In Memoriam


ministry of the BWA was evident in his generosity in supporting the BWA mission.” “He was a rare example of honesty in business,” said Anis Ud Dowla, chairman of ACI Group in Bangladesh. He leaves wife, Anita, sons, Samuel, Anjan, and Tapan, who


is president of the BBCF and a member of the BWA General Council, the Executive Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee, and daughter, Ratna Patra. Funeral services were held on January 6 in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and burial on January 7 in his home district of Pabna.


After returning to the US, she renewed her involvement in


the WMU and NABWU, including serving as NABWU treasurer from 1977-1982. Until her retirement in 1984, she nurtured formation of WMU area organizations across the US, particularly in the states of Nevada, Wyoming, New England, and Minnesota- Wisconsin.


In the 1960s, she authored two books, Enlistment for


Missions and Changes and Choices. She was awarded the Golden Medallion from the Southern Baptist Ministers’ Wives Conference for distinguished denominational service in 1966. Funeral services were held March 6 at Mountain Brook Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Fling is survived by son, Michael, and daughter, Sheila.


Helen Long Fling,


former head of the North American Baptist Women’s Union (NABWU) and a founding member of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Women’s Committee, precursor to the BWA Women’s Department, died on March 1 in Wimberley, Texas, in the United States. She was 97 years old. Fling grew up in Texas and graduated from East Texas State


University, with studies also at Baylor University. After her marriage at age 19 to Baptist pastor, evangelist


and missionary Robert Cobb Fling in June 1934, they traveled to the BWA’s Baptist World Congress in Berlin, Germany, for their honeymoon.


She became actively involved in the Woman’s Missionary


Union (WMU) of the Southern Baptist Convention, volunteering in a number of capacities. She was elected recording secretary of the organization in 1957 and was chosen as president in 1963, serving until 1969. During her tenure as president she led a reorganization of the WMU and helped the women’s group to focus on Christian social ministries and racial justice. Fling and her husband led churches in several states, including


Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New York. While in New York, they helped to plant the Westchester Baptist Church in Pleasantville. During this time she was elected to lead the NABWU, a continental union of the BWA Women’s Department, and became a board member of the American Bible Society for many years. In 1967, she was the first woman to be elected to an office


in the Baptist General Convention of Texas, as second vice president.


In 1976, Helen and Robert Fling extended their mission


efforts to Germany where Robert served as pastor of the English- language Baptist congregation in Munich. Both were involved in the European Baptist Convention, a fellowship of English- language churches and missions in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America.


28 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE Bruce King,


former secretary of the Baptist Union of New South Wales (NSW), national director of Baptist World Aid Australia (BWAA), and a member of the Baptist World Aid Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance, died on November 5, 2011, in NSW, at age 85.


King served as secretary of the Western Districts Baptist


Association before being named secretary of the BU of NSW in January 1958, a position he held until December 1980. During his 23 years as BU NSW secretary, he oversaw a number of major changes, including the relocation of both the Baptist Theological College of NSW and the Baptist Church House, the headquarters for BU NSW, the largest of the state Baptist unions in Australia. He became full time national director of BWAA in 1981,


having served as honorary treasurer of its forerunner, the Austra- lian Baptist World Aid and Relief Committee, since its inception in 1959.


During 1986-1987 he was president of the BU NSW. After


retiring from BWAA in 1990, King became the first general man- ager of Baptist Investment and Finance, since renamed Baptist Financial Services. King served the BWA as vice chair of the Baptist World Aid


Executive Committee in the 1980s and was treasurer of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA, from 1994-1997.


In 1999, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the Australian and international communities and as an administrator in the Baptist church.


Predeceased by wife, Lucille, he leaves sons, Owen and Graeme, and daughters, Helen and Roslyn. Funeral services were held at the Forster Baptist Church in


NSW on November 12.


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