Welcome!
Local pastor dies at 74
By MARK HICKS • The Leaf-Chronicle • November 21, 2008
The Rev. William "Bill" Corley was a man many in the community looked to for support during difficult times, and he was there for them.
Corley died at age 74 Thursday morning at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville.
The Rev. William "Bill" Corley was a man many in the community looked to for support during difficult times, and he was there for them.
Corley died at age 74 Thursday morning at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville.
"Bill touched the community," said longtime friend and congregation member Davis Potts. "If someone had a problem, he was there for them. If they hurt, he was hurting, too."
Potts, who also is a pastor, said he and Corley became friends when Corley was a minister at First Christian Church. They remained close for more than 40 years.
Corley, Potts, Harold Witmer and Bob Berggren founded the Community Church on Jack Miller Boulevard.
"He always wanted a ministry close to Fort Campbell so he could minister to the soldiers," Potts said. "The land was donated, and we built the church there in 1975."
Witmer said today more than half of the church's congregation is "either military or military retired."
Corley was a colonel and chaplain in the Tennessee Guard. He also was an Army veteran, though he came to Clarksville from being dean of Midway College in Lexington.
"He'd probably given more that 250 military funerals for World War II veterans and Vietnam veterans," Potts said.
In addition to the local church, Potts said Corley raised money to build a church in Kaluga, Russia, where Community Church continues to send missionaries.
Witmer said the ministry is one of the largest evangelical works in Russia.
"It's Grace Community Church," he said. "It was the first church in Russia. Out of that church, 30 others were built."
The Russian ministry near Moscow also includes 12 orphanages and a 500-acre farm that has 70 head of cattle, a modern bakery and greenhouses, said Witmer, who has visited it nine times.
Witmer said it was Corley's main outreach, but "he was very active in support of other missions around the world. More than 50 percent of (Community Church's) income goes to missions. That was all his doing."
He said Corley was a "great evangelist, a tremendous Bible teacher, and he had a tremendous love for people."
Potts has similar memories of Corley.
"He was a loving person," he said. "He was someone, if you needed something or you had a death in the family, he was always there willing to help. You could always depend on Bill."