07052
January 25, 2007

Former Presbyterian publishing head McIntyre dies

Career in PC(USA) publishing spanned 37 years

by Jerry Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — Robert D. McIntyre, who served in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s publishing enterprise for most of 37 years, died Jan. 19 in New Bern, NC. He was 74.

     McIntyre, who began his publishing career in 1956 as a West Coast sales representative for Westminster Press, was named publisher in 1979.

     When Westminster Press — the publisher for the former United Presbyterian Church in the USA — and John Knox Press (the press of the former Presbyterian Church in the US)  merged in 1983 as part of Presbyterian reunion, McIntyre was named publisher of the new Presbyterian Publishing House.

     McIntyre retired in October of 1993, just before the publishing house was spun off as an independent entity, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC).

     “Bob McIntyre was a giant in Presbyterian publishing,” said C. Davis Perkins, who has headed PPC since its founding . “He was critical in making Westminster Press preeminent in the pantheon of religious publishing.

     He possessed superb publishing instincts and was a champion of quality in denominational publishing,” Perkins told the Presbyterian News Service. “Moreover, he was a kind, cultured, and genial human being.”

     McIntyre graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, and served in the U.S. Army before beginning his publishing career.

     He is survived by his wife, Judith McIntyre; two sons — Robert L. McIntyre and his wife, Connie, of Atlanta, GA, and Michael S. McIntyre and his wife, Jean, of Charleston, SC; and one daughter, Lauralee McIntyre of Camp Hill, PA.