Edward Joseph Maynard

1944 - 2006

Rev. Edward Joseph Maynard, a Roslindale resident and respected member of greater Boston’s ecclesiastical community, died Dec. 29. He was 62.

Maynard was born on Dec. 14, 1944, at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone of the Republic of Panama, to Rev. Carl T. Maynard Sr. and Mrs. Luereeta Brathwaite Maynard. From a young age, he began his involvement in the life of the faith, during his teenage years accepting the call to preach and teach the gospel.

The man known to those close to him as “Eddie” served for many years in evangelistic ventures and church planting in rural and urban areas of Panama. Having graduated from the Panama Conservatory of Music, he was an accomplished musician by the time he graduated from high school, and though he received several scholarship offers to study medicine and music in the United States, he felt that the Lord had called him to His mission. (Even as Maynard set about doing God’s work, the accordion — his favorite musical instrument — remained his most faithful traveling companion.)

At the age of 19, Maynard left the Canal Zone on his first missionary trip to Jamaica, where he lived for extended periods in Runaway Bay and Kingston, teaching and preaching the Gospel. Later trips brought him to West Palm Beach, Fla. and West Virginia, where he recorded several albums. A gifted interpreter and translator, Maynard would later travel with renowned evangelist Yiye Avila’s “Ministerio Cristo Viene” (Christ is Coming Ministry) and perform missionary work in Central America, South America and Europe with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

In the late 1960s, Maynard was brought to America by Rev. E.I. Osborne Sr., the founder of Deliverance Revival Tabernacle (DRT), a longstanding Massachusetts worship institution currently residing on Harrishof Street in Dorchester. He served DRT as an associate minister of the Gospel and a liaison to the Latino community. From that initial role, Maynard developed a lifelong partnership and ministry with Pastor David Marrero and the “Defensores de la Fe” (Defenders of the Faith) church.

In 1972, he married Shirley Dawkins. Together, they had a daughter, Eva, and a son, Ted.

Maynard’s service in Boston extended beyond ecclesiastical work to areas of community action, as he became involved in mediation in the Dorchester courts and working with the Anti-Crime Hotline program, a collaborative effort of the Roxbury Multi-Service Center and the Boston Police Department’s Area B Station at Dudley Square. He also served as a chaplain in the Massachusetts prison system and partnered with Christians for Urban Justice.

In 1983, Maynard and his family relocated to Arecibo, Puerto Rico, where he continued missionary work with Yiye Avila’s team and a number of religious organizations. After his wife’s passing in the late 1980s, Maynard returned to Boston to join the Emanuel Gospel Center as its Hispanic Minister at Large. He later served with many other influential Boston ministries, including Bruce Wall Ministries, the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the Center for Urban Ministerial Education, among others. And along the line, in the midst of all his travels and tasks, he still found the time to teach many students how to play the piano.

He is survived by a daughter, Eva L. Maynard; a son, Rev. Theodore N. Hickman-Maynard, and his wife Bernadette, all of Roslindale; three sisters: Jean Maynard Ross and her husband Rev. Phillip Ross Jr.; Naomi A. Maynard Wilshire and her husband Rev. E. Ray Wilshire, Sr.; and Joana Andrea Maynard, all of Boston, as well as a host of other relatives, friends and colleagues. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Shirley Dawkins Maynard, and his brother, Carl T. Maynard Jr.

Funeral services were held Jan. 5 at Congregation Lion of Judah, 68 Northampton Street, Roxbury, with burial the following day at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park.