Reverend Ploch

Asheville-Reverend Clarence Earl Ploch, age 92, of Givens Estate, formerly a resident of Cokesbury Circle, Lake Junaluska, died Sunday, June 18, 2006. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he was the son of George Raymond and Grace Tate Ploch. He graduated from Male High School in Louisville and earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Louisville in 1936. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Garrett Biblical Institute (now Garrett Theological Evangelical Seminary) on the campus of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in June 1939. There he met his wife, Helen Jane Swits. Clarence served his first ministerial appointment in a three-point charge in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 1939-1940. From 1940 to 1979, he was a member of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church serving churches in Warren, Chicago, Zion, Joliet, DeKalb, Wheaton, and Belvidere. From 1965 to 1970, he was the District Superintendent of the Chicago Southern District. He was Annual Conference secretary for many years, chaired the conference Higher Education Committee, and was a clergy delegate to General Conference in 1960. Early in his ministry he was a dean of Methodist summer camps for children and youth. In 1979, he and Helen Jane retired to Lake Junaluska Assembly where they became active participants in the work of the Junaluska Associates and Junaluskans. Clarence was president of the Junaluskans in the early 1980s and began publication of the monthly Lake News and Views which he edited for 17 years. He worked for the Intentional Growth Center, helped organize the first Elderhostels to come to Lake Junaluska and taught at them for many years. He was chosen Chief Junaluska in 1993. He taught the Wesley Class at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville for twenty years where he also served on a building committee and raised more than a million dollars in memorial gifts for the rebuilding of the church sanctuary. He was president of the Waynesville Kiwanis Club in which he was active throughout his retirement. He was elected to the Louisville Male High School Hall of Fame. He is survived by three sons, Robert Ploch, and his wife, Brenda, of Winchester, Kentucky and their daughter, Andrea Decker, and husband Steven and daughter Kala. Richard Ploch, and his wife, Carol, of Asheville and their daughter, Christine Basulto, and her husband Armando and sons Armand and Christian, and John Ploch and his wife, Lauri, and their daughter Catherine of Alexandria, Virginia. Two sisters of Clarence, Elizabeth Ploch Bean and Nell Ruth Ploch Lochner, reside in Decatur, Illinois. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, at the Memorial Chapel at Lake Junaluska with Rev. Carol S. Ploch and Rev. Joseph Fulk, chaplain of Givens Estates, officiating. The family will receive friends at the chapel from 1 to 2 p.m. prior to the service. Graveside services for the family will follow the funeral at Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville. Memorials may be made to Lake Junaluska Assembly, designated for Inspiration Point, P.O. Box 67, Lake Junaluska, NC 28745.

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