Bob retired as Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Berea, on June 30, 2003, after serving 41 years in the ordained ministry, the last 20 years at St. Thomas. (He previously served congregations in Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.)

His "retirement" did not last long, however. In late August, 2003, he began a 10-month stint as Interim Rector at Harcourt Parish, the Episcopal Church congregation which meets in the college chapel on the beautiful campus of Kenyon College. For pictures, click here. The day after concluding that assignment he began an assignment as Interim Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Warren, Ohio, which ended February 3, 2006. For details and pictures, click here.

Since completing his assignment at Warren he's "really" retired, although he takes an occasional service for his longtime Berea colleague, The Rev. Leroy McCreary, pastor of the Peoples' Community Church..

In the community, he still serves as Chaplain to the Berea Fire Department, and writes a bi-weekly column for a chain of local weekly newspapers, covering topics ranging in diversity from a tribute to his high-school principal to the war in Iraq. He is a frequent Presenter for Baldwin-Wallace College's "Instituite for Learning in Retirement," (he's done six-week courses on everything from the history of Iraq to the Book of Revelation), and is editor-in-chief of its newsletter, Senior Moments..

His passions include fishing (for perch in Lake Erie, for trout in Michigan's Pere Marquette River), boating, camping, reading and computers. He is a member of the United States Power Squadrons, holding the grade of "Senior Navigator" (which is the highest grade), a member of the Cleveland "N" Club, and a staffer for The Mooring Post, the Berea Squadron's monthly newsletter. This Fall, he will begin assisting in the teaching of courses in Navigation.

Other retirement plans include writing (he has at least a couple of books he wants to write), travel, a lot of deferred maintenance on the house and sailing the Great Lakes with Penney in his 30' Aloha sloop, which he bought the Summer of 2005. (For pictures of the boat, crew, etc., click here.) Meantime, he and Penney try to get a couple of weeks in Vermont and a few days in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, each Summer, while they care for Penney's increasingly-frail mother, who is still going strong at age 98..

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