Samuel B. Harrison II, pastor, community activist, and longtime postal worker, has died at 78
For more than five decades, beginning in the early 1970s, he ministered to thousands of men, women, and children at Grace Tabernacle Christian Church and the Overcomers Christian Center.
Samuel B. Harrison II, 78, of Philadelphia, associate pastor at Grace Tabernacle Christian Church, founder and former director of the Overcomers Christian Center, Sunday schoolteacher, community activist, mentor, longtime postal worker, and Vietnam veteran, died Tuesday, March 24, of complications from diabetes at the Veterans Affairs Hospital.
Inspired by his own harrowing experiences as a soldier in Vietnam in the 1960s and mentored by the late Rev. Benjamin Tolbert at Grace Tabernacle, the Rev. Harrison spent much of his life in the service of others. For more than five decades, beginning in the early 1970s, he helped thousands of men, women, and children at Grace Tabernacle and the Overcomers Center enrich their faith, impact their community, and navigate their way through substance abuse recovery.
“He touched the lives of many people,” his family said.
Since 1973, when he joined Grace Tabernacle in Southwest Philadelphia, Rev. Harrison was a leader at the church and in the neighborhood. As a walking deacon, he met regularly with members outside the church building, visited the sick and the lonely, and directed church resources to those he found in need.
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He supervised food ministries, taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, and served as a team leader for the church’s marriage counseling program. He organized block cleanings and block parties, and told the Philadelphia Tribune in 2012 that he was especially gratified by a Wednesday night food outreach the church started in 2007.
“Along with bags of groceries, we serve a meal, and usually we have upward of 100 people,” he said.
He was committee chair of the church’s weeklong 51st anniversary celebration in 2012 that featured guest preachers, service recognition awards, and an all-day community picnic. In 1995, he founded the Overcomers Christian Center in West Philadelphia and, while recalling his own post-traumatic stress disorders after Vietnam, he and his wife, Mary, counseled and mentored thousands of men and women in substance abuse recovery for 19 years.
“During the course of the year, we have about 300 men and women that come through the program,” he told the Tribune in 2012. He even ordained several of them into the clergy.
“He really wanted to help others,” his wife said. “My greatest joys were our sons and our work together in the ministry.”
Rev. Harrison became licensed as a pastoral minister in 1988 and was ordained at Grace Tabernacle in 1990. He met Mary Ann Bullock in ninth grade, and they started dating in 11th grade.
They got married in 1970, followed two of his older brothers from North Carolina to Philadelphia, and had sons Samuel III and Brian. They lived in Southwest Philadelphia for the last 50 years, and he retired in 2003 after 34 years as a mail handler at the post office.
“He was steadfast,” his wife said. “He was an inclusive person. He was everybody’s man, and we grew together all these years.”
The 12th of 14 children, Samuel Bernard Harrison was born Jan. 18, 1948, in Nash County, N.C. He went into the Army right out of high school and, motivated by his faith and his family, cemented his religious education by earning a bachelor’s degree from Geneva College when he was 53 and a master’s degree and doctorate in theology later from Manna Bible College.
For him, church and family, education and work, were all tied up together. “He leaves a rich legacy of love,” his family said in a tribute.
Rev. Harrison enjoyed bowling and crossword puzzles when he wasn’t working at church or in the community. He doted on his sons and grandchildren, coached their basketball teams, and went on memorable cruises with his wife. “He loved his family,” his wife said.
In Facebook tributes, friends called him “a real good man” and “my big brother in Christ.” His sons said: “He was a consistent, reliable presence. He was a laid back cool guy.”
His wife said: “He was kind, gentle, and tolerant. I had the best husband.”
In addition to his wife and sons, Rev. Harrison is survived by 10 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, four sisters, and other relatives. Five brothers and four sisters died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at Grace Tabernacle Christian Church, 5124 Greenway Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19143. A funeral service is to follow at 10 a.m.
Donations in his name may be made to the food pantry at Grace Tabernacle Christian Church, Box 23475, Philadelphia, Pa. 19143.