wfn.org | Bob Robertson, veteran church communicator, dies

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Aug. 1, 2002 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{340}

NOTE: A photograph of the Rev. Bob Robertson is available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

By Joan LaBarr*

DALLAS (UMNS) - The Rev. Robert L. "Bob" Robertson, longtime United
Methodist communicator and pastor, died July 31, at his home in Dallas, six
months after being diagnosed with liver cancer. He was 70.

"Bob Robertson was a skilled communicator and a person of faith. Those
qualities made him a giant in the field of Christian communication," said
Bishop William B. Oden of Dallas. "He was a trailblazer in the
communications field and was an innovator who blended both public and
religious media with new forms of communicating the Gospel."

Robertson, diagnosed last March with liver cancer, retired in June as
communications director for the North Texas Annual Conference and as editor
of the conference's edition of the United Methodist Reporter.  He had served
51 years as a Methodist pastor, beginning in 1951, when he was appointed to
the Weatherford Circuit in the Central Texas Conference. He served a series
of rural churches before being appointed Central Texas director of youth
ministry in 1957.

The Graham, Texas, native was a graduate of Graham High School, Texas
Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and Texas Christian University's Brite
Divinity School in Fort Worth. He also had continuing studies at United
Methodist-related Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Claremont (Calif.)
School of Theology, Syracuse (N.Y.) University and the University of
Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

A growing interest in church communications led to Robertson being named
Central Texas director of Methodist information and public relations in
1967. When the United Methodist Communications Council of Texas was
established in 1974, he became its executive director.

In 1984, he returned to the local church pastorate and served New World
United Methodist Church in Garland, Waples Memorial in Denison, and First
United Methodist in Duncanville, before being appointed to the North Texas
Conference staff. Before becoming area director of communications in 1997,
he served as associate director and interim director of the conference
council on ministries.

Robertson was the creative force behind the conference's successful and
innovative outreach programs called "Home for Christmas" and  "Bring a
Friend Sunday," which combined advertising in the media with local church
involvement. The programs were models for the United Methodist Church's
national Igniting Ministry campaign.

He was known as a consummate networker who valued peer support. Many top
church communicators knew him as a friend and a mentor. He helped organize
two churchwide professional organizations, the United Methodist Association
of Communicators and the Professional Association of United Methodist
Secretaries, and founded the ecumenical International Church Computer Users
Network.

Last November, his UMAC colleagues named him Communicator of the Year. In
1999, he received a Communicator of the Year Award from the Dallas chapter
of the Religion Communicators Council. In 1984, at the General Conference in
Baltimore, he was recognized for innovative communications leadership. His
numerous other awards included the 2002 Denman Award for Evangelism from the
United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

"Bob personified the best in a United Methodist communicator. He was our
role model," said Lynne DeMichele of Indianapolis, president of UMAC. "Bob
Robertson was not only a consummate professional, but everything he did was
infused with the light of his Christian heart. Along with his many other
colleagues and friends, I'll miss him and his ready counsel greatly."

Robertson also was an advocate for effective communications in the church,
said Thomas S. McAnally of Nashville, Tenn., former director of United
Methodist News Service. "He was ahead of the curve in the use of creative
communications, and he did a lot in communications education, which
sensitized the leadership across the church in looking at the value of
utilizing communications to spread the Gospel."

At a May 16 retirement reception, friends and colleagues established the
Robert L. Robertson Scholarship in Christian Communication, which was set up
with $7,500 in donations. 

Robertson also was a member of the board of directors of the Methodist
Children's Home in Waco and at Mount Sequoyah, the United Methodist retreat
center in Fayetteville, Ark.

He is survived by Carol, his wife of 52 years; three sons, Robert Jr., Dan
and Randy Robertson; and seven grandchildren. The funeral service is
scheduled for 1 p.m. Aug. 3 at Spring Valley United Methodist Church in
north Dallas. Memorials to the Robertson scholarship may be made to North
Texas Conference Treasurer, P.O. Box 516069, Dallas, Texas 75251.
# # #
*LaBarr is director of communications for the North Texas Annual Conference
and editor of the conference's edition of the United Methodist Reporter.  

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United Methodist News Service
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