G. Maurice Harton, V

The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper obituary

Maurice Harton V died suddenly in his apartment at the University Of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Sunday, March 3, 2019.

Maurice was born on February 1, 1984 in Prince George’s County, Maryland the youngest of the four children born to George Maurice Harton IV and Ellen Sampson Harton. He was preceded in death by his mother in July 2016 and is survived by his older sisters Ruth Renee Kennedy of Watsontown, Pennsylvania, Yvonne Harton Towfighi of Glenn Dale, Maryland, and Wendy Harton Benner of Chicago, Illinois. He is also survived by his father George, his father’s wife Margie, and his fifteen nieces and nephews.

Maurice was home schooled by his family and graduated from Cedar Brook Academy in Montgomery County, Maryland in 2001. He graduated from the University of Maryland in College Park with both a BA in Art History and Archaeology and a BA in Classics in 2005. Having trusted Jesus Christ as His Savior as a child, and having received a calling to serve as a missionary as a teenager, Maurice completed the Master of Divinity degree at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Maryland in 2009. He was then appointed to missionary service by Crossworld. After being ordained to gospel ministry by Grace Baptist Church in Bowie in 2012, Maurice served in Belem, Brazil as a secondary teacher at Amazon Valley Academy, an international school. In 2015 he resumed his education in Ancient History and Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland before moving to Austin, Texas in August 2016. He received his Master of Arts in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Texas in May 2018; his thesis was titled “An Emperor for a Master: Slaves in the Palaces of Augustus and Nero.” In August 2018 he moved to Philadelphia and began his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Maurice loved giving tours of the Penn Museum, and he also received very positive feedback from others in his field regarding a talk he gave at an academic conference in San Diego in January 2019.

As one of ten students receiving an award (out of the 10,000 University of Maryland freshmen who submitted a paper), his professor introduced Maurice as a “polymath.” He truly was a renaissance man who taught in Brazil everything from biology, chemistry, and ancient history to improvisational drama. At Grace Baptist Church, where he served for years as a member and a staff intern, he adapted his training in counseling to develop materials called “LIFT – Living in Faith Together.” He mentored teenagers, young adults, and even led the pastoral staff through his study. He loved God’s creation and began by drawing a sketch of the solar system daily as a four-year-old. He loved all animals, especially foxes, and had an “animal fact of the day” every day, year after year. He was an avid birder and went on bird-watching excursions, often with his dad in Arizona, Brazil, Turkey, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, California, and many other places.  He kept a life list of the more than 520 species of birds he had spotted and identified in the wild.

Maurice will be remembered as a brilliant young man who was humble, gentle, kind, creative, funny, passionate, and knowledgeable. Most of all he was loyal and died having many “best” friends. He will be missed by many.

His memorial service will be at 11:00 on Thursday, March 14 at Grace Baptist Church 7210 Race Track Road in Bowie, with viewing from 9-10 am and visiting with family from 10-11 am. A lunch reception will be provided at Jireh Place on Torah Lane in Bowie following the service.

Memorial gifts (in lieu of flowers) may be sent to Crossworld (Maurice Harton Memorial Fund), the SPCA, or to the Humane Society.

In lieu flowers please select from the following organizations:

Donate online by clicking the links

Maurice Harton Memorial Fund    or mail to 10000 N. Oak Trafficway, Kansas City, MD  64115. Donations to this organization willl be used to continue Maurice's educational ministry legacy at Amazon Valley Academy in Belem, Brazil

Humane Society

SPCA

Picture slideshow honoring Maurice's life