John Silva

John Wilbur Silva passed away peacefully at home in Lafayette, Georgia, on May 21, 2026. He was 92 years old. He was a beloved and devoted husband, father, grandfather, friend, and counselor. We celebrate his life and mourn his loss. John lived an extraordinary life. He touched many, many people. His guiding principle was service to God and community, and he lived accordingly.

John was born in Kaifeng, Henan, China, on October 10, 1933, the youngest of four boys. His parents were Free Methodist missionaries at the time, posted to rural China. In 1937, John and his family were forced to flee as refugees after the breakout of World War II and the invasion of China by Japan. John spent the rest of his childhood in Seattle, Washington. He went to college and graduate school at Seattle Pacific University and graduated with a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He was ordained as a minister in the Free Methodist Church in 1957. John returned to Seattle after seminary, where he met Ellen L Reid, a nurse from British Columbia, and, it turned out, the love of his life. They were married from 1958 until her death in 2015.

In 1960, John felt the calling to go to the mission field. He and Ellen were posted to Taiwan, where they lived for 5 years, adding a daughter, Beverlee, during their time there. In Taiwan, John worked as a professor at Holy Light Theological Seminary. He was fluent enough in Mandarin Chinese to use it to teach all his classes. Daughter Heather was born in Seattle during a brief furlough before the family was reassigned to Hong Kong. Over the next decades, John and Ellen went on to serve first in Hong Kong and then in India. In Hong Kong, John was the Superintendent of six mission schools that were set up to service the thousands of refugee families escaping China for Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution. In India, John was a professor at Union Theological Seminary. Along the way, in 1972, John also managed to earn a PhD in Theology from The University of Edinburgh, sandwiching a couple of years in Scotland in between living in Hong Kong and India.

In 1977, John retired from the mission field and returned to the United States with his family. John spent the next ten years living in Illinois and Indiana serving as a minister and a college professor. He also managed to earn a fourth graduate degree, this one from Indiana University in Psychology. In 1988, John and Ellen moved back to Washington State where they settled outside of Stanwood. In Stanwood, John opened Camwood Counseling Services and spent the next 25 years offering mental health support to the people of his community and enjoying his favorite pastime -- fishing the lakes and streams

of his beloved Pacific Northwest. He finally retired in 2013 at the age of 80, with the enthusiastic support of his family. In 2020, John decided to move to the East Coast to be closer to relatives. He settled, with his daughter, Heather, in Lafayette, Georgia, where he lived until his death.

John will be remembered as a man of deep faith, a loving, kind, and gentle soul with a wicked sense of humor. He took to heart Winston Churchill’s admonishment that “… a joke is a very serious thing.” A lifelong learner, he was a voracious reader, and a self-proclaimed “word nerd.” He was committed to social justice and remained informed and current all his life. He loved the outdoors and hiked and fished well into his 80’s. When he could no longer do either, he enjoyed road trips through nature, including a trip on the backroads from Prince Edward Island to Georgia, and another the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Throughout his life, John remained a lover of his family, of new ideas, of new experiences, and of new adventures. He will be greatly missed.

John was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Ellen L Silva, his parents, Ellis Locke and Caroline Coffee Silva, and his brothers, Donald Robert, Edwin Locke, and William Charles. He is survived by his two daughters, Beverlee E. Silva (Amelia Langston) and Heather A. Silva, his grandson Reid A. Martin, and many nieces and nephews. A Celebration of Life will be held at Gilbertson Funeral Home in Stanwood, Washington on August 28 at 2 p.m., with a reception to follow. In order to honor John’s passion for service to others, in lieu of flowers, please consider giving to one of his two favorite charities, Sister Connection, an organization that provides microfinancing to widows and orphans in Burundi, or Operation Nightwatch, which helps unhoused people on the streets of Seattle.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7