Former Global University president dies

Ron Iwasko, the president of Global University 1999–2006, died this morning from leukemia a month after retiring from mission work. He was 78 years old.

Iwasko is known for significantly revising the university’s Berean School of the Bible curriculum and advancing its undergraduate and graduate theology courses.

Owned by the Assemblies of God, Global University is an accredited, nonprofit distance education school led by President Gary Seevers Jr. With Springfield offices at 1211 S. Glenstone Ave., its online and distance education is offered through a network spanning 150 countries and four schools teaching foreign languages, biblical evangelism and discipleship, and theology.

Iwasko is a graduate of Central Bible College, which recently merged with Evangel University, and he and his wife, Kathy, worked as international missionaries since the early 1970s. In Brazil, Ron Iwasko founded the Ceara Bible Institute of the Assemblies of God, an extension school for pastors.

The couple moved to Springfield in 1976, when Iwasko was named director of personnel and family life for Assemblies of God World Missions. He held that position until taking the role of foreign missions research director in 1990.

After his seven-year stint leading Global University, Iwasko went to work for AG’s Africa’s Hope as an educational consultant focused on training Pentecostal pastors. In his early 70s, Iwasko and his wife briefly moved to Swaziland in 2008 to establish a school for rural pastors.

He retired last month after working 36 years with Assemblies of God World Missions.