Born: October 25, 1891
Died: October 4, 1962
Married: Frances Chapman
Children: William A. Gurley, Francis Stephenson Gurley, and Lewis M. Gurley
Alvin B. Gurley pastor of the Saranac Lake Presbyterian church for 20 years, retiring in 1957.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 8, 1962
Rev. Alvin B. Gurley
The Rev. Alvin B. Gurley of Ridley Park, Pa., pastor of the Saranac Lake Presbyterian church for 20 years, died suddenly Friday at Pennsylvania Hospital. He had been taken ill the evening before while attending a church affair. Mr. Gurley was 70 years of age.
Mr. Gurley left Saranac Lake in 1957 to retire but instead became assistant to the minister at the Ridley Park United Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Gurley was born in Washington, D.C. on October 25, 1891. He was a graduate of Yale in 1916 and served in the diplomatic service as a code clerk in London and Belgrade during the First World War . He was graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1920 and served as assistant minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia until 1937 when he came to Saranac Lake.
His grandfather was Phineas D. Gurley, minister of the New York Avenue, Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C, which Abraham Lincoln attended. The Rev. Gurley was present when Mr. Lincoln died and preached the funeral service in Springfield, Ill.
Surviving are his wife, the former Frances Chapman; three sons William A, Francis Stephenson, and Lewis M.; a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth McCann, and a brother, Emerson Gurley. A memorial service will be held Tuesday at 11 o'clock in the Ridley Park United Presbyterian Church. The pastor, the Rev. James Harold Guy, will conduct the service.
Interment will be private, in Saranac Lake, and at the convenience of the family.
Mr. Gurley's family requests that flowers be omitted. Friends in Saranac Lake who wish to remember Mr. Gurley may send donations to Mr. Clyde Cheeseman who is chairman of a committee to establish a living memorial to Mr. Gurley at the Presbyterian Church in Saranac Lake.
A stable behind the Presbyterian Church was remodeled into a community space and named Gurley Hall in memory of Rev. Gurley. That building was torn down when the church added their new community room to the back of the building in the 1980s or 1990s.
