In the course of a varied career, Stan Purdum has been a carpenter, teacher, camp manager, minister, bicycle mechanic, drama director, journalist, writer and editor. Stan has been published in a wide range of both religious and secular publications. He’s written and published material as varied as a study of the Gospel of John, a how-to book for newsletter editors, numerous direct-mail campaigns, short stories and Sunday school curriculum, as well as four books. For three years, his column on family humor appeared weekly in The Bellevue Gazette, a daily newspaper in Bellevue, Ohio. During that time, he also won an award from United Press International for a series of articles he wrote for the same paper on the efforts of small towns to secure physicians. While in Bellevue, Stan helped to establish a community counseling center to serve a four-county area. Stan was a full-time parish minister in Ohio for several years. He currently pastors part-time in Waynesburg, Ohio, at Centenary United Methodist Church while making his living as a freelance writer and editor. Stan has also taught writing classes for adults. Stan holds an education degree from Youngstown State University, a Master of Divinity from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and a Doctor of Ministry from Drew University. Long an avid bicycle tourist, Stan has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including a cross-nation ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on the length of U.S. Route 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic.
Stan Purdum
Biography