As Freddo said, the Co was a great guy, if he & his family were not I would not have been interested either.
This was before the body of elders thing happened about the mid 1970's. After that things really changed ..... position & money became the important thing. There were the unspoken levels of groups in the congregation. The "friends" started having only people on their A list as friends ......& maybe some B list people. This list got right to the bottom where only the bits & pieces & undesirables were placed ......their lives were hell!