Saying goodbye to a beloved PC(USA) pastor

LOUISVILLE — When the Rev. Jerry Van Marter was attending San Francisco Theological Seminary in the 1970s and interning at the synod office in San Francisco, he’d gotten to know the Rev. Bob Abrams, who by then was on staff at Pittsburgh Presbytery. The Pittsburgh Steelers were building their gridiron dynasty, much to the delight of Van Marter’s favorite Bay Area radio personality, Terry McGovern, who’d grown up in the Steel City. McGovern would regale listeners with stories of sneaking into Steelers games and drinking Iron City Beer under the bleachers. Somehow even 49ers fans appreciated McGovern’s stories.

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Van Marter called Abrams for a favor, and Abrams delivered: a few days later, a six-pack of the beer was delivered to Van Marter’s doorstep. Van Marter headed over to McGovern’s radio studio, holding the beer aloft while McGovern was on the air. McGovern waved Van Marter in, then “for two hours he waxed rhapsodic” over what Pittsburgh, the Steelers and the brand of beer meant to him. “On that day,” Van Marter said Sunday during Abrams’ celebration of life service held at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, “I became lifelong friends with Terry McGovern, my favorite disc jockey, and Bob Abrams, my favorite Presbyterian minister.”

Abrams died Sept. 4 at age 102. His was a well-known and welcome face around the Presbyterian Center, when after decades of ministry in the United States and abroad, he was volunteer coordinator for Presbyterian Men.

Abrams’ service featured offerings on the bagpipes by Larry Frederiksen and warm memories by some of the many people Abrams knew and loved, and who loved him right back.

A native of Peoria, Illinois, Abrams was born July 31, 1923. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and met his wife-to-be, Wanda, the following year. Their first home was a rented room in the manse of Oxford Presbyterian Church in Ohio, which he would later serve as pastor from 1954-1959 following his graduation from McCormick Theological Seminary.

In 1960, he and Wanda became Presbyterian mission workers in India. Well into his 90s, he would entertain visitors from India whom they’d known from their five years there.

After returning to the U.S., Abrams served pastorates in Ohio and Pennsylvania and on the staff of the Synod of the Trinity before retiring in 1990. The two moved to Louisville, where Abrams plugged in with Presbyterian Men. He and Wanda became active participants at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. She died in 2016.

Abrams is survived by his daughter, Lorna, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and his granddaughter, Carrie.

Sunday’s service was, as might be expected, complete with stories about a life well lived. The Rev. Dr. Marian McClure Taylor, the former director of the PC(USA)’s Worldwide Ministries Division, recalled a trip to India she made with Abrams and others. With numerous programs and people to see, the two were running very late one day. “I was feeling like I was kidnapped by nice people,” she said.

At their final visit, they pulled into a church with a full parking lot, where people were awaiting the start of a worship service, a plan unknown to the visitors. “Who’s preaching?” they were asked. “That would be Marian,” Abrams replied.

The Rev. Stewart Bridgman said his wife and Wanda died almost at the same time. “Bob and I got into a grief support group and then we’d go have Chinese food together,” Bridgman said. “It was a healing time for both of us, especially with the conversations we’d have in the car.”

The Rev. Dr. Peggy Hinds recalled Abrams’ 100^th birthday party held at the Crescent Hill church where Hinds was interim pastor. “It was his day, but he made sure everybody knew it was my birthday too,” Hinds said, since the two were born only days apart. “That’s the kind of person Bob was.”

In 1978, Marcia Myers and her husband moved to the coal fields of West Virginia, where Abrams would periodically make the long trip to see them from his office serving the Synod of the Trinity “because he knew we were young and were under a lot of stress,” Myers said. Years later, Abrams would need office space in the Presbyterian Center to continue his work with Presbyterian Men. “Fortunately, we had space,” Myers said. “I was able to do a small thing to make him feel at home when he had done that for me” years before.

Another former colleague, Shannon Beck, recalled Abrams showing up at unexpected times that “always seemed to be the right moment. He had an intuition it was time to say hi to Shannon,” Beck said, adding that only three people in her life are allowed to call her “honey” — her mother, her mother’s best friend and Abrams.

The Rev. Ben Langley said it was Abrams’ enthusiasm that helped Langley complete his training to earn his pilot’s license. “His encouragement kept me going on days I was ready to give up,” Langley said. “I am incredibly grateful for that dear soul we have all been blessed by, Bob Abrams.”

The Rev. Tami Recob, the pastor at the host church, said Abrams’ ministry “was lived in everyday encounters, in friendships and in the quiet ways he lifted people up.”

“His life reminds us faith is not measured in years alone, but in the depth of love we share, the courage with which we share and the joy we bring others,” Recob said. “Bob’s race was long — 102 years — but it was never run alone.”

“May his memory inspire each of us to live with that same devotion, courage and joy.”

The Rev. Jerry Van Marter contributed to this report.