Elza Brinson Milner

Elza Brinson Milner, age 98, went gently into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on August 16, 2018.

Elza Milner was born on July 15, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan. He was the only child of John Amos Bradley Milner and Lena Rachel Latimer Milner. He grew up in Kentucky, living mostly in Covington. In his teen years he put his trust in Jesus Christ as his savior. After graduating from high school, he attended college for one year at Erlham College, which was supposed to be a Christian college. Elza was interested in the sciences and chose science as his major. During Elza's second semester a teacher began to talk in a commending way about evolution. Elza took a stand in class for the biblical truth of creation and left the class. He finished the semester and then left the school.

In 1942 he was drafted into the Army Air Corp. He had many memories from the times he spent on various islands in the Pacific Ocean. While on the island of Aitutaki, Elza was able to play a camp organ for a church service. After that service he was invited to an islander's home to talk about the Bible. God used Elza's thoughts from the book of Romans to bring a man named Tau Upu to the Lord. This man later described himself as the worst man on the island and said that on that day he was ready to totally reject any belief in God. He later became a pastor in New Zealand. What a blessing!

During his military training and before going overseas, Elza providentially met Jack Carver at Moody Church. Through Jack Elza got to know his sister, Helen Carver. After writing to each other for three years, they finally got to meet in December of 1945, only a couple of weeks after Elza was discharged from the service. They were married on February 24, 1946. They spent most of their honeymoon in San Diego, California, where they would later live more than thirty years before moving to Greenville, SC. Elza was interested in a good Bible education, so they moved to Chicago in September of 1946 so that he could attend Moody Bible College to study Bible. Their daughter Sharon was born in February of 1947.

Elza and Helen eventually moved to San Diego. Their daughter Mary was born there in 1953 and their son Paul in 1961. Elza worked at North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado Island. Later, he worked at several other jobs until taking a job with Convair (later called General Dynamics), where he worked for over 28 years. At Convair/General Dynamics he worked on B-26s and other fighter planes, taught electronics engineering, and did electronics testing.

Elza retired from General Dynamics in 1982 at age 62 so that he and Helen could move to Greenville, SC. They had sent their children to Bob Jones University, where their son still attended. Their daughter Mary and family were also living in Greeville, so it was natural for Elza and Helen to want to move there.

In 1991 Elza and Helen began to attend Mount Calvary Baptist Church and were wonderfully blessed by the ministry in so many ways. The faithful preaching of God's Word and the sweet fellowship of the dear people at Mount Calvary filled their cups to overflowing!

Elza's three children add, “Dad has been a godly example to his family all of these years. We, his children, are so thankful to our Lord for giving us such a wonderful, loving, gentle, and Christ-like father.”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to missionary Ellen Doyle to help with expenses involved with her cancer treatments. Donations can be given to Gospel Fellowship Association Missions at https://www.gfamissions.org/pages/give