Stanley R. Hanby

United Pentecostal Church International

1906 ~ 1996

Born in 1906, to Benjamin Franklin & Emma F. Hanby, Stanley was a native of Fairfield County, he was saved at a young age in 1916. The call of God was immediately on his life. Much of his youth was spent in laboring in the Newwark assembly with pastor J.A. Frush. Stanley and his wife, Frances, answered the call to start their own church and did so by conducting  tent meetings, revivals, and special services in New Salem, Baltimore, and Basil, and the Pleasant Valley Church.

Although their humble beginnings were marked by leaking roofs, broken windows, and falling plaster, the Holy Ghost fell mightily in their services. Stanley married Marian F. Stanley and to this union were born four children, Faith, Ruth, Rhoda, and Mark.

Stanley Hanby had a vision when he initiated the first fairgrounds tent meeting in Lancaster in 1932. He was the first link in the chain of men who left Lancaster with a great heritage. Many home missions' works were pioneered throughout the county, and Lancaster was the largest.

God called men of strong spiritual fiber to build a gospel foundation in the state of Ohio, and S.R. Hanby was among their number. He joined J.A. Frush, William Mulford, T.D. Davis, W.E. Gamblin, and F.E. Curts in preaching, teaching, and evangelizing with fervor until the Holy Ghost fell like rain. The Bible doctrine taught by such strong men established strong churches.

S.R. Hanby was elected as General Secretary-Treasurer for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ in 1938. The call to home missions drove him to move from city to city preaching the gospel. In 1945 he moved to Logan, Ohio. After Logan had heard the gospel, his next field of labor was the state of New York.

During the merger in 1945, S.R. Hanby is the person who suggested that the new organization be called, "The United Pentecostal Church." He served as the first Director of Home Missions for the UPC from 1952 through 1957.

Home mission's work was the heartbeat of S.R. Hanby, and the field of Ohio benefited greatly from his passion to plant the gospel in the heartland. Eventually, he retired to Chattanooga, Tennessee. S.R. Hanby fell on sleep in Christ, December 9, 1996.