New York, NY, January 16, 2010--The Rev. Dr. Sam Dixon, head of the humanitarian relief agency of The United Methodist Church, died before he could be rescued from the rubble of a hotel destroyed by the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12.
The executive officer of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was part of a group of mission and relief specialists trapped by the collapse of the Hotel Montana. Other persons in the group of six, including two more from the General Board of Global Ministries, were rescued and were back in the US by the morning of January 16. The group was pinned down for more than 55 hours.
Dixon was reportedly alive in the hotel ruins on the morning of January 15. Confirmation of his death before rescue was conveyed to Global Ministries through several sources, including eyewitnesses from a Methodist guest house in Port-au-Prince, where Dixon and his colleagues had been staying. Frequent press reports throughout the day on January 15 asserting his safety were incorrect.
He and the Rev. Clint Rabb, head of the United Methodist office of mission volunteers, and the Rev. James Gulley, a former missionary and now consultant to UMCOR, were at the hotel for meetings with representatives of other organizations, making plans to improve medical services in Haiti