Remembering Robert Birge: Visionary, Businessman, and Friend
The original idea for The Living Pulpit was the result of three extraordinarily farsighted men who shared a deep commitment to inter-faith dialog as well as engaging and relevant preaching. Of the three, David H. C. Read was recognized as a giant of the Protestant pulpit and Walter J. Burghardt was regarded as one of the great Catholic preachers of his generation. The third founder, Robert Bowen Birge, was not a preacher but the business genius, visionary, fund-raiser, organizer, and promoter essential to the launch of The Living Pulpit. The last remaining of the three founders, Bob passed from his labors to his rewards on October 31, 2010 at age 95.
While David Read and Walter Burghardt were well known for their scholarship and preaching, Bob had a lower public profile, but no less of a strong commitment to putting faith into action. Bob was a consummate businessperson with a razor sharp mind, a true understanding of human nature, a gift for organization, and the ability to peer beyond the horizon to recognize trends and opportunities early. Bob did not do things by halves and so—whether he was assembling a complex business merger, creating a new venture, or building support for an innovative ecumenical preaching journal—Bob’s personal enthusiasm was contagious and his commitment to the success of the project at hand incontrovertible.
Bob was born during World War I in December 1914, and he spent most of his youth in Turkey where his parents John Kingsley Birge and Anna Harlow Birge were Congregationalist teaching missionaries and eyewitnesses to the sweeping changes as Turkey became a modern, secular state after the First World War.
Wedding Day
Coming back to America as a teenager, Bob attended Phillips Andover Academy before enrolling at Yale–class of ’36–where he was a straight “A” student (Phi Beta Kappa). While at Yale, he formed a life-long friendship with his roommate, the future U.S. Congressman, Jonathan Brewster Bingham.
Bob entered the Army during World War II where he was able to demonstrate two of his very different skills. At the Pentagon he applied his mathematical, analytical, and organization skills to the daunting logistics and planning challenges of the war effort in the era before computers and spreadsheets. Bob also played the church organ for Catholic and Protestant chaplains’ services. During the war Bob married Dorothy Richards, and they had a son, Robert.
Following the war, Bob attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he formed lasting friendships with many progressive thinkers, preachers, and activists of the era including William Sloane Coffin, future Seminary Presidents Roger Shinn (Union) and Bill Webber (New York Theological Seminary). Several of Bob’s friends at Union would eventually help to guide The Living Pulpit as well as write for the journal.
Walter Burghardt and Bob Birge
June and Bob Birge
Bob earned a Master of Divinity degree from Union and fulfilled all the requirements for ordination in the Congregational Church. However, he was unable to find a church that would call him because his wife, Dorothy, was a divorcée. Therefore, Bob turned his attention to business, instead. Nonetheless, his passion for theological discourse, engaging preaching, and putting faith into practice–particularly across denominational boundaries–was to remain a guiding passion for the rest of his life.
A very successful businessperson, Bob, rose through the ranks of the Hudson Bay Company to become corporate secretary. When the presidency of the firm went to another, he left Hudson Bay and showcasing his trademark vision, energy, and business acumen started the Amerimink fur marketing cooperative. Within a few years Amerimink became one of the top fur marketing companies in America. Next, Bob went into corporate consulting, focusing on mergers and acquisitions where his astonishing analytical and people skills, as well as an almost uncanny ability to locate emerging opportunities and trends all contributed to even greater business success. Bobdid not regard money as a goal in itself. Rather, he viewed money as an important enabler for things that really did matter–family life, education, and a range of good and progressive causes. The Living Pulpit was one of the causes to which Bob gave generously of his time, business acumen, and treasure.
The launch issue of The Living Pulpit appeared in January 1992 with the appropriate theme of “Hope.” This first issue was the result of long hours of planning, organization, and skilled decision-making. In addition to assembling the high profile, Protestant and Catholic leadership of David Read and Walter Burghardt, Bob was the driving force in assembling the financing for the journal as well as assembling a group of blue-ribbon advisors and authors. From its inception, the magazine always drew upon a wide range of denominations and traditions, engaging scholars, working pastors, and the laity.
Keith Russell and Bob Birge
NYTS Board Meeting with Bob Birge
While Bob was a respecter of title and rank, they never intimidated him and everyone who worked with Bob knew that he was never reluctant to pick up the telephone and call anybody to ask for their financial support, advice, endorsement, or to write an article. A look at the list of authors and advisors to The Living Pulpit reads like a Who’s Who of religious thinkers over the past two decades, in large part due to the people who were convinced by Bob’s personal enthusiasm and commitment to the vision of The Living Pulpit. I can personally attest that one of the most difficult things to do in this world was to say “no” to one of Bob’s requests.
Bob’s first wife, Dorothy, died in 1985 and a year later he married June Rossbach Bingham–the widow of his old Yale roommate, Jonathan Bingham. June, an accomplished writer and playwright, became a strong advocate for The Living Pulpit, and in addition to writing several articles for the journal over the years, used her wide circle of acquaintances in politics, society, academia, and philanthropy in support of the journal. June passed away in 2007 just days after writing her final article for The Living Pulpit.
Bob Birge has surely left his stamp on The Living Pulpit. He helped set the course for an intellectually vigorous magazine that attracted the best authors and thinkers in the field to challenge readers to move outside the boundaries of their own faith. His model of honest curiosity coupled with respect for differences guided the journal from its inception. Moreover, for all those who had the opportunity to work alongside Bob, the memory of his unique combination of energy, faith, twinkling eyes, and ever-ready smile are with us still.
Bob Birge Relaxing
Anne Hale Johnson and Bob Birge
