W. Robert Stover and his wife, Joan, pictured at a PLC board meeting.
W. Robert Stover, a board member emeritus of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, passed away on Feb. 5.
Stover, 92, of Piedmont, Calif., was one of the Presbyterian elders who helped to create the Lay Committee back in 1965. He became a board member emeritus of the PLC in 2010.
Speaking of Stover, PLC Board Member Lloyd Lunceford said, “Mr. Stover was a great leader. He had a profoundly deep faith that always focused on Jesus, which he coupled with exceptional people skills and extraordinary business acumen. He was the complete package. He was just one of those rare people who was able to combine a mastery of the details with an ability to not lose sight of the forest amidst the trees. He was a man of vision because he kept his eyes on Jesus. I will always count it one of my life’s great blessings to have known him and sit under his inspiring example. Our loss is heaven’s gain.”
Another PLC board member, Forrest Norman, echoed Lunceford’s comments, saying Stover was “an inspiration to be around. His intellect, drive, commitment to the faith, and the certainty with which he held his convictions was all contagious. I feel privileged to have been in service on the Lay Committee with Bob, for even a brief period of time.”
And Steve Brown, a former member of the PLC board, agreed, stating that Stover was “a very, very special man. When Bob spoke people listened. We were all blessed to have worked with him in service to Christ.”
W. Robert Stover
Parker T. Williamson, editor emeritus of The Layman, said that, “Bob Stover’s Christian life speaks for itself. Any words I might append would be but a shadow of that reality. I was blessed to be his friend.”
An elder at Carmel Presbyterian Church in Carmel, Calif., Stover started Western Temporary Services in 1948, after serving in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater during World War II. He served as chairman and chief executive officer of the company.
Stover was involved in community efforts aimed at youth education and the development of youth as America’s future workforce. Long active in Young Life, he served on its Board of Trustees.
In the mid-1950s, he started the Stover Foundation, which has supported numerous youth organizations and educational institutions. The foundation has funded the construction of buildings at youth camps and colleges around the country.
Stover was also the founder of the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership at Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, Pa. The center will train future government and judicial leaders through their immersion into the constitutional, intellectual, moral and spiritual contributions of the nations’ founders and early leaders.
Stover was a 1942 graduate of Waynesburg, with a bachelor of science degree in natural science. He also studied at the University of Illinois and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Feb 13, at Carmel Presbyterian Church in Carmel, Calif.
Read Stover’s obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Bob Stover was a wonderful, down-to-earth man of gracious faith. My encounter with him was on our first trip to the Holy Land. Chrissie and I spent a few extra days after the trip in Jerusalem with the Stovers. I was an impoverished new pastor, traveling with a multi-millionaire businessman who treated me like a brother. We talked about the future of the then UPCUSA, sharing what turned out to be prescient ideas about its future. I’ll always treasure the time the Stovers gave to us. (I also think of him every time I see the carpet that he bargained down for me from $40 to $8.)