A reflection on the role of fathers in family life and our Heavenly Father by guest pastor, Rev. Bob White.
About Rev. White:
After spending most of his childhood and a number of adult years in New York State, Bob traveled the world before living in England for nearly ten years. He now makes his home among a community of retired clergy colleagues on a wooded New York hillside above the Susquehanna River with his wife and the animals of the forest.
Bob has a B.S. in Aeronautics and Meteorology from St. Louis University and worked as a meteorologist on the first six TIROS and early Nimbus weather satellites. After leaving the satellite program, he worked for Xerox Corporation in Rochester, NY before starting his own business. In mid-life with, as he describes, “A wife, three children, a suburban mortgage, two cars, a dog, cat and seventy-three gerbils,” he entered Colgate-Rochester Divinity School where he obtained a Masters in Divinity and was ordained a Presbyterian Minister. He later received a Doctorate in Ministry degree from The Hartford Seminary Foundation and devoted most of his career to working with congregations in conflict. In his pre-retirement years, he joined the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom as an urban pastor of two multi-cultural, multi-racial churches in Southwest London.
Though he was a published writer of technical articles and essays during his working years, he always had a yearning to write fiction. Upon retirement in 1999, Bob turned to Cirencester College in England to study Creative Writing. He was later invited into “Catchword,” a local writers’ group. It was with the help of other writers that he began to hone his skills and learn his craft. Since returning to the U.S., he has been a member of the Vestal Writers’ critique group.
As a public speaker, Bob White frequently appears before readers’ and writers’ groups, historic societies, in libraries, bookstores and before community groups for book discussions, signings and to conduct workshops. He also serves as a volunteer mediator for a court-sponsored, community dispute resolution center, and continues to lead worship and preach as a Sunday-supply minister. He and his wife, Allyson, after many years as avid ice dancers, now enjoy the more gentle flow of English country dancing.
(Biography borrowed from Rev. White's website, www.booksbybobwhite.com)