Marvin Ira Lare

Columbia, South Carolina - The Reverend Marvin Ira Lare died Thursday, December 28, 2023. Born in Hartville, Ohio, September 22, 1934, he was a son of the late Sherman Ray and Carrie Marie Pontius Lare.

Marvin was predeceased in 2014 by his wife of twenty-five years, Patricia Anne Tyler Lare. He is survived by his daughters, Heather Lare Muller (Tim) of Blythewood, SC, Carrie Letitia Lare (Sarah Thomason) of Asheville, NC; his stepson, Hoyt C. Burnett III (Sarah) of Columbia, SC; and grandchildren, Hunter Lee Muller, Lucy Grace Burnett, Nathan Buckner Burnett and Camille Tyler Burnett; and several nieces and nephews. In addition to his wife and parents, he was predeceased by his brother, Wayne Sherman Lare; sisters, Marietta Pearl Lare Monroe and Norma Lare Wasson; and by his former wives, Joan Barwick Lare and Sandra Sue Trickett Lare.

He attended Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio before attending and graduating from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas in 1956. He attended Perkins School of Theology at SMU and graduated from Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, California in 1963. He was an Elder in the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and attended Shandon United Methodist Church.

A funeral service for Mr. Lare will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, January 7, 2024 at Shandon United Methodist Church. A private burial will be held in Elmwood Cemetery. Friends may go to Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel on Thursday, January 4, 2024 and Friday, January 5, 2024 to sign the registry.

The (Rev.) Mr. Lare served as pastor of United Methodist churches in Ohio, Texas, and California. He also served as pastor of Shiloh UMC in West Columbia from 1987 to 1992. He was the Executive Minister of the Dallas Inner City Ministry, Dallas Texas, from 1965 to 1969. He was Executive Coordinator of Community Care, Inc., an interfaith urban ministry, in Columbia, SC, from 1969 to 1986. There he established the Drug Response Operation, Meals on Wheels, Neighborhood Crime Prevention, Support Public Education Project, The Cooperative Ministry, and Care Coordination for the Health Impaired Elderly. Also Community Care, Inc. operated the Oliver Gospel Mission in Columbia, SC, from 1969 to 1981.

From 1986 to 1995, he was Director of the SC Institute on Poverty and Deprivation which established the SC Low Income Housing (now Affordable Housing) Coalition, Medical Coverage for the Working Poor, and the Palmetto Development Corporation. In 1993, the Governor of South Carolina presented Mr. Lare the Most Outstanding State Employee Award for Excellence and Innovation.

From 1995 to retirement in 2003, he served in the Planning Division of the SC Department of Social Services, which provided grant research, information, and development to the agency. In 2002, Mr. Lare was awarded a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellowship to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for the State and Local Government Executives Program.

Throughout his career, Rev. Lare has been a committed civil and human rights leader. He participated in numerous civil rights marches and demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas. He participated in the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965 and in the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. In retirement, he interviewed over one hundred South Carolina civil rights leaders. These are being published as Champions of Civil and Human Rights in South Carolina. Volume 1 is currently available in hardcopy.

In 2018, he presented a workshop in Toronto, Canada at the Parliament of the World’s Religions on “LIFE, LOVE, BEING, A Global Framework for Sacred and Secular Contemplation,” and established a website to access entries.

The family wishes to thank home health caretakers and nurses and staff at Lexington Medical Center, North Tower, 8th Floor for their dedicated and compassionate care.

Memorials may be made to Oliver Gospel Mission at www.olivergospel.org/donate, Cooperative Ministries at thecooperativeministry.salsalabs.org/donationform, or Sistercare at www.sistercare.org/support-sistercare/donate/.

Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family. Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.