Rev. Dr. Robert D. Sayre

Rev. Dr. Robert D. Sayre, 63, of 400 Manor View Drive, Millersville, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family on Friday, May 16, 2008, at the Essa Flory Hospice Center. He was the cherished husband of Roma J. (Weaver) Sayre with whom he would have celebrated 42 years of marriage on July 17, 2008. Sayre was an assistant professor of history at Millersville University and a retired minister. He was campus minister with United Campus Ministry at Millersville University from 1981 to 1997 and from 1996 to 2002 was pastor of the Wrightsville Presbyterian Church. Born January 1, 1945, in Tiffin, Ohio, he grew up in Bloomville, Ohio. In 1954, while the Salk vaccine was being distributed, he contracted polio and spent three months in Children’s Hospital, Toledo, Ohio. He worked as a printer’s apprentice in high school and became the managing editor of the Bloomville Gazette in 1971, prior to attending seminary. He served United Methodist pastorates in Green Springs, Gambier, Marengo, and Fulton in Ohio, and interim pastorates at New Holland, Marietta, and Clearfield United Methodist Churches in Lancaster County. He retired from the Presbyterian ministry in 2002. He was a member of the Donegal Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and had served as Chaplain at Camp Donegal in York County, PA. Sayre was a 1963 graduate of Bloomville High School, and graduated from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio in 1970 with the A. B. cum laude. He received the M. Div. degree from The Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio in 1974 and in 1987 was awarded the Ph. D. in history from The Ohio State University, having written a dissertation on early abolitionism centered in Philadelphia. He also attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. At Millersville, he helped found the Peace Coalition in the 1980s and was an original member of the Commission on Cultural Diversity. He led fellowships with the football teams and directed several Spring Break in Appalachia service programs. He began teaching in the history department in 1988, teaching Civil War and Reconstruction, The New Nation, African-American History, and developed a course in American Religious History. He was a devoted professor, proud to be a member of the history department, and was loved and respected by faculty and students. He loved research and writing and had numerous articles published in The Journal of Southern History and recently finished the research and writing of the Wrightsville Presbyterian Church history. He had been a board member of the Lancaster Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and active in the Lancaster County and Millersville CROP Walk committees. He worked with the Suicide Prevention Task Force in the Penn Manor School District. He served as secretary of the Wrightsville ministerium, and formerly served with the Pennsylvania Commission of United Ministries in Higher Education, the Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Conference Committee on Higher Education, and the board of directors of the United Christian Center at The Ohio State University. He was a member of the Southern Historical Association and the Pennsylvania Historical Association, and was associated with the Historic Wrightsville and its history roundtable. He enjoyed watching all sports, (especially the Cleveland Indians and Ohio State Buckeyes), playing golf, and was a Little League coach/umpire and counseled sport camps in Ohio. He also enjoyed model railroading, music, having sung in a family gospel quartet, Backwoods Brothers Quartet and Youth for Christ Evangelaires in the 1960s; and was an avid reader. He was the son of the late Corbett L. and Leatha A. (Ranson) Sayre and the step-son of the late Gilbert L. Weaver. In addition to his wife, he is survived and will be greatly missed by his two daughters, Jennifer J., married to James A. Croyle, of Lititz, and Amanda J., married to Brent J. Peiffer, of Manheim. He was so proud of his four grandchildren, Kayla and Joshua Croyle and Luke and Benjamin Peiffer. He is also survived by three brothers, Conard E., married to JoAnn Sayre, of St. Albans, West Virginia, G. Larry, married to Sharon E. Weaver, of Galion, Ohio, and James A. (Jason), married to Teresa Weaver, of Las Vegas, Nevada; and a sister, Patricia A., married to Richard Foutz, of Flint, Michigan and by many loving nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by a brother, Cecil C. Sayre.

Funeral Services will be held at the Wrightsville Presbyterian Church, 205 N. 2nd Street, Wrightsville, PA 17368 on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 10 AM. Interment will be in the Grace United Methodist Cemetery, Millersville, PA. The family will receive relatives and friends at the Andrew T. Scheid Funeral Home, 320 Blue Rock Road, Route 999, Millersville, PA, (717)-872-2266 on Wednesday evening between 6 and 9 PM and also at the Wrightsville Presbyterian Church on Thursday between 9 and 10 AM. Memorial Remembrances can be made to the United Campus Ministry, Millersville University, P. O. Box 1002, Millersville, PA 17551 or the Robert D. and Roma J. Sayre Award for Excellence in American History Scholarship c/o Sovereign Bank, 519 Leaman Avenue, Millersville, PA 17551. For on-line condolences, directions, or other information, you are welcome to visit our website at: www.scheidfuneralhome.com