Baber, George W. (George Wilbur), 1898-1970.

Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, pastor of various churches in Michigan and elsewhere.

Bishop George Wilbur Baber was born in 1898 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of an African Methodist Episcopal minister. He attended Wilberforce University and was licensed to preach in 1919 by his father. Admitted to the Michigan Conference in 1923, he built churches and served as pastor in LaPorte, Indiana, Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Flint, Michigan.

In 1934, Baber became pastor of the Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Detroit. Under his leadership, Ebenezer grew from 600 to 6000 members by 1944, making it the largest pastorate in the A.M.E. denomination.

At the General Conference of 1944, Baber was made 63rd bishop of the church. After brief service in Baltimore and Arkansas, Baber was assigned to the Fourth Episcopal District, encompassing Michigan, Canada, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. Then in 1956, he was reassigned to the First District, which ran from Philadelphia through New England.

Barber's final assignment was to the Second District in 1964. It included the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Based in the nation's capital, Baber became vocal in national politics. He publicly called on A.M.E. ministers to back President Johnson's 1965 urban housing program. And in 1968, he was an active supporter of Hubert Humphrey.

Baber has been president of both the A.M.E. Bishops Council and General Board. He also served on the board of Kittrell College and as A.M.E. delegate to the New Delhi conference of the World Council of Churches.

Baber first married in 1918 to Alma Marie Wims who died in 1954. He remarried in 1955 to Elvira Mayfield Derrick. Baber is the father of two sons and three daughters.