Extracted from The New York Times (New York, NY)
CHARLES C. PARLIN, LED A CHURCH UNIT
Charles C. Parlin, a former senior partner in the law firm of Shearman & Sterling and a past president of the World Council of Churches and the World Methodist Council, died yesterday at New York Hospital after a brief illness. He was 83 years old and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Parlin was named in 1961 to a presidium of six church leaders of the World Council of Churches, the first American layman to hold such a position. He served as a president of the council until 1968.
He was president of the World Methodist Council, a policy-making body, in 1970 and 1971. He was also a member of the general board of the National Council of Churches in the United States.
He had been a delegate to most assemblies of the World Council since the first one in Amsterdam in 1948, and was a member of the National Council's general board and numerous committees.
Mr. Parlin was an avowed ecumenist, whose legal background was said to be instrumental in his efforts to smooth over differences and seek new approaches to old barriers. 2 Presidential Missions
Mr. Parlin, a native of Wausau, Wis., received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1919 and a law degree from Harvard in 1922. He was a senior partner with Shearman & Sterling - which specialized in taxation, corporation, finance, banking and international law -from 1953 to 1964.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to represent the United States on a wartime mission to Germany in 1940, and President Harry S. Truman named him a special ambassador on a mission to Liberia in 1955.
Mr. Parlin also served as president and a director of the United States Foreign Securities Corporation, and he was a director of the Celanese Corporation of America, where he was board chairman from 1966 to 1969; the First National City Bank of New York and its successor, Citibank, and Guerlain Inc.
He received honorary doctorates from a number of universities and colleges, including American University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Parlin had been a longtime resident of Englewood, N.J., where he was chairman of the board of the Englewood Community Chest and president of the Englewood Urban League.
He is survived by his wife, Kaye; three children: Charles C. Jr. of Englewood, Camilla Smith of Delhi, N.Y., and Blackwood B. of Livingston, N.J.; a stepdaughter, Jean Chiang of Washington, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be private.
Monday, November 16, 1981