Richard Weir

Ancestors

Son of William Wilbur Weir and Elizabeth Vesta (Ewing) Weir

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Janelle Weir [send private message]

Biography

Richard B. Weir, a long-time member, elder and Clerk of Session of the New York City and then the Ridgefield Park Reformed Presbyterian Church, passed into the presence of the Lord on Friday, May 12, 2017 at the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was 93 years old.

He was born in Larnaca, Island of Cyprus on December 28, 1923 to William Wilbur and Elizabeth Ewing Weir, who were serving as Reformed Presbyterian missionaries in the American Academy of Larnaca, a school founded by the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Growing up in Cyprus, which from 1878-1961 was a British colony, he became fluent in modern Greek (both the Cypriot and Athenian dialects), and was fairly fluent in a number of other languages, including Armenian, Turkish, French and Spanish, and some Arabic. In 1941, accompanied by Dr. E. Clark Copeland, he made his way on an American ship around the southern cape of Africa, across the South Atlantic, and then to New York. During that year the German and Italian armies were attempting to conquer the eastern basin of the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, and the German Navy and submarine fleet were dominant in the Atlantic Ocean. Providentially, Cyprus was not conquered by the Axis states, but World War II was a major event in his life, as it was for his entire generation.

He began his undergraduate education at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania in September, 1941. On December 7 of that year, the United States entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and exactly three weeks later he turned 18. Because of the missionary furlough trips of his family, he had fallen in love with the maritime world, and eventually joined the United States Merchant Marine for his war-time service. 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. Two major memories of that time were his trip to Murmansk, Russia in 1944-1945, and the sinking of the Liberty Ship “SS Robert L. Vann” on March 1, 1945. In 1992, he received a medal for his participation in the Murmansk Convoy from the Russian Federation. He continued to go to sea during the summers from 1946-1960, and was licensed by the United States Coast Guard as a Third Officer for the United States Merchant Marine. His maritime and missionary experiences provided him with many stories which he told in the classroom.

During his time coming and going from the Port of New York, he worshiped at the Second New York Reformed Presbyterian Church, which soon became the New York City congregation when it merged with the Third New York congregation in 1944. In the Second New York Congregation he met Jean Crawford, and they were engaged at the end of the war. On June 28, 1947 they were married, a covenant relationship that lasted for 58 years, until Jean’s passing in January, 2006.

He returned to Geneva College in 1945 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1947. After their wedding Richard and Jean made their way to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he completed the M.A. degree in English literature in 1948. From 1948-1949 he was in the graduate program in the Department of English of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and they worshiped with the Bloomington Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1950, he enrolled in the graduate program in English literature at New York University, and ultimately completed the Ph.D. 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 Thomas 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 work on the Sternhold psalter was part of a broader interest in psalmody through the ages. During his time at New York University he taught in the School of Commerce, worked for a while for the American Export Company, and in 1953 began teaching English at Roger Ludlow High School in Fairfield, Connecticut.

In 1955, he took a teaching position at Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, New York, where he served for 28 years, from 1955-1983. He was Chair of the Department of English at Pelham High School from 1968-1974. 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 in Briarcliff Manor, New York. During his 11 years there as Associate Professor of English, he was Chair of the Department from 1989-1994. He also was an adjunct instructor in the Graduate Division of Iona College from 1981-1984. 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 Congregation. He served in that post from 1961-1992.

He was active in the Reformed Presbyterian Church at the congregational, presbytery, and synod levels. For 62 years he was a ruling elder in the New York City, and then the Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Reformed Presbyterian 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 Superintendant. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and of Geneva College. He also helped various congregations in the Atlantic Presbytery by serving as a moderator or a provisional elder. He served as Chair of the Non-Partisan Committee of the Village of Bronxville, a committee that nominated candidates for the Board of Education. He was also active in the American Field Service Exchange Program in both Pelham and Bronxville. He was a member of the Hollwegs Choir of Westchester and of New York City’s Edwin O’Hara Chapter of the American Merchant Marine Veterans Association. In his retirement he took up the activity of building wooden boats, and was able to complete 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 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

DNA

Maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between D Weir and his second cousin once removed E E. Their MRCAs are James Purdy Ewing and Maria Littell Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 3rd - 4th cousins, based on sharing 145 centimorgans shared across 9 DNA segments; Confidence: Extremely High.

Paternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between D Weir and his second cousin once removed K H. Their MRCAs are John Weir and Jane Wilson Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 3rd - 4th cousins, based on sharing 125 centimorgans shared across 6 DNA segments; Confidence: Extremely High.

Sources

• U.S., Consular Reports of Births, 1910-1949:

National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Decimal Files, compiled 1910 - 1949; Record Group: 59, General Records of the Department of State, 1763 - 2002; Series ARC ID: 2555709; Series MLR Number: A1 3001; Series Box Number: 452; File

• U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947:

The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 2663

• New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957:

Year: 1954; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 8472; Line: 9; Page Number: 26

• obituary by his son, privately held