| History and archives specialist honored By Suni Johnson
SPECIAL TO UMCONNECTION The Rev. Edwin A. Schell and his wife Ruth were honored April 24 for their ministry to Lovely Lane Museum and the United Methodist Historical Society. The tribute to the Shells was the high point of the Historical Societys annual meeting held at Lovely Lane UMC in Baltimore. The standing room only crowd attended to show its appreciation for the couple and all that they have done to build the archives and museum into a viable ministry for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.  | The Schells | |
Surrounded by close friends, colleagues, church historians and researchers that Schell worked with over the years, the celebration began in the newly restored sanctuary of Lovely Lane UMC. The Revs. Emora Brannon, Jim Talley, Bill Raker, Harold Lanman and Millard Knowles, and Ken Steward as a Robert Strawbridge re-enactor, Cheryl Stevens and Cora Marshall delivered tributes. The Commission on Archives and History for the Baltimore-Washington Conference, presented Schell with a plaque for the new Rev. Edwin A. Schell Reading Room. The plaque will be installed in the reading room at Lovely Lane Museum in recognition of the collections Schell has built to further the understanding of Methodist history. The Shells were also presented with certificates for various activities at Charlestown where they now reside as well as a Memory Book filled with letters received from many friends and colleagues. The remembrances touched upon times spent with Ed and Ruth when they served churches and hosted students in their home. All the writers noted their tireless efforts in promoting Methodist history. In response, Schell thanked his wife and spoke of his three lifetimes, the first as a transportation worker in St. Louis and Washington, D.C.; the second as a pastor, serving Broadway, Curtis Bay, Linden Heights, Woodbury, Stone Chapel at Garrison Forest and Old Otterbein churches, as well as serving as chaplain to Goodwill Industry; and finally his third lifetime as part-time, full-time and now volunteer historian at Lovely Lane. He also expressed thanks to Delores Shaw, longtime Lovely Lane UMC secretary and tour gbwc_superusere. Schell told the crowd that without Shaws work as church and museum docent he would never have been able to serve as part-time historian and full-time pastor. | 
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