The Ridgefield Park, N.J., RPC thanks God for the life of Richard Baird Weir—a long-time member, elder, and clerk of session of the New York City and then the Ridgefield Park congregation—who went to be with the Lord on May 12, 2017, at the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Pittsburgh, Pa., at the age of 93.

Richard was born in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Dec. 28, 1923, to William Wilbur and Elizabeth Ewing Weir, who were serving as Reformed Presbyterian missionaries in the American Academy of Larnaca. Growing up in Cyprus, he became fluent in modern Greek and several other languages.

He enrolled at Geneva College in autumn 1941. Before the first semester had ended, the United States had entered World War II. For his war-time service, Richard joined the United States Merchant Marines. He worked on merchant ships during the Battle of the Atlantic, moving supplies and troops across the ocean in convoys for the Allied offensive in Europe. He eventually was licensed as a third officer. His maritime and missionary experiences provided him with many stories that he later told in the classroom.

When in the Port of New York, Richard worshiped at the Second New York Reformed Presbyterian Church. There he met Jean Crawford, and they were married on June 28, 1947, a covenant relationship that lasted for 58 years, until Jean’s passing in Jan. 2006.

After the war ended, he returned to Geneva in 1945 and graduated with a BA in English in 1947. After their wedding, Richard and Jean made their way to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he completed the MA degree in 1948. From 1948–49 he was in the graduate program in the department of English of Indiana University in Bloomington, and they worshiped with the Bloomington congregation. In 1950, he enrolled in the graduate program in English literature at New York University and completed the PhD degree in 1974. His dissertation was on “Thomas Sternhold and the Beginnings of English Metrical Psalmody.” The original Sternhold Psalter was the first psalter used for singing in the emerging Protestant Church of England. The psalter was completed by Sternhold in about 1547 and was a predecessor to the more famous Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter that the Church of England used for over two centuries. His dissertation on the Sternhold Psalter was part of a broader interest in psalmody through the ages.

After working and teaching in several locations around New York, Richard took a teaching position at Pelham High School in Pelham, N.Y., where he served from 1955–83. He was Chair of the Department of English from 1968–74. After serving as an adjunct professor for eight years, he was appointed in 1983 to the faculty of The King’s College, a Christian college located at that time in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. During his 11 years there as associate professor of English, he was chair of the department from 1989–94. While he was teaching in Pelham, he took on the position of manager of the Bronxville Cemetery, a cemetery founded by the Second New York congregation and now owned by the Ridgefield Park RPC. He served in that post from 1961–92.

Richard was active in the RPCNA at the congregational, presbytery, and Synod levels. By 1950, the two New York congregations, Second and Third, had merged. For 62 years he was a ruling elder in the New York City, and then the Ridgefield Park, RP Church, where he served as clerk of session for 60 of those years. For many years he was also the precentor of the congregation and served as Sabbath school superintendent. He helped various congregations in the Atlantic Presbytery by serving as a moderator or a provisional elder. He served as a trustee of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and of Geneva College, as well as in numerous community organizations. In his retirement he took up the activity of building four wooden boats, which he displayed to school children and others interested in that craft. In 2012, he took up residence at the Reformed Presbyterian Home.

Besides his wife, Jean, he was pre-deceased by his sister, Margaret Weir Carson. He is survived by three children—William (Rose), David (Bonnie), and Nancy Stombaugh (Ken)—six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

—submitted by Ridgefield Park, N.J., RPC