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W. Harold Mare, the director of the excavations at Abila was killed in a car accident near his site in Jordan on June 21. Though Mare could walk only with difficulty, he had been determined to introduce David Chapman, his designated successor, to the site. Mare, who was asleep at the time, was instantly killed one month before his 86th birthday. After Mare's body had been returned to the States, memorial services were held in his honor at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in St. Louis on July 2.
Chapman wrote that when Mare was not able to sleep, he spent the time in prayer. Darlene Brooks Hedstrom marveled at Mare's energy, up everyday at 4:30 a.m. to arouse the other staff. Michael Fuller recalled, "Harold was always cheerful and rarely lost his temper." Robert Cooley described Mare as always energetic and enthusiastic. John Davis wrote, "His passion for his work and his humility were obvious to both Arab and American workers."
Mare dug at sites such as Tekoa, Heshbon, and Khirbet Radanna before he began his own excavation at Abila of the Decapolis in 1980. Mare gave annual reports to the Archaeological Institute of America, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the near East Archaeological Society. He also wrote entries on Abila in various reference works, and published preliminary reports in such journals as Aram, the Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, and the Bulletin of the Near East Archaeological Society. John D. Wineland's 1996 Miami University Ph.D. dissertation, was published in 2001 in the British Archaeological Reports series as Ancient Abila: An Archaeological History.
Mare served as the president of the Near East Archaeological Society from 1971 to 1992, and as president of the St. Louis society of the Archaeological Institute of American during 1978-79. He was one of the translators of the New International Version, and contributed the commentary on First Corinthians in The Expositor's Bible Commentary. He wrote Mastering New Testament Greek (1975), and The Archaeology of the Jerusalem Area (1987). Mare's book on the background of the New Testament has recently been published by Christian Focus Publication, and a Festschrift, Beyond the Jordan, has been published by Wipf & Stock.
Mare was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 23, 1918. His hard work on a farm prepared him well for the rigors of excavations in later life. He received the B.A. In 1941 and the M.A. In 1946 from Wheaton College. After graduating from Faith Theological Seminary in 1945, he received his Ph.D. In classical archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961.
Mare served as a pastor for ten years in Colorado and North Carolina, before he became a founding member of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis and a professor of New Testament there from 1963 to 1984. Even in his retirement, he continued to teach at the seminary.
He was predeceased by his wife Betty in 2002. Mare is survived by five children, Myra, Sally, Nancy, Bill, and Judy, and eight grandchildren.
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