, an international consulting firm in Christian higher education until the time of his death. Dr. Shannon was also a life member of the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Wesley Historical Society. He was an authority on early Methodist Theology.
Franklin was preceded in death by his parents, William E. Shannon and Lucille Shannon, a brother William E. Jr. and his wife Virginia of forty four years. He is survived by his second wife Nenita of Garrettsville and his daughter Kathleen (Joe) Blair of Haviland, Kansas.
Visitation Sunday, June18, 2023 2:00-6:00 PM at Green Funeral Care, 4668 Pioneer Trail, Mantua. Funeral Service Monday 11:00 AM, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 190 W. Streetsboro St., Hudson. Burial Balltown Cemetery, New York.
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