Remembering Elizabeth Box Price (1941–2025)

As 2025 closes, we remember Professor of Christian Education Emerita Elizabeth Box Price (June 27, 1941 – January 3, 2025).

“Elizabeth Box Price was one of the most important administrative leaders in Phillips’ transition from Enid to Tulsa,” wrote President Emeritus Gary Peluso-Verdend. “I am not speaking primarily of the relocation but of the ways the seminary approaches teaching and learning.”

Elizabeth taught the faculty how to reach the adult learner and demonstrated that Christian education is itself a way of doing theology. She also led the effort to change Phillips to a block schedule and shift the view of a syllabus being what teachers teach to a set of assessable learning goals for the students.

“In short, Elizabeth did a great deal of work in shaping the ethos and laying the foundations of Phillips’ educational culture on which the seminary’s educational administration and faculty have built over the past 30 years,” Peluso-Verdend said.

OBITUARY

Dr. Elizabeth Box Price was born June 27th, 1941, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, to Grace and Page Box. The birth of two younger brothers, Page Jr. and David, would complete her birth family. She grew up surrounded by an extended family of grand-parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, to whom she was always “Sassy.. All her life she carried many happy memories of large family gatherings and, with her brothers and cousins, of adventures in the woods which surrounded her home. Although marriage and career took her to Oklahoma, she always remembered her deep Mississippi roots.

She attended Aberdeen schools and was graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1959, having been named Valedictorian of her graduating class.

Elizabeth attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion in 1963. In 1965 she was graduated cum laude from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas, with a Master’s degree in Christian Education.  She completed her formal education when she was awarded her doctorate from Oklahoma State University with a focus on adult learning. While at Perkins, she met her future husband, fellow student John Price, and the two were married on September 5, 1965, in Aberdeen.

In 1982, she began her long and distinguished career in higher education as a member of the founding faculty of the Wimberly School of Religion at Oklahoma City University. In 1989, she joined the faculty of Phillips Theological Seminary.  She first served as Dean of the Seminary’s Enid campus and later transitioned to teaching, writing, and faculty development after the Enid and Tulsa campuses consolidated in Tulsa. Upon her retirement in 2004, the Seminary named her Professor of Christian Education Emerita.

Elizabeth felt a deep bond with the whole of Creation and was never happier than when she could be outdoors, experiencing the wonder and beauty of the entire cosmos, often walking or hiking during the day, and stargazing at night. Even as her dementia descended into darkness,  she said to John, “There is so much beautiful in the world to see.”

She and John together had visited 23 national parks before her stroke derailed their plans to visit them all. These visits, and travels to four continents and most of the fifty States, deepened her understanding of and appreciation for both the diversity and the unity of all life. Her growing interest in Creation-centered spirituality—which unites nature, the cosmos, and humanity—along with the convergence of science, religion, and ways of knowing inspired her to develop a seminary-level course titled “Christian Nurture and The New Cosmology.” This course was recognized for excellence by an award from the prestigious Templeton Foundation.

Elizabeth was one of a consortium of six women seminary professors who received a research grant to examine how congregations implement change around issues of greater inclusiveness and openness, particularly as regards LGBTQ persons and others whom congregations often marginalize. Their research was published in 2003 as People of a Compassionate God: Creating Welcoming Congregations. She was also co-editor of an earlier book, By What Authority: A Conversation on Teaching Among United Methodists.

Elizabeth was ordained a Deacon in The United Methodist Church in 1996.  She lived her ordained ministry primarily through her teaching, but also by acting upon her concern for issues of justice, compassion, and mercy.

Elizabeth loved music and her strong soprano voice gifted many church choirs throughout the years.  After she and John moved to Georgetown, Texas, in 2017, she joined the San Gabriel Chorale, a community performance group dedicated to classical choral works.

Elizabeth cherished family and took especial delight in her roles as Mom, Grand-mama, and Aunt Sassy.

Elizabeth was preceded in death by her parents, The Reverend Page Box and Grace Jones Box, her Brother Page Box Jr., and sister-in-law Mary Anna Harris Price.

Those who hold the gift of her life in memory, gratitude, and love include:

• Her husband of 59 years, The Reverend John R. Price.
• Daughter Joye Price and daughter-in-law Brenda Marlin, and their children: Alexandra McBurnett, Rachel McBurnett, Madelyn Reed, and Elizabeth Reed.
• Son Jonathan Price and daughter-in-law Sarah Duncan Price, and their children: Duncan Price and Anderson Price.
• Brother David Box and sister-in-law Nell Boren Box.
• Sister-in-law Patricia Ware Kahl and her husband, Russ Kahl.
• Brother-in-law Don Price.
• Sister-in-law Faye Ann Price Presnal and brother-in-law Glade Presnal.
• As well as beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces/nephews, great-grand-nieces, former students, colleagues, neighbors, and friends whose lives she touched in so many ways.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Phillips Theological Seminary, The Nature Conservancy, or the environmental charity of your choice.